Tag Archives: UK + Double Genocide

UK



Compiled by Dovid Katz

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See also:

UK SECTION

Monica Lowenberg; Denis MacShaneProposed solutions;  Ireland supplement (2008); UCL issues


2016

17 April 2016.  Defending History: UK’s Europe Minister again fails to offer even mild criticism of Baltic state-enabled Nazi worship.

17 April 2016.  Defending History: Latvia’s ambassador to the UK replies to Gareth Thomas MP onannual Waffen SS marches in central Riga.

20 March 2016.  Hope not Hate: ‘Don’t stand by, Mr. Lidington’ by Monica Lowenberg

10 March 2016.  Defending History: ‘Letter from UK MP Gareth Thomas to David Lidington, Minister for Europe’.

22 February 2016.  The Observer: ‘Estonia wants more NATO troops — but only if they aren’t black’ by Mikhail Klikushin.

3 February 2016.  The Independent: ‘Lithuania pledges to publish names of 1,000 suspected Nazi collaborators’ by Ashley Cowburn.

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2015

8 April 2015.  BBC News: ‘Ukraine crisis: Tension over rise of nationalist Yarosh’ by David Stern.

16 March 2015.  Daily Mail / Mail Online: ‘Latvian march honors veterans who fought alongside Nazis’ by Associated Press.

27 January 2015.  4 News: ‘Still fighting over Auschwitz, 70 years on’.

22 January 2015.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘”Double Genocide” has become the deadliest form of denial’ by Dovid Katz  [original version appeared in DH on 22 January 2015.

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2014

13 December 2014.  BBC News Europe: ‘Ukraine underplays role of far right in conflict’ by David Stern.

7 December 2014. Defending History: ‘Peter Jukes exposes documentary that glorifies Nazi collaborators’.

27 November 2014Rights&Wrongs.co.uk. ‘Why the “West” is supporting Ukraine’s neo-Nazis’ [earlier Global Research piece by George Eliason].

13 November 2014.  Guardian: ‘Ukraine has ignored the far right for too long – it must wake up to the danger’ by Volodymyr Ishchenko.

19 October 2014.  The Sunday Times: ‘Far-right groups turn heroics into votes in Ukraine’ by Bojan Pancevski & Kristina Jovanovski.

7 October 2014.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘“Repentance” from Germany offers new hope for justice’ by Efraim Zuroff.

23 September 2014.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Nazi truth that West refuses  to recognize’ by Michael Goldfarb.

10 September 2014.  Guardian: ‘Azov fighters are Ukraine’s greatest weapon and may be its greatest threat’ by Shaun Walker.

11 August 2014.  The Telegraph. ‘Ukraine crisis: the neo-Nazi brigade fighting pro-Russian separatists’ by Tom Parfitt.

20 May 2014.  The Independent: ‘The Tories’ possible allies in Europe are an extremely dubious bunch’ by Gareth Thomas.

9 May 2014.  Defending History: ‘Holocaust survivor asks UK prime minister to support the Seventy Years Declaration’.

23 March 2014.  Defending History: ‘British Board of Deputies includes effort against Prague Declaration in new 2014 manifesto’. Original document on Board of Deputies website (see section 3.3, page 10).

7 March 2014.  BBC News Europe: ‘Ukraine’s revolution and the far right’.

5 March 2014.  Channel 4 News: ‘How the far right took top posts in Ukraine’s power vacuum’.

28 February 2014.  BBC Newsnight: ‘Neo-Nazi threat in new Ukraine’ by Gabriel Gatehouse.

21 January 2014.  JosephLevinson.com: Joseph Levinson website launched.

3 January 2014.  The Irish Times: ‘Ukraine right revives wartime symbols amid “revolution”’ by Dan McLaughlin.

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2013

13 December2013.  Limmud Conference 2013: ‘The politics of Holocaust history in Lithuania and Latvia’ by Danny Ben-Moshe and Monica Lowenberg [advance announcement of 22 December 2013 event at Warwick University].

6 December 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Summary coverage of 1-2 December 2013 London events at ORT and Westminster synagogue sponsored by Lithuanian Embassy’.

27 November 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Monica Lowenberg releases text of letter to British ORT on latest Lithuanian Embassy sponsored “Litvak do” in London’.

24 November 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Latvian state dance troupe displays Nazi swastika’ by Graeme Atkinson and Monica Lowenberg.

9 November 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Antisemitism denial — an English intellectual speciality’ by Denis MacShane.

7 November 2013.  Die Presse: ‘Antisemitismus als Problem für britische Intellektuelle’ by Denis MacShane.

4 November 2013.  Second Generation Forum: ‘Latvia’s Nazi nostalgia’ by Monica Lowenberg.

28 October 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Riga, roots and reflections’ by Monica Lowenberg.

25 October 2013Vimeo: Monica Lowenberg’s Speak No Evil film segment (at timecode 3:54) in A Tale of Three Monkeys.

23 October 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Baltic government sponsored “Round Table” at London University on 5 November: Will Nazi collaborators be sanitized and glorified?’ [on London symposium of 5 November 2013 sponsored by Baltic embassies] by Dovid Katz.

5 October 2013Left Food Forward: ‘The Daily Mail invoked an age-old antisemitic smear about disloyal Jews’ by John Mann.

4 October 2013.  Guardian: ‘Antisemitism doesn’t always come doing a Hitler salute. Hatred of Jews is often more coded than explicit, but the Daily Mail’s attack on Ralph Miliband pressed all the same old buttons’ by Jonathan Freedland.

13 June 2013.  Politics.co.uk: ‘Why won’t Britain stand up to fascism in the Baltics?’ by Keith Morgan.

15 May 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘British updates’ [on Europe Minister David Lidington’s comments on the Latvian Waffen SS festivities].

2 May 2013.  London Jewish News: ‘You can’t praise Hitler’s troops and champion human rights’ by Monica Lowenberg.

18 April 2013.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Dispute over Nazi marches’ by Anna Sheinman.

5 April 2013.  Hope Not Hate: ‘Latvia: The photo shoots Hague would rather forget’ by Monica Lowenberg [link posted for 24 hours atop Foreign Office’s official site].

4 April 2013.  Algemeiner.com: ‘On the eve of Yom Hashoah, Great Britain sinks into littleness over the Holocaust’ by Monica Lowenberg.

3 April 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Images from the March 16th 2013 annual glorification of Latvian Waffen SS in Riga’ by Monica Lowenberg.

2 April 2013.  Jewish Daily Forward: ‘David Miliband quits soccer team board after it hired “fascist” Italian manager’ by Reuters.

2 April 2013. Telegraph: ‘Pressure mounts on Sunderland and Paolo Di Canio with calls for clarification on fascist views’ by Mark Ogden.

1 April 2013.  Guardian: ‘David Miliband quits Sunderland FC in Di Canio protest’ by Ben Quinn.

1 April 2013.  BBC News: ‘Di Canio: David Miliband quits Sunderland role.

31 March 2013.  Guardian: ‘The disturbing persistence of antisemitism in Europe’ by Katrina Lantos Swett.

25 March 2013.  Ab Imperio: ‘An open letter to the editorial board of East European Jewish Affairs’ by Alexander Gogun.

15 March 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Cameron’s Latvian liaison, one woman’s petition and one SS march’ by Monica Lowenberg.

12 March 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Latvian ambassador to the UK comments on March 16th Waffen SS march in Riga’.

8 March 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘When Cassedy came to London town’ by Emily Sheinbaum.

15 February 2013.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Documents on the Cassedy scandal in London released by the office of Monica Lowenberg’.

14 February 2013.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Jewish Book Week defends Lithuanian invitation’ by Jennifer Lipman.

2013.  Change.org:  ‘Petitioning HE Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, Lithuanian Ambassador, London, UK: Abandon state sponsored antisemitism and Holocaust obfuscation’ by Monica Lowenberg.

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2012

24 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘December 2012 London conference at UCL and protest (box coverage to 24 Dec).

24 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘End of the world. And the day after…’ by Monica Lowenberg.

20 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Within days of Monica Lowenberg’s petition, Vilnius municipality tries to move March 11th 2013 neo-Nazi march away from city center’.

17 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Gert Weisskirchen’s open letter to the Lithuanian ambassador in London’ by Gert Weisskirchen.

15 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘David Cukier’s follow-up letter to the provost of University College London’ by David Cukier.

14 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘UCL Hebrew-Jewish Studies dept rejects Monica Lowenberg’s request for five minutes to read petition at Lithuanian government sponsored conference’.

13 December 2012 Jewish Chronicle: ‘Lithuania Shoah event is “duplicitous” by Jennifer Lipman.

13 December 2012.  London Jewish News: ‘You cannot praise fascists and be pro human rights’ by Dovid Katz. Reprint in The Algemeiner.

13 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘On free speech at University College London’ by Monica Lowenberg.

13 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘UCL alumnus David Cukier writes to the Lithuanian ambassador in London’ by David Cukier.

13 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘The text of Monica Lowenberg’s petition on Change.org’.

5 December 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Why Monica Lowenberg’s petition is so important’.

2 December 2012.  Change.org: ‘Petitioning Lithuanian Ambassador for London, UK, HE Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė: Abandon state sponsored antisemitism and Holocaust Obfuscation’ by Monica Lowenberg.

29 November 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘David Cukier, alumnus of UCL, writes to the provost on Lithuanian government’s December conference’  by David Cukier.

9 November 2012.  CiF Watch: ‘Kosher stamps for post and anti-Zionism at “Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism” in London’ by Clemens Heni.

2 November 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: Letters to the editor from Richard Cooper, David Sumberg, Monica Lowenberg.

26 October 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘EU: real problem is not Latvia’ by Daniel Hannan.

13 October 2012.  The Spectator: ‘Taking stock of politics after the conferences’  by Martin Bright.

11 October 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘The little European problem that the Conservatives would prefer to forget’ by Martin Bright.

27 September 2012.  London Jews News / TotallyJewish.com: ‘War Museum defends invite to revisionists’ by Stephen Oryszczuk.

18 September 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘MP Denis MacShane writes to the director-general of the Imperial War Museum in London’.

17 September 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Lithuania’s state Jewish museum responds to Survivors’ concerns about London meetings together with (antisemitic) Genocide Center’ by Kamilė Rupeikaitė.

3 August 2012.  London Jewish News: ‘Shoah Denial is being replaced by an illusive and delusive evil’ by Dovid Katz.  On the Jewish News site (3 August issue, p. 11).

15 June 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Reply to the Economist on Lithuania’s recent reburial of the 1941 Nazi puppet “prime minister”‘ by Dovid Katz [Also as comment on the Economist blog site].

15 June 2012.  The Economist. Eastern Approaches. Ex-communist Europe: ‘Lithuania under the Nazis: Hero or villain? by E[dward] L[ucas].

18 May 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Outrage over honour for Lithuanian Nazi leader’ by Jessica Elgot.

2 May 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Neo-Nazi youth group on EU funded council’ by Marcus Dysch.

April 2012.  AJR [Association of Jewish Refugees] Journal: ‘Latvia: A personal march through history’ by Monica Lowenberg’ [pp. 4-5].

24 April 2012.  Deutscher Bundestag: ‘Kleine Anfrage der Abgeordneten Ulla Jelpke, Sevim Dag˘delen, Heidrun Dittrich, Annette Groth, Inge Höger, Petra Pau, Kathrin Senger-Schäfer, Alexander Ulrich, Katrin Werner und der Fraktion Die Linke’.

11 April 2012.  Holocaust Educational Trust [UK]: ‘Latvia’s difficult legacy. Monica Lowenberg, who has pursued extensive academic research in the field of German-Jewish studies, writes on last month’s controversial march of Latvian SS veterans’.

27 March 2012.  Guardian: ‘Don’t be fooled. Europe’s far-right racists are not discerning’ by Anne Karpf.

16 March 2012New Statesman: ‘Why does Latvia still honour the Waffen SS?’ by Denis MacShane.

16 March 2012.  Guardian [/AP]: ‘Latvians pay annual tribute to Waffen SS fighters’  by Gary Peach.

14 March 2012.  UK Parliament: ‘Early Day Motion 2866: 16 March demonstrations in Riga’. Primary sponsor: Barry Gardiner. Sponsors: Jeremy Corbyn, Mark Durkan, Kelvin Hopkins, Bob Russell, Jim Shannon.

13 March 2012.  Harrow Times: ‘Teacher fights to stop Latvian march that treats Nazis like “heroes”‘ by Anna Slater and Emma Stock.

8 March 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Calls to ban Baltic neo-Nazi marches’ by Emma Stock. Republished on PCAA Foundation.

5 March 2012.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Monica Lowenberg in dialogue with Latvia’s ambassador to the UK’.

21 February 2012.  UK Parliament: ‘Early Day Motion 2750. Annual commemoration march by supporters of Waffen SS supporters in Riga, Latvia. Primary sponsor: Bob Blackman. Sponsors: David Amess, Tom Brake, Mike Gapes, Robert Halfon, John Mann.

2 February 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Lithuania attacked over Shoah retort’ by JC Reporter.  [PDF]

2 February 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘A fight over history’s tragic truth. Analysis’ by Dovid Katz.  [PDF]

30 January 2012.  Lithuania’s Social Democratic Party releases PDF of 24 Jan 2012 letter from UK MP Denis MacShane to Lithuanian MP Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis [one of eight letters sent to each of the Lithuanian signatories of 70YD].

25 January 2012.  ‘UK MP Denis MacShane rushes to defense of Lithuanian parliamentarians who signed Seventy Years Declaration; Slams foreign minister’s Hitler-Stalin ‘joke’ in DefendingHistory.com.

24 January 2012.  Office of Rt Hon Denis Macshane MP (UK Parliament): ‘Letter to Lithuanian MP Vytenis Andriukaitis’.

20 January 2012.  [Monica Lowenberg’s blogspot petition:] ‘Stop the 16 March marches in Riga’.

20 January 2012.  UK signatories to the Seventy Years Declaration:

  • Luciana Berger, MP (Labour, Cooperative)
  • Martin Callanan, MEP (Conservative, leader of Conservative MEP group)
  • The Baroness Deech D.B.E, House of Lords (Crossbench)
  • Andrew Duff MEP (Liberal Democrats, pres. of Union of European Federalists)
  • Louise Ellman, MP (Labour, Cooperative)
  • Mike Freer, MP (Conservative)
  • Stephen Hughes, MEP (Labour)
  • Lord Janner of Braunstone, House of Lords (Labour)
  • Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP (Liberal Democrats)
  • Denis MacShane, MP (Labour)
  • John Mann, MP (Labour)
  • Linda McAvan, MEP (Labour)
  • Bill Newton Dunn, MEP (Liberal Democrats)
  • Matthew Offord, MP (Conservative)
  • Charles Tannock, MEP (Conservative)

5 January 2012.  Jewish Chronicle: ‘Lithuanian tabloid runs hate splash’ by Karen Glaser.

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2011

22 September 2011.  DefendingHistory.com: ‘Yad Vashem withdraws invitation to Lithuanian minister over campaign against Joe Melamed; British parliamentartians move an “early day motion”; Melamed speaks eloquently at Yad Vashem, blasts efforts to glorify Holocaust perpetrators as “heroes”‘.

22 September 2011.   Jewish Chronicle: ‘Wreaths laid, but doubt lingers in the air’ by Geoff Vasil.

8 September 2011.  UK Parliament: ‘Early Day Motion 2161. Lithuania and Holocaust survivors’ by John Mann (Labour, primary sponsor), Peter Bottomley (Conservative) and Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat).

28 July 2011.  The Jwish Chronicle: ‘Lithuania is playing a worrying Holocaust game’ by Geoff Vasil.

23 June 2011.  Twitter: ‘Lithuanian ex-prez hosts film portraying [t]hugs who participated in hunting, killing Jews in 1940s as patriots. tickets had swastika on them’ by UK MP Denis MacShane.

11 July 2011.  MP David Amess asks in parliament about levels of antisemitism in Lithuania; Minister of State for Europe David Lidington responds.

6 April 2011.  ‘Has LRG Media (UK) been compromised?’ on DefendingHistory.com.

23 February 2011.  ‘Comment: MP Stephen Twigg on the parallels of homophobia and antisemitism’ on PinkNews.

11 February 2011.  ‘London Fog: Lithuanian Foreign Ministry invests in a London “graywash'” on DefendingHistory.com.

10 February 2011.  ‘Old wounds. Clashing versions of Lithuania’s history and how to treat it’ in the Economist [by Edward Lucas].

10 February 2011.  ‘Lithuania attacked over Holocaust’ in the Jewish Chronicle by Simon Rocker.

9 February 2011.  ‘Holocaust Obfuscation’ as specific term enters the diplomatic lexicon in DefendingHistory.com.

8 February 2011.  ‘UK MPs call on Lithuania to tackle antisemitism’ in the Jerusalem Post (by Jonny Paul).

8 February 2011.  ‘UK MPs call on Lithuania to tackle antisemitism’ on BNS.

7 February 2011.  Letter of protest, signed by twenty-one people, is handed to the Lithuanian Embassy on London at 10 AM by MP RH Denis MacShane; Professor Danny Ben-Moshe, and Danny Stone, director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism.  Report here.  Text of the letter here.  List of signatories here.

6-7 February 2011. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry is the chief sponsor of a London event called: ‘Colloquium: No simple stories. Jewish-Lithuanian relations between coexistence and violence’ at UCL and the Warburg Institute.  Report/comment here.   Poster hereColloquium programme here.  Final programme here.  Clemens Heni’s critique here.

4 February 2011. ‘A shameful Shoah whitewash’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Efraim Zuroff).

4 February 2011.  ‘Lithuania accused over Holocaust event’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Simon Rocker).

28 January 2011.  ‘Can-Kam pact is over’ on Progress Online (by Denis MacShane).

27 January 2011.  ‘Cameron’s ECR farce continues’ on Left Foot Forward (by Ben Fox).

27 January 2011.  Guardian: ‘Europe exploits the Holocaust to spread its message of tolerance’ by Thomas Kühne.

26 January 2011.  ‘A rather simple story: Lithuania, the Jews, and the Shoah’ on DefendingHistory.com (by Clemens Heni).

20 January 2011.  House of Commons, UK Parliament: ‘Antisemitism in its new form in Europe remains a major evil to be confrtoned’ by Denis MacShane MP.  Report hereText of the speech here.

20 January 2011.  ‘A challenging look at Jewish life in Lithuania’ in the London Jewish News (by Nitza Spiro).

17 January 2011.  Lord Janner of Braunstone QC (formerly MP Greville Janner) publishes his essay ‘Never Again’ on the website of the Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism, taking note of the ‘antisemitic agenda’ that is served by the Double Genocide movement.  Report here.  Essay here.

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2010

23 December 2010.  The Holocaust Survivor community responds cautiously to the news (spread by an emailed/forwarded poster), that the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, which masterminded a new attempt in December 2010 to insert ‘Double Genocide’ and obfuscate the Holocaust in European Union law (see top story), was now one of the parties financing a ‘Colloquium’ titled ‘Jewish-Lithuanian Relations Between Coexistence and Violence’ on 6-7 Feb 2011 in London.   ‘All welcome. No registration needed.’  Poster hereDetails here.

21 December 2010.   Guardian: ‘Why is the US silent on “double genocide”? While European countries have condemned the new Holocaust revisionism in the Baltics, America shows no moral leadership’ by Dovid KatzIn Russian.

21 December 2010.  Guardian: ‘EU rejects eastern states’ call to outlaw denial of crimes by communist regimes. Eastern European states wanted Soviet crimes “treated according to the same standards” as those of Nazi regimes’ by Leigh Philips.

13 December 2010Labour MP Denis MacShane asks Secretary for Europe David Lidington to make public the letter of seven ambassadors concerning rising antisemitism in Lithuania. Mr. Lidington turns him down.

8 December 2010BBC Radio’s World Service Heart and Soul program by Wendy Robbins on issues in Lithuania.

29 November 2010Guardian: ‘US must take a tougher line on Baltic revisionism’ by Efraim Zuroff.

25 November 2010. The British Embassy in Vilnius plays a pivotal role in the issuing of a historic statement (signed by seven Nato ambassadors) on ‘Double Genocide’, the growing antisemitic and Holocaust Denial atmosphere, and the May 2010 court ruling permitting public swastika displays.

25 November 2010Ambassador S.J. Butt publishes a letter in the Canadian Jewish News on the work of Rachel Kostanian, director of the Green House [5th item].

17 November 2010. ‘The Real Friend is the one who tells you when something is wrong’ on Alfa.lt (by Dovid Katz).

10 November 2010‘Mr Lidington is right, but there is more to it’ on DefendingHistory.com (by Dovid Katz). [later version = 17 Nov 2010].

8 November 2010‘Minister welcomes progress in Lithuania on compensation for seized Jewish properties’ on UK in Lithuania / Press Center.

14 October 2010‘Count, explain, remember’  in The Economist (by Edward Lucas).

7 October 2010. ‘Nazi crimes have been downgraded in Lithuania’ in the Canadian Jewish News (by Esther Goldberg [London]).

5 October 2010‘The fatal fact of the Nazi-Soviet pact. I coincide with Zuroff and Katz on the centrality of the Holocaust, but we must not overlook how Stalin enabled Hitler’s crimes’ in the Guardian (by Timothy Snyder).

30 September 2010‘Why Red is not Brown in the Baltics. Unhappily,  Timothy Snyder’s historical reassessment of the Nazi-Soviet pact coincides with Baltic ultra-nationalist agendas’  in the Guardian (by Dovid Katz).

29 September 2010‘A dangerous Nazi-Soviet equivalence. Timothy Snyder’s emphasis on the Hitler-Stalin pact as the genesis of war blurs the moral responsibility that was Germany’s’ in the Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff).

28 September 2010. ‘Echoes from the killing fields of the East. The Second World War is often seen through Western allies’ eyes. But the real geopolitics  and worst atrocities  scarred the East’ in the Guardian (by Timothy Snyder).

24 September 2010‘Rise of the Right. The fall of parliamentary seats into extremist hands represents the biggest shake-up on the continent since the disappearance of communism’ in Newsweek (by Denis MacShane).


17 September 2010‘Lithuania’s Double Genocide policy’ in the Guardian (by Tessa Rajak).

‘Lithuania has taken more than a “walk-on part in British politics”. When the European parliament called on its members, in April 2009, to mark 23 August as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, and when the OSCE, in July 2009, adopted the Vilnius Declaration on increasing awareness of totalitarian crimes, we too became party to the equation of Nazi crimes with those of communism in the Baltic states. By accepting the parallelism, we also have excused collaborators, ignored the unspeakable savageries perpetrated in Lithuania between 1941 and 1945, condoned the pardoning of every single Lithuanian war criminal until today, and endorsed the prosecution of Jewish resistance fighters, whose situation remains unresolved.’

—Professor Tessa Rajak in the Guardian, 17 Sept 2010


15 September 2010. ‘Were Stalin’s crimes really less wicked than Hitler’s?’ in the Telegraph (by Daniel Hannan).

14 September 2010‘I see why “double genocide” is a term Lithuanians want. But it appals me. To equate Soviet and Nazi crimes is dishonest and historically false. Why has this poisonous idea taken such deep root?’ in the Guardian (by Jonathan Freedland).

8 September 2010. ‘Rachel Kostanian: Historian whose task is remembrance of  the Holocaust’ in the Canadian Jewish News (by Esther Goldberg [London]).

1 September 2010‘Time to free Europe of this poison’  on the Parliamentary Committee against Antisemitism (by Dovid Katz).

27 May 2010‘It is time for Cameron to reject the EU nutters’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Dovid Katz).

3 April 2010‘The threat of Baltic ultranationalism. The EU is wrong to ignore the resurgence of neofascism in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — It threatens European democracy’ in the Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff)In Estonian. In Lithuanian.

18 March 2010The Guardian: ‘Dangerous history-rewriting in Latvia’ by Efraim Zuroff.

7 March 2010‘Latvian Waffen-SS veterans defy calls for ban with rally to commemorate comrades’ in Times Online (by David Charter).

March 2010‘65 years on the ghost of Nazism resurfaces across Europe’ in Government Gazette (by Marcus Papadopoulos).

19 January 2010Peter Ryley’s Blog: ‘Defending history’.

8 January 2010.  ‘Halting Holocaust Obfuscation. The Baltic ultranationalists rewriting east European history as an equal Nazi-Soviet “double genocide” must be stopped’ in the Guardian (by Dovid Katz). Alternate link [reprint in the Algemeiner Journal].  Republication in Russian.

7 January 2010‘A sinister scheme to devalue the Shoah is gathering steam’  in the Jewish Chronicle (by Efraim Zuroff).

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2009

30 November 2009.  Lithuanian prime minister’s Hardtalk interview with the BBC’s Jonathan Charles. Video here; → Holocaust issues at timecode starting ±18:40; alternate hereat ±5:55. The PM effectively let slip the policy of investing in Jewish memorials and projects while trying to (a) equate the Holocaust with Soviet crimes, and (b) downplay local collaboration. Efraim Zuroff (7 Jan 2010) replied on 7 January 2010 (here).

30 November 2009‘Polish antisemitism needs examination. It would be parochial to give a free pass to Michal Kaminski et al just because we resent the issue becoming a political football’ in the Guardian (by Tim Whewell).

30 November 2009‘Tories must reject “Double Genocide” proponents. Alliance with those who would downgrade the Holocaust is a grave mistake’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Dovid Katz).

1 November 2009.   ‘Beyond Kaminski’ in New Statesman (by Mehdi Hasan).

31 October 2009‘Cameron must end Tories’ far-right fling’ in the Irish Times (by Dovid Katz).

29 October 2009‘Europe must focus on Baltic hate. We must continue to push the issue of Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian antisemitism’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by John Mann MP).

‘As a result of our All-Party inquiry into Antisemitism, the Foreign Office has been pursuing an active programme of agenda-raising using the relevant European organisations and instruments, and has been hailed as a model of best practice. I will be raising this matter at the cross-departmental working group on Antisemitism and with the Foreign Secretary. It is our intention to send a further fact-finding mission to both Latvia and Poland in order to evidence more comprehensively attitudes and activities. Should these missions have implications for political parties in those countries then I think that discrete but robust pressure will be in order. We must continue to monitor and combat this evolving form of antisemitism and should expect the highest standards of both British and European officials in combating racism in all its forms.’

— John Mann MP in the Jewish Chronicle, 29 October 2009


22 October 2009‘Miliband on Cameron’ in The New York Times (by Roger Cohen).

21 October 2009‘Clinton and Kaminski: What the papers say’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Jessica Elgot).

2o October 2009.   ‘I knew the day of Holocaust “debate” would come. Just not in my lifetime’ in the Guardian (by Jonathan Freedland).

14 October 2009.   ‘Eastern Europe’s long buried truths’ in the Guardian by Efraim Zuroff.

13 October 2009‘Latvian Waffen-SS: No ifs, no buts’: Guardian editorial.

11 October 2009‘Is Michal Kaminski fit to lead the Tories in Europe?’ in the Guardian (by Toby Helm).

7 October 2009.  Guardian: ‘Cameron’s Latvian liaison. The Conservatives’ choice of partner in Europe traduces Latvian democrats who acknowledge wartime atrocities against  Jews’ by David Cesarani.

2 October 2009‘Lazy Tory apologists for Latvian SS’  in the Guardian (by Peter Beaumont).

28 September 2009.   ‘The Nazi whitewash’ in the Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff); alternate link.

9 September 2009‘This rewriting of history is spreading Europe’s poison’  in the Guardian (by Seumas Milne).

21 August 2009‘But is Kaminski good for the Jews? Stephen Pollard’s defence of the rightwing Polish MEP shows the dangerous naivety of taking support for Israel at face value’ in the Guardian (by Antony Lerman).

19 August 2009‘History is much too important to be left to politicians. The EU must not give succour to self-interested revisionists who equate Stalinism and Nazism’ in the Guardian (by Jonathan Steele).

31 July 2009‘Stop “respectable fascism” now. I lost the Conservative whip because I acted on principle to stop disguised extremism, symbolised by Michal Kaminski’ in the Guardian (by Edward McMillan-Scott).

29 July 2009‘Cameron may have helped the Polish right, but he has not served Britain. A dubious rightwinger how heads conservatives in Europe. What on earth does the Tory leader think that he’s doing?’ in the Guardian (by Timothy Garton Ash).

29 July 2009‘Exclusive: Jewish leaders turn on Cameron’s Tories’ in New Statesman.

21 July 2009‘The Tories’ path to disaster. The Conservatives were once the party of world and European affairs but, as William Hague has shown, they aren’t any more’ in the Guardian (by Denis MacShane).

18 July 2009. ‘Rabbi [Barry Marcus] urges Tories: cut link to Polish MEP Euro group chief accused of being antisemitic’ in the Guardian (by Toby Helm and Rajeev Syal).

16 July 2009‘Diary. The Lord will provide, of course. But he must keep some for himself – charity begins at Home’ in the Guardian (by Hugh Muir).


19 June 2009. Lord Janner of Braunstone’s certificate of achievement to Dr Rachel Margolis is presented to Dr Margolis at Leivick House in Tel Aviv by Dovid Katz.


31 May 2009‘”Genocide Industry” has hidden agenda. Attempts at equalising historical wrongs are often aimed at Holocaust obfuscation’ in The Irish Times (by Dovid Katz).


27 May 2009.  UK Ambassador HE Simon Butt (seated, left foreground) visits the Dr Sheine Sideraite Yiddish Reading Circle at the Jewish Community of Lithuania in a show of support.


16 May 2009‘History holds key to mutual understanding’ in The Irish Times (by Paul Gillespie).

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2008

9 October 2008.  Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky showing HE Donal Denham, ambassador of Ireland, and HE Simon Butt, ambassador of the UK, the remains of the forest fort (more details on the fort here) in the forest, where she and another hundred or so anti-Nazi partisans, almost all of them Jewish escapees from the Vilna Ghetto, lived from late September 1943 to early July 1944. An earlier plan for a group of Western ambassadors to visit more formally in the summer of 2008 was thwarted by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. The embassies of Ireland and the United Kingdom then decided to go forward with a private visit.

from left: HE Donal Denham, ambassador of Ireland; Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky; HE Simon Butt, ambassador of the United Kingdom

 

September 2008Excerpt from UK MP Denis MacShane’s Globalising Hatred. The New Antisemitism (see Recent Books → 2008 → MacShane).

‘The rise of nationalist antisemitic politics can be seen in Lithuania. Jews who escaped to join the anti-Nazi partisans in Lithuania in the Second World War are now being accused by Lithuanian antisemites of taking part in war crimes. 95% of Lithuania’s 200,000 Jews who lived in the country before the Russian occupation in 1939 and the Nazi invasion of 1941 were killed by Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators. Lithuanian Jews who survived the Holocaust are now in their eighties, but such is the antisemitism coming back to life in some quarters of nationalist politics in the Baltic state, that it has been possible to open investigations that put Jews on the same level as their executioners.’

— Denis Macshane, member of the UK parliament, in his Globalising Hatred. The New Antisemitism, p. 33.


27 August 2008. ACTION: British Ambassador HE Simon Butt organizes a walking tour of the Vilna Ghetto led by Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, attended by ambassadors / chargés d’affaires of fifteen NATO nations: Austria, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, USA.

25 August 2008ACTION: British Ambassador HE Simon Butt organizes a letter to Dr Rachel Margolis in Rechovotsigned by ambassadors or chargés d’affaires of Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA.

24 August 2008.  ACTION: Sir Martin Gilbert confirms his resignation from the ‘International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania’.

21 August 2008‘Prosecution and persecution: Lithuania must stop blaming the victims’ in the Economist [by Edward Lucas]; alternate link; 2nd alternate link.

17 July 2008‘Lithuania and the battle for memory’ on BBC Radio’s Crossing Continents(by Tim Whewell); alternate link. Accompanying article: ‘Reopening Lithuania’s old wounds’.

20 June 2008Guardian: ‘In the Jerusalem of the North, the Jewish story is forgotten’ by Jonathan Steele.

6 June 2008. ‘The Holocaust Survivors facing war crimes trials’ in The Jewish Chronicle (by Dana Gloger).


3 June 2008.  ACTION: While some Euro-politicians were busy declaring the Prague Declaration that day, Ireland’s ambassador to Lithuania, HE Dónal Denham hosted a reception in Vilnius to honour Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, less than a month after Lithuanian police came looking for her and Dr Rachel Margolis. More details here. The event concluded with the diplomatic community and invited guests joining Fania in singing the Jewish partisans’ Holocaust-era hymn Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg (‘Never say you are walking that last road’). The event was attended by ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Holy See, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States, among others.

An excerpt from Ambassador Denham’s speech:

‘Fania is one brave woman! You are a beautiful person, a special person, an inspiration to us all.’

HE Dónal Denham at the reception to honor Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky at the Irish Ambassador’s Residence in Vilnius, 3 June 2008

Report in Lithuania Today (May 2008):


31 January 2008. MP John Mann, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, rising in the House of Commons, critiques the January 2008 precursor of the ‘Prague Declaration’ [see entry for 2:30 PM, paragraph 4; see also paragraph 3].

‘On 22 January, in Tallinn, Estonia, five MEPs from five different countries met to launch a group called Common Europe—Common History. It has the same theme—the need for an equal evaluation of history. It is just a traditional form of prejudice, rewritten in a modern context. In essence, it is trying to equate communism and Judaism as one conspiracy and rewrite history from a nationalist point of view. Those are elected MEPs.’

John Mann (Bassetlaw), House of Commons, 31 Jan 2008, 2:30 PM (column 509 on www.parliament.uk)

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