This 'square', formerly Demokratų Square, is in the Kaunas suburb of Vilijampolė, also known as Slobodka – the location of the Kaunas Ghetto from 1941 until its complete destruction in 1944.
On 28 October 1941 a mass selection of its inhabitants took place here, that became known as The Big Action and resulted in extermination of 9200 Jews in a single day. 

There is no memorial or any sign here to mark this event.

Every day at noon a singer comes and sings in Yiddish to the emptiness of Democrats Square.

My fancy takes me to where my childhood days were spent. It wasn't much like Paradise but amid the dirt and all there was the sweetest angel that I fondly call my yiddishe mame. I need her more than ever now, I'd like to kiss that wrinkled brow, I long to hold her hands once more as in days gone by and ask her to forgive me for things I did that made her cry. I know that I owe what I am today to that dear little lady so old and grey, to that wonderful yiddishe mame of mine. (from the song My Yiddishe Mame)

© Paulina Pukyte