KAUNAS—As in previous years (for example, 2013), the Kaunas District Police Department today informed Defending History that it has issued no permits for a march on February 16th, referring us instead to the body that would have issued the permit — the Kaunas City Municipality, which has not (yet) responded to our queries. The letter received (image below) states “We inform you that Kaunas County Police have not issued a permit for organizing a march / rally” on 16 February 2015, and suggests “you refer to Kaunas City Municipality.”
Author Archives: Defending History
Kaunas Police Informs Defending History on Status of February 16th Neo-Nazi March
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Documents, EU, Human Rights, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Swastikas in Lithuania
Tagged Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Kaunas Police, Neo-Nazi marches in Kaunas
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The Bubnys Event at the 2015 Jewish Community Auschwitz Commemoration
E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T / O P I N I O N
by Julius Norwilla
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This year much of the world commemorates the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. The day of its liberation, January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. To mark the day this year, on the 26th of January, the Jewish Community of Lithuania organized three events, as reported in Defending History.
The final event of the day was the book launch for The Šiauliai Ghetto featuring as sole announced speaker its author, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys, director of the Genocide and Resistance Research Department of the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania; for a critical view of the Genocide Center, as it is known for short, see Defending History’s page and news section on the institution.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Books, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Events, Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Faina Kukliansky, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocauast in Lithuania, Jevgenija Sedova, Jewish Community of Lithuania, Jewish museum (Vilnius), Julius Norwilla, Siauliai (Shavl) Ghetto
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Jewish Community’s Formal Reply to Dr. Efraim Zuroff
The following statement appeared today on the website of the Jewish Community of Lithuania:
STATEMENT BY THE JEWISH (LITVAK) COMMUNITY
It is not surprising that experienced journalists and politicians as well as leaders of well-known Jewish institutions, who are following Ms. Kukliansky’s activities devoted to expose Nazi criminals as well as to fight Neo-Nazism, were left in a complete state of confusion after reading Mr. Zuroff’s so called protest.
Posted in Events, Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky
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Poetry Section Launched
VILNIUS—Defending History today announced its launch of a modest poetry section which will aim to harness the inspire the work of East European poets whose work includes verse in defense of history and human rights and exposing racism and antisemitism.
The section starts with the work of two poets in Lithuania: Ken Slade’s My Dream of When the Witch is Found; and Nine Poems by the late Aleksandras Bosas (1951-2014), a posthumous awardee of Defending History’s inaugural series of Prophet Amos Awards for Human Rights for 2014-2015.
Posted in Aleksandras Bosas, Arts, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Lithuania, News & Views, Poetry
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Wiesenthal Center Blasts Vilnius Genocide Center’s Involvement in Jewish Community’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement expressing dismay that Vilnius’s state-sponsored Genocide Center (full name: Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania) was included in the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s annual program marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. The third of three events was dedicated entirely to a book produced by the Center. The only announced speaker for the event, the book’s author, is known for rejecting known elements of the historic narrative of the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, for his support for monuments for pro-Hitler forces, and for participation in far-right pro-fascist journals.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Lithuania, Shimon Alperovich, Simon Wiesenthal Center + Lithuania
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Three Holocaust Remembrance Day Events in Vilnius on 26 January 2015
O P I N I O N
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For some reason held on 26 January, a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, three events were announced together in a flyer posted by the Jewish Community of Lithuania and disseminated by other interested organizations in Vilnius.
Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Evgenia Sedova, Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Liberation of Auschwitz commemorated, Shavl (Siauliai) Ghetto
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No Cover-Up at Auschwitz!
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
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The following text is the original draft, submitted on 20 January 2015 at the invitation of the London Jewish Chronicle. An edited version (processed with all courtesies to the author) appeared in the JC on 22 January. This version is posted here simply to emphasize the author’s belief that ceremonies at Auschwitz that do not address the current massive campaign by eastern EU states to downgrade and obfuscate the Holocaust are unwittingly part of a cover-up of the very unique historical phenomena they are meant to accurately preservce and pass on. The related issue of whether Russia’s leaders will be invited to the ceremonies has been analyzed in recent pieces by Efraim Zuroff and Pinchos Fridberg.
No Cover-Up at Auschwitz!
The heralded 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz approaches, amidst a grand oblivion to what is happening before our very eyes to the actual history of the Holocaust. If we fail to speak out about the irksome issues too, the pomp and circumstance ipso facto morph into an unsavoury cover-up.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, 70 Years Declaration, Dovid Katz, EU, Events, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Auschwitz commemorations, Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, Holocaustw Remembrance Day, Prague Declaration, Seventy Years Declaration
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Wiesenthal Center Slams Latvian Veto of Holocaust Exhibition at UNESCO
JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized steps taken by the Latvian delegation to UNESCO which effectively cancelled an exhibition about the Holocaust in Latvia scheduled to open this coming Sunday at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
SEE ALSO JTA REPORT
In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the action by the Latvians “an outrageous and ultimately futile attempt to hide the extensive Latvian collaboration with the Nazis in perpetrating Holocaust crimes” and urged UNESCO officials to consider steps to enable the exhibition, titled “Stolen Childhood: Holocaust Victims Seen by Child Inmates of the Salaspils Nazi Concentration Camp,” to be shown to the public.
According to Zuroff:
“This step by the Latvians is part of a systematic effort by the Baltic countries to hide the truth about the extensive collaboration with the Nazis of Balts in the implementation of the Final Solution in their native countries, as well as in Poland and Belarus. Instead of complaining that the exhibition risked damaging her country’s reputation, Latvia’s chief delegate to UNESCO should have welcomed an effort to expose the wartime collaboration of so many Latvians as part of an honest confrontation with her country’s bloody Holocaust past.”
For more information: 972-50-721-4156
www.operationlastchance.org or www.wiesenthal.com
Posted in Efraim Zuroff, EU, Events, France, Free Speech & Democracy, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust in Latvia, Holocaust Obfuscation in the Baltics, Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel Office, UNESCO + Holocaust Denial
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Can Latvia Veto a Holocaust Exhibition in Paris?
Freedom of Expression in France & at UNESCO:
JTA: Latvia Vetoes UNESCO Holocaust Exhibit in Paris
Simon Wiesenthal Center critiques the Latvian Government’s sabotage of exhibition that was supposed to open this week in the French capital
Posted in France, Free Speech & Democracy, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Lithuanian Parliamentarian Threatens Violence against LGBT Rights Leader, Accuses Him of “Speaking with an Accent”
H U M A N R I G H T S / L G B T R I G H T S
by Lithuanian LGBT Rights Organization / LGL
Reposted from the LGL site with permission
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On January 18th, 2015, a member of the Lithuanian Parliament (the Seimas), Algirdas Vaclovas Patackas publicly warned the Board Chair of the national LGBT human rights association LGL that the organization is “playing with fire” and that its activities might result in a “black, repulsive and totally unacceptable response” similar to what “happened in Paris.” The statement by the MP was issued as a response to the organization’s humorous suggestion to store 10-litas notes as LGBT souvenirs in the wake of the switchover to the euro on 1 January 2015.
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged human rights in Lithuania, LGBT rights in Lithuania, Vladimir Simonenko
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The Two Full Stahlecker Reports: Holocaust Atrocities in the Baltics
D O C U M E N T S
by Rafael Katz
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The Stahlecker Reports offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of what was the onset the Final Solution: the Baltic invasion within Operation Barbarossa. Naturally, Most wartime documents deal with the effect and aftermath of the war. In the sea of war documents, the Stahlecker Reports are pivotal, in that in that they shed some light on the backdrop and the motives behind the war’s operations.
Posted in Documents, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Rafael Katz, Raphael Katz
Tagged Einsatzgruppen, Franz Walter Stahlecker, Holocaust in Lithuania, Rafael Katz, Reinhard Heydrich, Stahlecker Reports (full text)
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Some Family Relics of Jewish Vilna
M E M O I R S
by Pinchos Fridberg
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Coming across the Jewish Life in Poland section of Yivo’s website, I decided to write this short memoir. This photograph shows the teachers and graduates of the Vilner Yiddish Real-Gymnasium (Vílner yídishe reál-gimnázye) in 1930. The school’s principal was Leyb Turbowich, and the literature teacher (until his migration to Minsk in 1928) was the great Jewish poet Moyshe Kulbak, the author of a well-known Yiddish poem Vílne, among many others.
Posted in History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Memoirs, News & Views, Pinchos Fridberg
Tagged Jewish Vilnius, Jewish Vina, Pinchos Fridberg
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Two “C Words” for Holocaust Museums: Center of Town, and — Collaboration
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
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Christmas-time congratulations are due to the four architects who have won the Vilnius state Jewish museum’s competition for plans to build a Holocaust museum at the mass murder site known as Ponár in Yiddish, Ponary before the war in Polish, and currently Lithuanian Paneriai. It is a short ride outside the capital city Vilnius. The victory of the foursome, Jautra Bernotaitė, Ronaldas Pučka (team leader), Andrius Ropolas and Paulius Vaitiekūnas, is announced on the museum’s website (and on Mr. Ropolas’s site). The competition was jointly run with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. The elaborate description of the project’s conception, by the Union of Architects, includes many sophisticated concepts, with multiple learned citations, from Freud to Foucault. Just one rather simpler word, a word (and exhibit) needed for any Holocaust museum, is missing from the text: collaboration.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai)
Tagged Andrius Ropolas, Holocaust memorials, Holocaust museums, Jautra Bernotaitė, Jewish State Museum of Lithuania, Kazimierz Sakowicz, new museum at Ponar, Paneriai, Paulius Vaitiekūnas, Ponar, Ponary), Rachel Margolis, Ronaldas Pučka
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Vilneans of All Backgrounds Invited to Chanukah Celebration at Choral Synagogue
Vilnians of all backgrounds warmly invited Tuesday, 23 December 6PM sharp (1800) for a celebration of Hanukah at historic Choral Synagogue at Pylimo Street 39
Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs
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Letter from the Director of SLS of 13 May 2011
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Documents, News & Views, Opinion, The Great SLS About-Face, US State Dept Manipulated?, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?
Tagged Mikhail Iossel, SLS Lithuania, Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) Vilnius
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Austrian Volunteer Reflects on Year in Lithuania, Calls for City-Center Holocaust Museum in the Capital
O P I N I O N
by Sebastian Hager
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Iwas proud to serve as Austria’s remembrance volunteer (Gedenkdiener) in 2013-2014. Based in Vilnius in the Green House, the country’s only serious Holocaust exhibit, I was able to travel extensively and meet Lithuanian citizens from a wide variety of backgrounds. Despite all the hype, the Jewish heritage is not really in the best of shape. There is a lot of ignorance combined with an ethnocentric nationalist worldview.
Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai)
Tagged Green House (Vilnius), Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust museum in Vilnius, Sebastian Hager
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A Visit to Ukraine, Where the Holocaust Becomes a Negligible Detail
O P I N I O N / T R A V E L L O G
by Frank Brendle (Berlin)
Editor’s note: The author travelled through Ukraine in autumn 2014 with a team from the Berlin-based Educational Center for Peace Research and Pinima productions. A German version of this report appeared in www.bildungswerk-friedensarbeit.org. This English version has been approved by the author. The photographs were supplied by Frank Brendle and Pinima productions, Berlin. Any re-use should credit each photo appropriately. For background on the Ukrainian Holocaust see a recent US Holocaust museum (USHMM) report, and the Defending History work by Grzegorz Rosslinski-Liebe and Per Anders Rudling; also our Ukraine section and page on 2014 international media.
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It’s a late summer night in Lviv and we have our first encounter with Ukrainian civil society: A demonstration of bicyclists. The words “critical mass” are written on their banners, and they are fighting for more space on the roads. Just like in Germany. But something else is different than in Germany: The leader of the demonstration is shouting “Slava Ukraini!” and the crowd shouts back: “Heroiam Slava” (Glory to Ukraine – Glory to the Heroes). Then comes the next organized chant and reply-to-the-chant: “Glory to the Nation – Death to the Enemies.” fun-in-participation factor is multiplied as passers-by shout the chant, eliciting the expected reply from the marchers.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Frank Brendle, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Ukraine
Tagged Banderism in Ukraine, far right in Ukraine, Frank Brendle, Holocaust in Ukraine, Maidan Holocaust revionism, Neo-fascism in Ukraine
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The Holocaust Memoir That Doesn’t Fade Out at the Moment of Liberation
B O O K S
by Ira Gold
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Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kilot and Helen Mitsios. Urim Publications: Jerusalem 2011, 288 pp. Amazon.com. Kindle.
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In Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kliot and Helen Mitsios, the authors write a dual memoir of survival and healing. The mother, Rasia, was born into upper class comfort in Vilna (today Vilnius, Lithuania). Her daughter, Helen Mitsios, was born in Montreal, Canada. The dual structure – the first half is titled “Rasia’s Story” and the second half is labeled “Helen’s Story” – works very well.
Posted in Books, Ira Gold, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged "Waltzing with the Enemy", books on the Holocaust, Helen Mitsios, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust memoirs, Ira Gold (Touro College), Rasia Kilot
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Vilnius: All Welcome at Public Menorah
Vilnians of all backgrounds warmly invited this Tuesday, 16 December 6PM sharp (1800) for the public lighting in central Vilnius of the first candle of the Hanukah menorah
Posted in Chabad in Vilnius, Events, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
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