Audio guide in EnglishBefore World War 2, the spectacular surroundings of Paneriai Forest near Vilnius were popular among holidaymakers. In 1939, after Lithuania regained Vilnius and the Vilnius region, which had belonged to the Polish Republic in-between the war period, it was forced to let in Soviet Army garrisons, for which fuel depots and ammunition warehouses were started to be built in Aukštieji Paneriai. On 24 June 1941, the Germans, who had occupied Vilnius, noticed an unfinished fuel depot just outside the Paneriai railway station. At that time, several pits were dug there, which the Nazis decided to use for the mass extermination. The condemned could be brought to the massacre site from nearby Vilnius, as well as by truck or rail from various locations. Paneriai is the largest site of mass killings arranged and carried out by the Nazi regime in Lithuania. Between 1941 and 1944, according to the data of the Special Soviet Commission, the Vilnius Special Detachment ('Sonderkommando’), under the command of the German Security Police and the SD (‘Sicherheitsdienst’), shot more than 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom were Jewish from Vilnius and Vilnius region. According to the latest figures, it is likely that between 50,000 and 70,000 people were shot in total. Many members of the Polish underground organisations, Soviet prisoners of war, 86 soldiers of the Lithuanian local unit, a group of Roma and other local inhabitants were also shot in Paneriai. In 1960, the Paneriai Memorial Museum was established at the site of the massacre and was used as a branch of the Vilnius Museum of Regional History. In 1962, the museum became a subdivision of the LSSR Museum of History and Revolution. In 1977, the Memorial Park was officially named the Paneriai Memorial. In 1985, the territory of the memorial was landscaped according to the project of the architect Jaunutis Makariūnas and acquired its current form. In 1991, only the museum building, and since 2014, the entire territory, was transferred to the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History on a lease right, which initiated a study on the complex arrangement of the memorial. Between 2015 and 2017, the Museum, in collaboration with researchers from other institutions, carried out 3 stages of research, which radically changed the previous perception of the Paneriai massacre site. Various new sites, such as massacre sites, trenches for prisoners, former building sites, etc., were located. It also turned out to be a much larger site, which could have covered more like 60 hectares. Following research, a solution is currently being sought to overcome the Paneriai massacre site and present its complex history.