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— 19 May 2013 —
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Talk of the Town
- ♦ Lina Žigelytė
- ♦ Films and video
- ♦ Litvak Congress (in Vilnius, Sept)
- ♦ Conference on East European Holocaust memorials (in Riga, May)
- ♦ Global Forum (in Jerusalem, May)
- ♦ Red-brown “Platform” conference (in Warsaw, May)
- ♦ Bernard Dichek on the battle for history (in Jerusalem Report)
- ♦ Leena Hietanen on Estonia’s midsummer Waffen SS fest
- ♦ Monica Lowenberg helps UK’s ruling party see through East European far-right (in the London Jewish News)
- ♦ Dovid Katz reviews “Intermarium” (in IJFA)
- ♦ “Baltic Times”: Sinking deeper into ultranationalist swamp?
- ♦ Zeppelinus unmasked?
- ♦ Litvak culture and tourism
- ♦ Vilna Ghetto Disneyland theme park
- ♦ Anna Shepherd on Landsbergis’s homophobic track record
- ♦ Riga’s occupation museum tries to equalize the “tragedies of 1941”
- ♦ SYD gets own website
Quick Finder
Battle of Ideas
- • Leo Rennert on Marci Shore’s attempt to “tilt” the Holocaust for East European nationalists
- • Disagreeing with Snyder’s “Bloodlands”
- • Vytenis Andriukaitis on the freedom of history
- • Yitzhak Arad on Holocaust Obfuscation
- • Danny Ben-Moshe on Double Genocide
- • Bernard Dichek on the unfolding debate
- • Leonidas Donskis on honoring of collaborators
- • Dovid Katz on three definitions
- • Monica Lowenberg on UK policy
- • Efraim Zuroff on Israeli policy
What’s it all about?
- ♦ Mission Statement
- ♦ What is Double Genocide?
- ♦ Antisemitism & bias
- ♦ Remembering the Rescuers
- ♦ Applauding citizens who speak up
- ♦ Proposing constructive solutions
- ♦ Studying the Holocaust
- ♦ Studying the decimated culture
- ♦ All part of Human Rights…
The Litvak Heritage
- • Quick Guide
- • 7 Kingdoms of the Litvaks
- • Land of the Litvaks (map)
- • Territory of Litvak Yiddish
- • Lithuanian Jewish Culture (excerpts)
- • Litvak Studies
- • Lithuanian yeshivas (map)
- • Lithuanian Holocaust (map & list of locations)
- • Lithuanian Holocaust (readings)
- • Honoring the rescuers
- • Reading old gravestones
- • Sounds of Silence (intro)
- • Exotic tourism & controversial subjects
- • External sites
Global Echoes
New Documentary Films
Vilna Ghetto “Disneyland” Charade: On-site Protest Planned for Sept 23rd
- ♦ Revealed: secret plan for the “Disneyland Vilna Ghetto Theme Park” (minus today’s Lithuanian Jewish community…)
- ♦ US writers on Sutzkever sham
- ♦ No suspects in desecration of ghetto’s final selection spot
- ♦ Constructive solutions
The Baltic Holocaust
Calendar
SYD
March 16th in Riga
March 11th in Vilnius
- ♦ 2013 Eyewitness Report
- ♦ 2012 Eyewitness Report
- ♦ 2011 Eyewitness Report
- ♦ Monika Bončkutė in Lrytas.lt
- ♦ What does the US Embassy think?
- ♦ Editorial
- ♦ Petition calling on the Lithuanian government to cancel the march
- ♦ How a Jewish resident of Vilnius FEELS about Nazi march (video)
- ♦ London Jewish Chronicle
- ♦ Olga Zabludoff in VilNews
- ♦ Reply to Zingeris statement
March 5th in Tel Aviv
February 16th in Kaunas
- Red-Brown “Platform” Runs Another Double Genocide Conference — in Warsaw…
- Baltic Times: Hitting a New Low with “Paid Advertisement” Advocating Migration of Latvia’s Russian Speakers?
- The Neo-Nazis Hate the Feminists, Too
- Lithuanian Government’s 2013 Vilna Ghetto PR Jamboree
- Israel Chronicle
- Lithuanian Gay League (LGL) Releases Text of Letter on July’s Baltic Pride March
- Estonian Fascist Admirers Preparing Midsummer Waffen SS Fest
- The Homophobic Track Record of MEP Vytautas Landsbergis
- Zeppelinus Images Revealed as Media Claims he is a Government Official
- On the Preservation of Lithuania’s Old Jewish Cemeteries
- Swastikas From Latvia in Center of Šiauliai (Shavl), Lithuania, as Police Look On
- Wikipedia Entry on Seventy Years Declaration Rapidly Distorted
- Reports from Lithuanian Media Claim that Neo-Nazi “Zeppelinus” is Unmasked as — A Government Official!
- Facebook Discussion of 23-29 April 2013 on the May 2013 Global Forum in Jerusalem
- “Rewriting History” on the Road in the USA
- Bloomington-Borns Jewish Studies Arranges for 2nd Soviet-Israeli “Vanity Press Poet” to be “Professor of Yiddish in Vilnius”
- Lithuanian Authorities Continue to Play Games with this Summer’s Baltic Pride, Bringing Potential Ridicule to Launch of EU Presidency
- The Wehrmacht: One of Hitler’s Killing Machines
- UK’s Minister for Europe Refuses to Criticize Baltic Glorification of Nazism
- Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) Website is Launched
- “Mixed” Court Ruling Leaves Uncertainty on Venue for Baltic Pride 2013 Parade in Vilnius
- In Obeliai (Abél) and Rokiškis (Rákishok): More State-Sponsored Glorification of Nazi Collaborators
- Charles Adès Fishman Adds Voice, on Yom Hashoah, to Sutzkever Prize Fracas
- Peter Thabit Jones Issues Open Letter on Sutzkever Translation Prize
- Arthur Dobrin’s Open Letter to Ed Hirsch
- Images from the March 16th 2013 Annual Glorification of Latvian Waffen SS in Riga
- Upside-Down World? Neo-Nazi March Assisted by Police on Central Boulevard, While Authorities Try to Banish Baltic Pride Across the River….
- One-Sided Coverage in the “Lithuania Tribune”?
- Yad Vashem Awards Three Rescuers (Posthumously) in Žagarė (Zháger), Northern Lithuania
- News from Lithuania (11-16 March 2013)
- The Last Public Statement of Former Israeli Knesset Member Marina Solodkin
- Summary Coverage of Neo-Nazi March in Central Vilnius on March 11th 2013
- Believe It Or Not: Lithuanian Parliament Honors Organizers of Neo-Nazi March in Central Vilnius
- Lithuania’s Social Democratic Party Issues Statement Against Neo-Nazi March
- Cameron’s Latvian Liaison, One Woman’s Petition and One SS March
- The Operation Called “Winterzauber” is an Ongoing Tragedy
- Isn’t it Time for the Author of the Myth to Apologize?
- Strength Through Joy “Hitler Youth” Events Sponsored by the City of Vilnius on March 11, 2013
- Latvian Ambassador to the UK Comments on March 16th Waffen SS March in Riga
- 3,000 Participate in “Unauthorized” Neo-Nazi March in Central Vilnius on 2013 Independence Day
- When Cassedy Came to London Town
- Vilnius Street Name Proposed for Rescuer Out in Boondocks; But Please Remove Nazi Collaborators from City Center!
- Background Reading on the Shift in US Foreign Policy on Holocaust Denial from c. 2009
- Letter to the Editor
- Response to Professor Fridberg’s Article
- A Counter-Question to Lithuanian Journalist Artūras Račas
- Evaldas Balčiūnas Remembers February 16th 2013 March in Central Kaunas
- The Real Dope on the February 16 Neo-Nazi March in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania
- Tolerance Education? State-Sponsored Commission Uses its Website to Call Holocaust Survivor a “Liar” & to Demand “Apology from Jewish Community”
- Request for an Apology for Disrespect toward Rescuers of Jews and Holocaust Victims
History
Red-Brown “Platform” Runs Another Double Genocide Conference — in Warsaw…
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide, EU, Events, History
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The Wehrmacht: One of Hitler’s Killing Machines
by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium)
Some people interested in military history have perhaps kept in mind a picture of the German Army during World War II – the Wehrmacht – as having been an army not essentially different from other belligerent armies, although, admittedly, it acted brutally and, sometimes, at the limit of what would have been deemed acceptable in times of war.
Posted in History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Roland Binet
Tagged Armies and genocide, Roland Binet, Wehrmacht and the Holocaust
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Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) Website is Launched
The new SYD-dedicated website www.SeventyYearsDeclaration.org was launched today.
The website marks a new phase in the international effort to halt the progress of the East European far right’s “Double Genocide” campaign across Europe and beyond. For more background on the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) see the dedicated page, European languages page, and section in Defending History.
BACKGROUND:
SYD in European languages.
Early history and coverage (Jan-Feb 2012).
Presentation at European Parliament (March 2012).
The documentary film Rewriting History launched in Australia (Sept 2012) and in the United States (April 2013).
The film Defending Holocaust History (Spring 2013).
Defending History section on the Seventy Years Declaration.
Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, History, Human Rights, Litvak Affairs, News, Politics of Memory
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In Obeliai (Abél) and Rokiškis (Rákishok): More State-Sponsored Glorification of Nazi Collaborators
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
Years ago, when I first started doubting the veracity of certain propaganda intended to diminish the culpability of local forces in the Holocaust, I interviewed an elderly woman who was an eye-witness to what happened in late June of 1941 in Rokiškis (in Yiddish: Rákishok) in northern (or northeastern) Lithuania.
Obeliai (Abel) 1942: Is curiosity or concern sparked by this “celebration of 1941 partisans” coming from the apex of Nazi rule in Lithuania (1942, when the local Jews were already all murdered)? It seems not. This photo is of the 1942 Nazi-era memorial torn down by the Soviets, and just replaced by a new one, commemorating the same pro-Nazi “partisans” …
She told me how a bunch of young men turned savage, rounded up Jewish men, stuck them in what amounted to a pig sty surrounded by barbed wire in the center of town, and then tortured and humiliated them until they murdered them. She said this gang of savages went by the name of Savisaugos batalionas, which is Lithuanian for self-defense battalion. Were they led by Germans? No, she said, there hadn’t been a single German to be seen.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Geoff Vasil, History, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News, Opinion
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Obeliai (Abel), Rakishok (Rokiskis)
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Latvian Ambassador to the UK Comments on March 16th Waffen SS March in Riga
LONDON—Latvia’s ambassador to the UK has responded to a UK Conservative Party MP’s question about the Waffen SS events held in the center of Latvia’s capital, Riga, on March 16th each year. The office of UK Parliament MP David Amess, who represents Southend West, released the response dated 1 March 2013, which he received from the Latvian ambassador to the UK, HE Eduards Stiprais. It is reproduced in full below, courtesy of the office of Monica Lowenberg in London, whose petition and media guide have brought the Latvian SS marches to increased international scrutiny.
MONICA LOWENBERG’S REPLY TO THE LATVIAN AMBASSADOR IN 2012
See also Monica Lowenberg’s 2012 exchange of ideas with the Latvian ambassador to the UK. More in Defending History’s Latvia section.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Documents, Double Genocide, History, Latvia, News
Tagged Davis Amess MP, March 16th in Latvia, Waffen SS in Latvia
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Righteous Among the Nations: Zháger (Žagarė)
Yad Vashem Award to be bestowed by Israel’s Ambassador to Lithuania 19th March 2013 at the Gymnasium (High School), Žagarė at 1300 hours
to honor
EDVARDAS LEVINSKAS 1893-1975
TERESE LEVINSKIENE 1903-1949
LILIJA VILANDAITE 1900-1948
New Paper by Per Anders Rudling on the Ukrainian Far Right
An important new paper by Dr. Per Anders Rudling of Lund University, Sweden, has appeared in the new volume, Analysing Fascist Discourse: European Fascism in Talk and Text. The collective volume brought out by Routledge (New York & London) is edited by Ruth Wodak and John E. Richardson.
Dr. Rudling’s paper, entitled “The Return of the Ukrainian Far Right: The Case of VO Svoboda” comprises the sections:
Posted in Canada, Collaborators Glorified, History, News, Per Anders Rudling, Politics of Memory, Ukraine
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Landsbergis’s New Book Tries (Yet Again) to Sanitize the 1941 Hitlerist “Provisional Government” of Lithuania
B O O K S
by Geoff Vasil
Vytautas Landsbergis, Rezistencijos pradžia [“The Beginning of the Resistance: June 1941: Documents on the Six-Week Provisional Government of Lithuania”], Vilnius 2012.
MEP Vytautas Landsbergis, former speaker of the Lithuanian parliament and leader of the Lithuanian independence movement in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, unveiled his latest polemic at a ceremony cum press conference held on the first floor of the Signatarų Namai building in Vilnius’s Old Town on September 11, 2012, the historic site where Lithuanian independence was proclaimed from the balcony to the street below sometime around February 16, 1918.
This small book—there’s only 22 pages written by Landsbergis, the rest is a motley collection of supposedly historic documents—is an attempt to answer criticism of the Lithuanian Government and Catholic Church’s ceremonial reburial of Lithuanian Nazi puppet prime minister Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis and other concurrent celebrations in the spring of 2012.
Posted in Books, Collaborators Glorified, Geoff Vasil, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Efraim Zuroff, Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), Lithuanian Provisional Government (1941), SLS (Summer Literary Seminars), Theory of CIA prisons in Lithuania, Vytautas Landsberrgis
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Yitzhak Arad’s Paper
The Holocaust in Lithuania, and Its Obfuscation, in Lithuanian Sources
by Yitzhak Arad
C O N T E N T S:
Introduction
Lithuanian Nationalism and Antisemitism Prior to the Holocaust
The First Soviet Occupation of Lithuania, 15 June 1940 – 22 June 1941
The Lithuanian Activist Front: Antisemitic Incitement
The German Invasion and the Organization of an “Independent” Lithuanian Government
The Period of Pogroms: Late June to Mid July 1941
The Lithuanian Press at the Time of the Pogroms: A Source of Incitement
The Lithuanian Provisional Government: Anti-Jewish Legislation
Systematic Mass Murder: German Design and Command, Lithuanian Perpetration (late July–November 1941)
Lithuanian Police Battalions and Their Role in the Murder of the Jews
The Lithuanian Catholic Church and the Holocaust
The Rewriting of Holocaust History and the Double Genocide Thesis — “The Jewish Holocaust and the Lithuanian Holocaust”
Anti-Soviet Guerilla Warfare in Lithuania
The Prague Declaration of June 2008 and the European Parliament Resolution of April 2009
Conclusion
Notes
Introduction
In Lithuania, as in other places in Europe conquered by Nazi Germany, a thorough and comprehensive inquiry into the tragic events that occurred compels consideration of three factors:
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Antisemitism & Bias, Double Genocide, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yitzhak Arad
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Emanuelis Zingeris, Holocaust in Lithuania, International Commission on the Evaluation of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), Lithuanian collaboration with Nazi Germany, Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, Provisional Government (PG) of Lithuania in 1941, Yitzhak Arad
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When the Politicians Run the Conferences on — History
O P I N I O N A N D E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
A conference called “United Europe, United History” took place at the Lithuanian parliament on November 15th and 16th. The conference organizers and speakers repeatedly spoke of upcoming changes in the government (16 November was the first day the newly elected parliament assembled), and conference organizer and “Red-Brown Commission” chairman Emanuelis Zingeris even tried, unsuccessfully, to explain the poll results as the bad influence of the long Soviet occupation on the mentality of the people… (It was probably a good thing he didn’t call for a an international tribunal to provide compensation for the losses suffered by his party).
But one thing at a time.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Events, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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On a Selection of Powerful East European Holocaust Photographs
O P I N I O N
by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium)
The Holocaust in Europe has brought forth a certain number of photographs of victims of Nazism. But we have to acknowledge that there is a large disproportion between those that came to be known from Western Europe and those which went down in history that were taken in the East European countries where the bullet reigned as supreme death master.
Posted in History, News, Opinion, Roland Binet
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Seventy Years Declaration: Summary Coverage to 1 November 2012
The Seventy Years Declaration
Solemnly commemorates the Holocaust and reaffirms human rights of all people. Opposes the Prague Declaration and ‘Double Genocide’ politics. Rejects glorification of the Waffen SS of Estonia and Latvia and the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF).
Lithuania’s foreign minister’s “moustache response” came within minutes of SYD’s release.
———
TEXT AND LIST OF FOUNDING SIGNATORIES
PRESENTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
UPDATE: DOCUMENTARY FILM RELEASED
Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Denis MacShane, Double Genocide, Events, History, News, Politics of Memory
Tagged Double Genocide, Prague Declaration (European Conscience and Communism), Seventy Years Declaration
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Juozas Šibaila, Another “Hero” with a Suppressed Biography
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
Following the Lithuanian parliament’s recognition of the February 16, 1949 declaration of the Council of the Union of the Struggle for Lithuanian Freedom as an act with the force of law, there was a natural interest in questions about who the partisans who signed that declaration were. It would seem the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania would be the organization to present the most comprehensive biographies for these people.
Unfortunately that’s not the case.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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Major New History Paper on the Ukrainian Waffen SS
A major new paper on the history and nationalist mythology of the Ukrainian Waffen SS, by Dr. Per Anders Rudling of Lund University, Sweden, has appeared in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies. Its title is “‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited.”
The abstract reads as follows:
Vylius-Vėlavičius: Patriot or Another “Tuskulėnai Peace Park” Holocaust Perpetrator?
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
In my recent article about the war criminals buried at Tuskulėnai Memoral Park in Vilnius I provided a list of Nazi collaborators convicted by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1943, and May 24, 1944 of murdering civilians during the Holocaust. This does not mean, however, that those convicted under other laws are guiltless.
SEE ALSO:
Milan Chersonski on Tuskulėnai Park in Vilnius
According to criminal case materials and archival material examined by Lithuanian historians, there are rabid Nazi collaborators buried at Tuskulėnai Memoral Park. Despite the facts, today falsified, but very “patriotic,” biographies for these people are being crafted and disseminated, according to which they are portrayed as fearless warriors who battled for a free Lithuania.
I have written about one of them, Jonas Noreika, nicknamed General Vėtra, convicted under sections 1a and 2 of article 58 of the criminal code of the RSFSR, but who was recently decorated posthumously by Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus, so I won’t repeat that here.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Exotic Jewish Tourism, History, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Evaldas Balciunas, Ignas Vylius- Vėlavičius, Ninth Fort
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Joseph Melamed, Head of Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors’ Association, Releases Letter to Director of Yad Vashem
TEL AVIV—The office of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel today released the text of the Hebrew letter which the ALJ’s chairman, Tel Aviv attorney Joseph Melamed, sent today to Avner Shalev, the director of Yad Vashem. Images of the letter’s two pages follow (signed letter as PDF). English translation here.
See also the separate English statement which the ALJ released to the media earlier today, following the recent news about the Lithuanian government renewing a much enlarged red-brown commission with the ostensible participation of Yad Vashem.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide, History, Israel, Joseph Melamed, Litvak Affairs, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem Manipulated?
Tagged Association of Lithuanian Jews, Holocaust in Lithuania, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occpational Regimes in Lithuania, Joseph Melamed, Yad Vashem + Lithuania
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Holocaust Survivors, Based in Tel Aviv, Issue Statement on Renewal of the Red-Brown Commission
TEL AVIV—The following public statement was received at 2:15 PM Tel Aviv time from the offices of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel at King David Boulevard 1. In addition, the ALJ today released the letter written by its chairman to the head of Yad Vashem (English translation here). Background.
“We, survivors of the Lithuanian Holocaust and veterans of the resistance against Nazi Germany, advanced in years but determined as ever to honor and protect the dignity, history and memory of victims and survivors, will continue with our last breath to unequivocally oppose historical obfuscation and distortion by apologists for the perpetrators and collaborators, particularly as pursued by the Lithuanian government which has invested significant financial and political capital in distorting the true history of the Holocaust.
“The primary engine of this distortion has been the so-called ‘International Commission for the Evaluation of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania’ (known for short as the ‘red-brown commission’). This commission has spared no effort to officially support the 2008 Prague Declaration which declared Nazism and Communism to be equal as part of the ongoing politics of obfuscation and revisionism. Incredibly, the commission’s chairman was one of the original signatories of that infamous document.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide, History, Human Rights, Israel, Joseph Melamed, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem Manipulated?
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Yad Vashem Shocks Holocaust Survivors by Rejoining Lithuanian Government’s “Red-Brown Commission”
Holocaust survivors from Lithuania, and their families and advocates, are reporting feelings of “shock and betrayal” at “unbelievable reports” that Yad Vashem might again be lending legitimacy to the Lithuanian government sponsored “red-brown commission.” These accounts derive from a BNS (Baltic News Service) report today that appeared in various Lithuanian media, including Alfa.lt (full translation below), reporting that the president herself signed the decree today for substantial new state investment in the commission.
The Vilnius and Jerusalem rumor mills are equally putting out the word that there had been pressure from the Israeli foreign ministry, itself pressured by the Lithuanian foreign ministry for Holocaust-revising gestures in line with the current Baltic state policy often referred to as “Double Genocide.”
UPDATES: 29 Aug 2012; 31 Aug; 31 Aug(b); 31 Aug(c); 3 Sept; 3 Sept(b) [Holocaust survivors' statement]; 3 Sept(c) [Survivors' letter to head of Yad Vashem]; 3 Sept(d) [in English translation].
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Collaborators Glorified, Double Games, Double Genocide, History, Israel, News, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem Manipulated?
Tagged Association of Lithuanian Jews, Emanuelis Zingeris, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Israeli Foreign Ministry + Lithuania, Joseph Melamed, Kestutis Girnius, Rachel Margolis, Red-Brown Commission, Ronaldas Racinskas, Sarunas Liekis, Yad Vashem + Lithuania, Yitzhak Arad
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When I Received a Response from the Genocide Center in Vilnius
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
When I wrote about three glorified Lithuanian Freedom Army colonels who had in fact been implicated in the Holocaust, I did not realize quite how deep-rooted the shameful worship of Nazi-era war criminals has become here in Lithuania. I used to think that a few mistakes had been made due to patriotic excesses. A year has passed since that article, and I no longer feel that this is just some irksome problem “still encountered now and then”…
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Democracy, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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The Case that Broke the Heart of a Nazi-Hunter
O P I N I O N
by Efraim Zuroff
The following is a transcription of the text that appeared in today’s edition of The Australian.
At the end of next week, I will have spent 32 years as a “Nazi-hunter,” trying to facilitate the prosecution of those individuals who in the service of Nazi Germany or in alliance with its regime, engaged in the persecution and/or murder of innocent civilians categorized as “enemies” of the Third Reich. During that period, I have dealt with many dozens of cases of all sorts of criminals from many different nationalities and walks of life, from mass murderers to individuals who were charged with the murder of a single person.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, History, Human Rights, Hungary, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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It’s Not Just About the New Tuskulėnai “Peace Park” in Vilnius
O P I N I O N
by Milan Chersonski
Milan Chersonski (Chersonskij), longtime editor (1999-2011) of Jerusalem of Lithuania, quadrilingual (English-Lithuanian-Russian-Yiddish) newspaper of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, was previously (1979-1999) director of the Yiddish Folk Theater of Lithuania, which in Soviet times was the USSR’s only Yiddish amateur theater company. The views he expresses in DefendingHistory are his own. This is an authorized translation from the Russian original.
Photo: Milan Chersonski at this desk at the Jewish Community of Lithuania (image © 2012 Jurgita Kunigiškytė). Milan Chersonski section.
Can you imagine a European Union / NATO government investing millions in setting up a “Peace Park” in its beautiful capital city, in memory of people buried at the site of the park, when hundreds of them were Nazi collaborators who eagerly supported the annihilation of the Jewish population of their country?
Earlier this month, VilNews.com prominently published an article by Vincas Karnila, presented as the Introduction to a series called “The Mass Graves in Tuskulėnai.” It is a panegyric to the employees of the Museum of Genocide in Vilnius and the Center for the Study of Genocide and Resistance for their tireless efforts to establish the Tuskulėnai Peace Park. Readers are informed that six articles will follow. [Update: Subsequent articles in Karnila's series can be found in www.VilNews.com.]
We know from official sources that Soviet KGB victims were buried at Tuskulėnai from 1944 to 1947.
Karnila tells us:
Executive Director of “Red-Brown Commission” Doubts Lithuanian Jews were Killed “on a Racial Basis” Before Arrival of German Forces in 1941
O P I N I O N
A number of viewers of the new documentary film Rewriting History have submitted to DefendingHistory near-identical transcripts of a statement on camera, made to the film’s producers, by the executive director of the “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.”
Known for short as the “red-brown commission,” the state-sponsored body has long been opposed by Holocaust survivors and educators. The commission is responsible for Holocaust education in Lithuania, but has also taken an active political role in promoting the 2008 Prague Declaration and various details of alleged “equality” of Nazi and Soviet crimes. The commission’s website features the Prague Declaration in both English and Lithuanian.
The commission’s executive director, Ronaldas Račinskas, is quoted as saying on camera that his commission does not support “Double Genocide” but that he does support the 2008 Prague Declaration (though he concedes there are passages to be “discussed”). The problem is that the Prague Declaration is the primary document of the Double Genocide movement in Europe.
See also: Mr. Račinskas’s 2011 speech in the Lithuanian parliament; Critiques of his commission.
Mr. Račinskas goes on to say, according to the transcripts provided of his Rewriting History interview:
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide, EU, Film, Theatre, Sculpture, History, Litvak Affairs, News, Politics of Memory, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes, Red-Brown Commission, Ronaldas Racinskas, Yad Vashem
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Ernst Nolte’s Grandson
O P I N I O N
by Clemens Heni
This edited and condensed extract is from the author’s forthcoming book (in press) and appears here with Dr. Heni’s permission. Clemens Heni is founding director of the Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA).
In June of 1986 the German historian Ernst Nolte (born 1923) started the so-called Historians’ Dispute (Historikerstreit) by publishing an article in the leading conservative daily of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[i]
Nolte has to be seen as just one of the voices, though a leading one in point of fact, in the nationalist wing in the Federal Republic under Helmut Kohl, who had become chancellor in 1982, with “national identity” as a core element of his politics. The national wave had already begun in the 1970s with the infamous “Hitler wave” films, and with the emergence of the New Right and its German agitator Henning Eichberg and authors such as Martin Walser in 1979.
Posted in Clemens Heni, Double Genocide, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged BICSA, Bloodlands, Clemens Heni, Timothy Snyder
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Lithuanian Foreign Minister Includes “Historical Memory Policy” (= Double Genocide) Among Nation’s Prime Goals for 2013 EU Presidency
In a curious annual statement to his nation’s diplomats around the globe, Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis recently proclaimed publicly that “historical memory policy” would be one of the main goals of Lithuanian’s foreign policy, particularly as it looks forward to its rotating presidency of the EU next year.
EARLIER REPORT
The insistence on the Eastern European right wing’s history appears alongside energy and transport infrastructure, economic development, consular services for citizens resident abroad, military security, international alliances and more. The speech also mentions the need for more coordination of Lithuania’s “body and mind” implying the need for more rather than less diplomatic work in the field of history revisionism internationally.
Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Games, Double Genocide, EU, History, Human Rights, News, Politics of Memory
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Efraim Zuroff Responds to Tablet Magazine Essay on Timothy Snyder
O P I N I O N
by Efraim Zuroff
- The following comment first appeared in the discussion following David Mikics’s Tablet magazine article on Timothy Snyder (“The Diplomat of Shoah History. Does Yale historian Timothy Snyder absolve Eastern Europe of special complicity in the Holocaust?”). It is reproduced here with Dr. Zuroff’s permission. For further background, see the links below.
Unfortunately, this excellent article by David Mikics focuses almost exclusively on Poland, which for historical reasons is not the place where Snyder’s Bloodlands totally fails to present a historical account of the reality of the Holocaust. A far better place would be the Baltics in general, and Lithuania in particular. In these countries, three important phenomena took place:
Posted in Books, Efraim Zuroff, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Bloodlands, Bloodlands + Lithuania, David Mikics + Tablet, Efraim Zuroff, Timothy Snyder
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Why was a Lithuanian Holocaust Perpetrator who also Murdered Belarusians Given State Honors? Open Letter to the Lithuanian Ambassador to Belarus
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
I was surprised to learn that Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė appointed you ambassador to Belarus. She said Belarus is an important partner for Lithuania with many ties between our countries, and that cooperation should be on an equal footing, constructive and mutually beneficial. I invite you to think about whether you really are able to do this job, or whether you won’t make international relations worse because of certain matters of the past.
Let me remind you of one such thing. On 31 October 2002, you and then-president Valdas Adamkus signed presidential decree no. 1965 posthumously promoting Juozas Krikštaponis (Krištaponis) to the rank of colonel. The decree mistakenly gave his first name as Jonas, a mistake corrected in presidential decree 1K-849 issued by President Adamkus on 5 January 2007.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, Human Rights, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Jewish + Lithuania
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Reburial as a Means for the Rewriting of History
O P I N I O N
by Milan Chersonski
At Taxpayer Expense
Juozas Ambrazevičius (Brazaitis), 1903 — 1974
Memorial funeral events, dedicated to the moving of Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis’s ashes, were held in Kaunas for a week and a half from May 17th to 27th. He was the acting prime minister of the summer 1941 Provisional Government of Lithuania (PG); his ashes were moved to the former provisional Lithuanian capital, Kaunas.
His ashes were delivered by airplane from the distant state of Connecticut to the current Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and then escorted with honors to Kaunas, where the ashes, originally buried in 1974, were re-buried, this time with full state honors.
Apparently, those who initiated the reburial were pursuing three goals of importance to them:
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Democracy, History, Milan Chersonski, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Jewish + Lithuania
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Efraim Zuroff’s Helsinki Appearances Now on YouTube
Three public appearances in Helsinki, Finland, over the past week by Dr. Efraim Zuroff are now available on YouTube. Dr. Zuroff, the Holocaust historian, Nazi hunter, and justice seeker, is also a noted champion of the narrative of the Holocaust against well-oiled East European state sponsored revisionism, a revisionism he began to expose over two decades ago.
He is the author, most recently, of Operation Last Chance. The Helsinki visit marked the launch of the Finnish language edition of the book.
Some of the week’s appearances are available on YouTube. Continue reading
Posted in History, News, Politics of Memory
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Another “Resistance Hero” or — War Criminal who Selected Jews for Mass Murder?
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
Konstantinas Liuberskis–Žvainys is a figure with a curious biography.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Jewish + Lithuania
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On the Recent Amateur Treatments of the Role of the Provisional Government of 1941 in the Mass Media
O P I N I O N
by Shimon Alperovich
Authorized translation from Lithuanian by Geoff Vasil of the 26 June 2012 statement issued by Dr. Shimon Alperovich (Simonas Alperavičius), chairperson of the Jewish Community of Lithuania. Posted on the community’s website at: http://www.lzb.lt/en/home/691-recent.html. According to sources in the community, Dr. Alperovich wrote this in response to an article on Delfi.lt by Vidmantas Valiušaitis called “Why are Historians Afraid of the Facts?” (Lithuanian text here), and when Delfi allegedly declined to publish Dr. Alperovich’s response, the community placed it on its own webpage and elsewhere.
Recently there has been an increasing number of internet articles by amateur, non-professional authors without training in history expressing approval for the actions of the 1941 Provisional Government of Lithuania toward the Jews of Lithuania, without regard for the antisemitic actions of that government in the context of the mass murder of the Jews of Lithuania already underway at that time.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community earlier provided an assessment of the Lithuanian Activist Front and the Provisional Government.
It is saddening that the authors of these texts choose to ignore the conclusions of professional historians as well as the findings of the special commission established by decree of former president Valdas Adamkus and operating under the Lithuanian government, which clearly and categorically judges the actions of the LAF and PG thus:
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, History, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Shimon Alperovich
Tagged Dr. Shimon Alperovich (Simas Alperavicius), Jewish Community of Lithuania, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), Provisional Government (PG) of Lihtuania in 1941
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A Heroic Narrative in Violation of Good Conscience
O P I N I O N
by Leonidas Donskis
The ceremonial reburial of the head of the Lithuanian Provisional Government (PG), Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis, which recently took place, and the tension and details associated with it, said more about Lithuania today than all the news and commentary over the past twenty years put together.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Events, History, Leonidas Donskis, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Leonidas Donskis, Lithuanian Holocaust, Lithuanian Jews
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Unelected 1941 Pro-Nazi Provisional Government of Lithuania Never Intended Good for Country
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
In May Lithuania celebrated the return of the ashes of the Nazi puppet prime minister of June, 1941, Juozas Ambrazevičius (who changed his surname to Brazaitis as a matter of convenience when he began using papers issued to one Brazaitis). The schizophrenic nature of the events were evident from the start, from the Kubilius government’s resolution allocating 30,000 litas in funding to celebrate the Lithuanian Nazi which, several items down the list, also allocated 3,000 litas for a project to “name the names,” to draw up a list of Lithuanian Holocaust victims, in conjunction with the Yad Vashem institution in Jerusalem.
The dissociative shell game continued when the government and state institutions sought to pawn off the events they financed on other institutions: the Catholic Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kaunas, and an “academic conference/commemoration” planned at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. After a scandal broke and former professor now MEP Leonidas Donskis published an eloquent protest on DH, the rector of VMU, who didn’t want the heat, told the Nazi celebrators to find another venue, one supplied by the Kaunas municipality, the chambers of the Kaunas city council. Then, in keeping with the theme of schizophrenia, VMU decided to allow another “academic conference” on university premises, initially with the exact same list of speakers as the banned event.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Democracy, Double Games, Geoff Vasil, History, Human Rights, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, US State Dept Manipulated?
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Public Statement Concerning Instrumentalization of Academic Publications in Ukraine
O P I N I O N
by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe and Per Anders Rudling
Vadym Kolesnychenko, a member of the parliamentary faction of the Party of Regions, recently published a volume (http://r-u.org.ua/kniga/kniga.pdf) of Russian language translations of articles written by Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, Per Anders Rudling and Timothy Snyder.
The articles appeared originally in journals such as Kritika, New York Times Review of Books, Carl Beck Papers and KakanienRevisited. Mr. Kolesnychenko translated and published the volume without the approval or consent of the authors. We regard this conduct as unethical.
Our objections to the political instrumentalization of our work by the Party of Regions are the same as our reservations to analogous instrumentalization by pro-nationalist groups and organizations.
- Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe
- University of Hamburg
- Per Anders Rudling
- Lund University
Posted in Democracy, G. Rossoliński-Liebe, History, Media Watch, News, Opinion, Per Anders Rudling, Politics of Memory, Ukraine
Tagged G. Rossoliński-Liebe, Per Anders Rudling, Timothy Snyder, Vadym Kolesnychenko
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Dramatic Confrontation on the Floor of the Lithuanian Parliament
DefendingHistory.com has been able to confirm the following exchange on the floor of the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) on 17 May 2012. MP Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, the Social Democrats’ senior spokesperson for foreign affairs asked a question of the prime minister, Andrius Kubilius, and the foreign minister, Audronius Ažubalis, both from the ruling Conservative / Christian Democrats’ faction. It was answered by the foreign minister.
The following is a translation of the exchange.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, History, News, Politics of Memory, Vytenis Andriukaitis
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Joint Statement by the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum on the Ceremonies for the Reburial of Juozas Brazaitis (Ambarazevčius)
The following statement, drafted by the head of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, appeared today on the community’s website, and is republished here with permission. Presumably it will appear also on the website of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum. [Update of 15 September 2012: it has not thus far appeared on the museum's website.]
On May 19 and 20 of this year rites to re-inter Juozas Brazaitis (Ambarazevčius), the head of the Provisional Government of Lithuania, and commemorations and events in connection with this will take place in Kaunas.
Every person has the right to leave this world maintaining their inherited traditions and religious convictions. The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum do not protest and are not expressing dissatisfaction over the return of the mortal remains of Juozas Brazaitis (Ambarazevčius) to Lithuania.
Nonetheless, we are deeply hurt because of the ceremonies and events surrounding the reburial ceremony of this controversial political figure. This figure is connected with the actions of the puppet Provisional Government of Lithuania and with the calls by the Lithuanian Activist Front for inciting the mass murder of Jews which led to the execution of barbaric “justice” by the mob.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Events, History, Litvak Affairs, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Shimon Alperovich
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“Correcting the Past”
OPINION
by Milan Chersonski
On 2 May 2012, the Lithuanian mass media reported that the mayor of Kaunas, Andrius Kupčinskas, in his capacity as chief of a special working group, announced that the remains of Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis, chairman of the Lithuanian Provisional Government in 1941, who was buried in Connecticut in 1974, will be transported to Lithuania for a reburial with full honors.
MORE COVERAGE HERE
Kupčinskas said that the remains of Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis will be brought to Vilnius Airport on 17 May 2012, honored in the capital, and then solemnly escorted to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kaunas and placed into a columbarium in the church yard. Lithuanian Government officials have confirmed the announcement.
It was not however reported precisely who took the decision or precisely why the decision to rebury Ambrazevičius’s remains was taken. These are not the remains of an ordinary citizen. He was the leader of Lithuania’s 1941 Provisional Government (PG). Transporting his remains to the motherland is a state act, which carries with it the implication of immortalizing the memory of a historical figure in the solemn chronicles of the nation.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, History, Milan Chersonski, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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The History of Three “Lithuanian Freedom Army” (LFA) Colonels Who Served the Nazis
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
I will begin with a recent document I found while collecting information about the Lithuanian Freedom Army (LFA), an organization formed during World War II which present-day historians are attempting to portray as an organizer of the anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet resistance in Lithuania.
On 31 October 2002, President Valdas Adamkus issued decree no. 1965 titled “On Promoting Volunteer Soldiers to the Rank of Colonel” which gave the rank of colonel to three “members of the armed resistance: volunteer soldiers and soldiers of Lithuania’s pre-war military,” namely, Tauras military district chief Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas (posthumously); Vytautas military district chief Vincas Kaulinis-Miškinis (posthumously); and Vytis military district chief Jonas Krištaponis (also posthumously). Five years later the president noticed he had made a mistake regarding one surname and on 5 January 2007, issued decree no. 1K-849 to correct the mistake, replacing Jonas Krištaponis with Juozas Krikštaponis (aka Krištaponis).
Regarding the anti-Soviet resistance, there really isn’t any argument: most of the LFA fighters heroically fought against the occupiers and died in that struggle.
Regarding the anti-Nazi resistance, however, many doubts are raised. These doubts arise because of the LFA’s position on the mass murder of Jews.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania
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Glorification of Local Holocaust Perpetrators in Lithuania
Note: This page, last updated on 18 April 2012, covers some of the more recent and/or still-standing state-sponsored events and memorials honoring the LAF and other Holocaust perpetrators as “heroes” of Lithuania.
See also the COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED section
♦
SPRING-SUMMER 2012 UPDATE:
Vilnius: In an EU capital, in 2011, state-sponsored adulation of the local collaborators and participants in the Holocaust; key event is addressed by a former head of state, on the 70th anniversary of Hitler’s invasion
PARLIAMENT-SUPPORTED DOCUMENTARY FILM GLORIFIES 1941 ‘LITHUANIAN ACTIVIST FRONT’ (LAF) FASCIST MURDERERS & COLLABORATIONIST PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT (PG) ON 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OUTBREAK OF THE LITHUANIAN HOLOCAUST
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Film’s June 22nd Premiere in Vilnius was addressed by former President Valdas Adamkus; Attendees given a souvenir ticket; Ushers dressed in Nazi army uniforms stamped each ticket with the Nazi emblem and photo-ops were offered with men dressed as LAF. Eyewitness account. DefendingHistory.com analysis of the film.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, History, News
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania
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Saying No to “Double Genocide”
O P I N I O N
by Danny-Ben Moshe
This comment appeared today in the Jerusalem Post and is republished here with the author’s permission.
The Israel-South Africa Chamber of Commerce is hosting as guest of honor Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis at a gala dinner. Given the current Lithuanian government’s policies towards the Holocaust, it is a bizarre choice.
More than twenty years into their post-Soviet eras, Lithuania and other East European nations are understandably and appropriately seeking international acknowledgment for the suffering inflicted on them by the Soviet regime.
However, rather than commemorating this in its own right, Lithuania has led the campaign to tie this recognition in with the Holocaust, in a policy known as Double Genocide. By so doing, the recognition they seek for their own suffering under the Soviets ipso facto becomes a policy that distorts and downgrades the Holocaust, and undermines and threatens its memory.
Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Games, Double Genocide, History, News, Opinion, Politics of Memory, South Africa
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