Address: Agrastu 17
Phone: 260 20 01


Traveler Reviews

What the trees have seen!
Reviewed by A TripAdvisor Member on Sep 22, 2007


Paneriai would be on my "must see" list for Vilnius. It has not gotten easier to find or more well advertised. Unlike the tour bus crowded streets of Old Town, we found ourselves alone and wondering if there was really anything there after leaving the train. It was an easy train ride and an easy walk to the site itself.... just keep walking down the road in the direction the train is traveling in and you will get there. The museam was actually open and reading the testimony of survivors and townspeople who listened to the shootings and smelled the burnings was terrifying. The pits themselves are haunting. I felt very strongly that no trip to Vilnius would be complete without seeing and attempting to understand this part of it's history. Fully 1/2 of the city of Vilnius was murdered here. Imagine, 1/2 of the city! How is it that this memorial is still so difficult to find? Why aren't all the tour busses visiting it????? If we don't learn from our history, we repeat it over and over.

Stunning Holocaust memorial
Reviewed by A TripAdvisor Member on Jul 22, 2004


In 1941 the fleeing Red Army left oil storage pits here, 10 km from Vilnius. Over the next few months 100,000 men, women and children, 70,000 Jews, were lined up around the pits and shot, one layer at a time, by the Nazis and their Lithuanian helpers. The pits are still quite visible and the memorial site, in a peaceful forest glade, hauntingly beautiful. The museum was supposed to be open when we were there but it was not. Take a Trakai bound train to Paneriai (the Vilnius tourist office has the times). The trip is about 20 minutes. There are no signs there to the memorial. Exit the station and turn right, walking down the road about 1 km; the road ends at the memorial site.