E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T
by Dovid Katz
Ignoring international pleas (including over two thousand signatures on an online petition) for the withdrawing of permits for this year’s neo-Nazi march, Vilnius authorities mounted a major police presence to keep order during today’s event in the heart of the Lithuanian capital.
This marcher's handbag featured a designer swastika
The modified SS skull and crossbones and the "Lithuanian swastika" (with added lines) were among the symbols featured in today's march
"TODAY IN THE STREET---TOMORROW IN PARLIAMENT"
Parade marshals wore white armbands, a symbol particularly offensive to Lithuanian Holocaust survivors. The white armbanders of June 1941 and beyond were in the vanguard of the local Holocaust perpetrators who began murdering their Jewish neighbors even before the arrival of German forces in dozens of locations. Later they became the backbone of the Nazis' local killing units.
Over a thousand ultranationalists assembled at 1 PM on Cathedral Square and made their way up Gedimino Prospect, the capital’s main boulevard, passing the prime minister’s office, an array of government buildings, and the Vilnius Jewish Public Library, that was founded by Wyman Brent, and opened in December with much fanfare about the state’s commitment to the Litvak Jewish heritage. There were no library staff on hand to protest the throng of neo-Nazis passing by its front gate.
Incongruous scene? Sign marking the entrance to the Vilnius Jewish Public Library on Gedimino Prospect, flanked by over a thousand neo-Nazi marchers parading with legal permits.
The march concluded at the Genocide Museum. There, a rally was held, addressed by members of parliament Petras Gražulis, Kazimieras Uoka, and Gintaras Songaila, among other well known national figures.
Warned against overtly antisemitic, anti-Russian, anti-Polish and anti-gay slogans, the marchers stuck to shouting what seemed like an endless trance like chain of the slogans “Lietuva” (Lithuania) and “Lietuva Lietuviams — Lietuviai Lietuvai” (Lithuania for Lithuanians — Lithuanians for Lithuania). Other chants demanded that Lithuania’s future be for Lithuanian children.
In contrast to the February 16th event in Kaunas, where there was zero visible opposition, however, there were a number of small groups protesting at various point on the route. At Government Square, the left-wing Socialist Front mounted a small protest led by its leader, Algirdas Paleckis. The group was not in the way of the marchers, and was not disturbed by police.
Algirdas Paleckis leads a small band of protesters from the Socialist Front party
Other tiny groups of anti-Nazi protesters put themselves in the way of the march and were roughly removed by police. One man who yelled curses at the fascists was arrested and taken away in a white police van.
Two young men standing in the middle of the street with a sign reading “No to Hatred, No to Neo-Nazism” were roughly removed by police to the sidewalk, and then guarded to prevent any return.
Two young men stood in the middle of Gedimino Prospect awaiting the thousand-plus neo-Nazi marchers with their protest sign: "No to Hatred, No to Neo-Nazism"
When the two young men carrying the sign "No to Hatred, No to Neo-Nazism" refused to leave the middle of the street, they were forcibly removed by police
Police kept guard over the two men, presumably to prevent their return to the marchers' route in the street
Four women stood in the middle of the street protesting the nearing throng of neo-Nazis on Gedimino Prospect, well before their arrival at that point.
Four women say No to the approaching throng of neo-Nazi marchers
When the march neared the four women, and they refused to budge, they were roughly removed by a sizable contingent of police and surrounded by photographers and media during a rapid and confusing removal to the sidewalk.
Confusion as police forcibly remove four women from the marchers' route in the middle of Gedimino Prospect
They then found themselves surrounded by police for the remainder of the march, and the subject of photographers’ and journalists’ fascination.
Forced to the sidewalk, the four women are guarded by police and besieged by photographers and journalists
A group of men standing on the sidewalk held a sign that read “Today Brown Marches — Tomorrow Gas Chambers?”
"Today Brown Marches---Tomorrow Gas Chambers?"
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None of the country’s major human rights organizations or minority groups mounted any visible presence during the event.
They did however organize a separate independence day event emphasizing good will three hours after the neo-Nazi event, at 4 PM. It attracted several hundred people (the media estimates vary) who celebrated in the spirit appropriate to the national holiday, with talk, song, dance and emphasis on inclusiveness and tolerance for all the people of Lithuania and beyond.
