In 2011 May the director of Venta regional park Andrius Almanis invited us to arrange and explore Akmene ancient Jews cemetery.

1. Akmene Jews
Cemetery in
2011 Years
Aureja Novogreckyte
photos

2. ,,Know firmly and feel deeply that
the every day of life you must adress for
goodness to the other people and do
as much as you can. Prove your work,
don’t talk!”
(From the diary of Ona Simaite, born in Akmene
(1894-1970) - VU librarian,who helped to survive to Jews during
the WWII, The Worldwide Righteous)

3. In 2011 May
the director of
Venta regional
park Andrius
Almanis invited
us to arrange
and explore
Akmene ancient
Jews cemetery.

4. In expedition participated these Akmene
gymnasium students(10th Form): Vidmante
Augustinaite, Aureja Novogreckyte, Darius
Adomaitis, Dovydas Borusevicius, Karolina
Boruseviciute, Gintare Butaviciute, Ginta
Kasiliauskaite, Ieva Majauskaite, Paulius Rimkus,
Milda Skiparyte, Airidas Stasiulis, Mantas
Stoncelis, Raimonda Stoncelyte, Iveta Zvegaite.
Students of 8th Form: Zenonas Norkus, Gvidas
Grigalaitis, Markas Jonuitis.

7. Expedition
Ten- formers had been working for three
days, then seventh – formers and ninth –
formers. We cleaned up all gravestone
monuments from moss, counted and
photographed it . Now we are searching for
a person who could read those inscriptions
on the gravestones.

10. During the
expedition we
counted 125
gravestone
monuments, the
majority of which
are made from
ashlar – 76, from
grind stone- -only
16- these
inscriptions are
visible and clear.

11. We also found
20 tumbled
monuments, still 13
were broken and
hurt.

12. The majority of
monuments are
turned to the
west side – 79
and 13 – to the
east.

13. The first day we
painted
inscriptions, made
photos and cleaned
them off again.

14. <...> we
knew that
better to use
a shaving –
foam instead
of paint

15. We divided our
duties: one of us
polished
monuments, the
other covered
the grooves of
letters with the
shave-foam

16. <...>the
third group
cleaned the
inscriptions
with the sponge
after taking
photographs

17. <...> from the
beginning we
distrusted
ourselves, we
cleaned carefully
the grey moss
which covered the
gravestones.

18. We worked
carefully,
because we
didn‘t want to
damage the
gravestone
monuments ,
we didn’t want
to disturb the
peace of
cemetery.

20. For those who lived...
They were like a garden,
like woods, like
birches groving in the
north.
In early spring,
When snow is melting ,
They were like birds,
The birds in wind and
clouds.
They were like sand or
seeds…
Like smoke of a cade...
(Henrikas Nagys)