“In the first year, the museum became a place not only to learn about the history of Lithuanian Jews but also to experience it personally – through the fates of specific people, family stories, and everyday details. More than 100,000 visitors show us that this memory is important and necessary today,” said the museum director Jonas Dovydaitis in a statement.
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Built and furnished with donated and contributed funds, the “Lost Shtetl” tells the story of the Jewish world of Šeduva before the Holocaust – the people, their daily lives, traditions, culture, and tragic fate.
Most guests came from Israel, the United States, South Africa, Poland, Latvia, Finland, the United Kingdom, and other European countries.
Visiting the museum is free of charge.
According to the statement, in the museum’s second year of operation, visits will also be free of charge.
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The museum project was awarded the “iF Design Award,” was selected among the prestigious “Prix Versailles” for the most beautiful museums in the world, and is also among the finalists for the “Finlandia Prize for Architecture.”
In the Lithuanian Architects’ Union competition, the “Lost Shtetl” project was also recognized as the best recreational architecture work, and in the “Most Successful Tourism” awards, the museum was recognized as the most successful tourism project in the country for 2025.
The museum began construction in 2018 and was opened last September.
It was initiated and founded by the Switzerland-registered philanthropic organization “YouthAid Foundation.”
