Ellen Cassedy: We are Here - Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust at Kings Place

American journalist Ellen Cassedy travelled to the land of her forebears, and found herself face to face with memory and moral dilemmas. From a modest quest to learn Yiddish in Vilnius, her personal journey expanded into an exploration of Lithuania’s present-day efforts to build a civil and tolerant society over the traces of a bloody history, where many people today claim no knowledge of the tragic annihilation, or former life, of the Jews. 'If you ask people about the silver spoons in their parlor - where are they from - they will say they don't know. In fact, some of them really don't know. They really have forgotten,' one Lithuanian community activist told Cassedy. 'We are Here' shines a light on fragile efforts toward mutual understanding and carries a message of hope. In conversation with historian Anne Sebba, this warm and compassionate writer comes to Jewish Book Week to ask how we can honour our heritage without perpetuating the fears and hatreds of the past.