Run-Up to the Annual February 16th Neo-Nazi March in Kaunas




WILL LITHUANIA’S LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST GRANTING MAJOR CITY CENTERS ON INDEPENDENCE DAYS TO NEO-NAZI MARCHES THAT ADULATE 1941 HOLOCAUST COLLABORATORS?

WILL “BAGEL SHOP” AND OTHER FUNDED MONITORS ISSUE A MORALLY DIGNIFIED STATEMENT? A MEMBER OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT; HIS EARLIER VIDEOTAPED INTERVIEW IN RICHARD BLOOM’S DOCUMENTARY.

Annual marches (since 2008) slated for Kaunas on February 16th and Vilnius on March 11th. For years, one of neo-Nazi march’s main organizers was a high official at the “Genocide Center” …

2014 neo-Nazi marches in Lithuania

Last year’s events in Kaunas and Vilnius included swastikas, fascist and white-power symbols and huge banners glorifying the 1941 Nazi puppet prime minister who signed papers confirming the transfer of his city’s Jews to a death camp and ghetto

“BUT THE VAST MAJORITY OF LITHUANIA’S PEOPLE DO NOT WANT CHERISHED NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAYS HIJACKED BY THE NEO-NAZIS IN MAJOR CITY CENTERS. A TIME TO SPEAK UP?”

“Minor Point” Often Overlooked in the Debate:

The 95-96% of Lithuanian Jewry murdered in the Holocaust were Lithuanian citizens. Those who lived in the independent Republic of Lithuania celebrated the February 16th independence day with the same love and fervor as their fellow citizens.

Below, a 1928 image of the Jewish community of Darbėnai (Yiddish: Dorbyán) celebrating, with a large sign in Lithuanian and Hebrew (upon which is mounted the national emblem) the tenth anniversary of independence on February 16th. What message does it send in 2015 for a city-center Kaunas march on the day to feature a huge banner glorifying the 1941 Nazi puppet prime minister who signed papers ordering the 30,000 Jews of his city to be incarcerated in a ghetto? What message does it send when national leaders and human-rights NGOs keep silent?

DorbyanFeb16thCeleb

This entry was posted in EU, Events, Human Rights, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania. Bookmark the permalink.
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