The “Mark of the Righteous Among the Nations” commemorates the memory of those who saved the Jews. Its creation and creation was initiated by the Telšiai District Municipality together with the Samogitian Museum “Alka” and the Telšiai Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts. The author of the memorial sign is sculptor and lecturer of the Academy, Associate Professor Mindaugas Šimkevičius.
The bronze cast part of a seemingly real 20th century coat with the Star of David torn out is presented by the author, Assoc. Prof. M. Šimkevičius:
"It is a kind of a narrative on the front facade of the Telšiai Yeshiva building. The horizontal part shows the dedication “To the Righteous of the World” and the text “Saving one life saves the whole world”. The text is taken from the Babylonian Talmud and ‘transcribed’ on six local (Semitic) stone slabs, which are embedded in the horizontal lower recesses of the façade, and bronze plaques/dedications in the two side recesses. The vertical part of the work consists of two artistic objects that are very closely related in idea, but at the same time quite distant from each other physically. The first object, closer to the horizontal axis, is an already made bronze relief depicting the left side of a coat with a lapel and a hexagonal star-shaped hole in the heart area. On the edges of the hole, there are still the rounded remains of the ‘yellow star’, but the ‘star of doom’ itself is no longer there - it has been torn away... only the red bricks of the building are visible through the hole... A little higher up, in the white triangular part of the façade, is the “Star of David” - a sign of hope, rebirth and resurrection at that time. The star (mosaic) is made of glass and small stones. It is like a genocide survivor's crumb of hope, unfolding and blossoming into a new symbol. And also signs of the bright memory of those who did not survive - small coloured pebbles merging into a common story of suffering, hope and rebirth/resurrection of the Jewish people".
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