Žemaitijos (formerly M. Strašūno) Street commemorates the surviving personality Mata Strašūnas and his love of books. M. Strašūnas, born on 1 October 1817 in Vilnius, was a Lithuanian Talmudist, bibliophile, public figure, and one of the most influential members of the Vilnius Jewish community.
M. Strašūnas amassed a personal library, searching for books for it all over the world. In his will, M. Strašūnas dedicated his book collection to the establishment of the Jewish community’s public library, leaving funds to maintain it. In 2017, M. Strašūnas’ personal collection of Jewish books (more than 1,600 copies; stored in the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania) was recognized as an object of documentary heritage of regional significance and entered into the UNESCO Memory of the World National Program Register.
During World War II, the Vilnius Jewish Ghetto Library was located at the then M. Strašūno Street no. 6 (now Žemaitijos g. 4)
This work of art is like a comparison of two different points of view. Strašūno street symbolizes the love of books, and the date indicated on the information sticker is reminiscent of the Nazi book burning campaign, during which thousands of „unsuitable” books were burned.
An information sign „Read the instructions (Read the information)” was used.