Author Archives: Defending History

Day of Shame (May 19th) Can Still be Averted at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas

Posted on 11 May 2012 by Defending History

DefendingHistory.com sincerely hopes that professors, students, and local and international friends and admirers of Vytautas Magnus University, one of the finest in the Baltics, will make their voices heard respectfully asking for the cancellation of this misconceived event, which is causing so much pain to Holocaust survivors and the remnant Jewish community.

Program of the Memorial Conference at Vytautas Magnus University (Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas) in Kaunas

to honor the “prime minister” of the 1941 Nazi puppet “Provisional Government” that oversaw the onset of the Lithuanian Holocaust by the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) and the Nazi invaders. Indeed, his name appears atop the 30 June 1941 order for a concentration camp for Jews to be built, and the 7 July 1941 order for a ghetto to be set up to incarcerate the Jews of Kaunas.

Coverage to date includes DefendingHistory.com, Milan Chersonski, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Haaretz.  The original program in Lithuanian of the conference and related festivities in Vilnius and Kaunas is available here. It is also posted on the website of the Genocide Center. An English translation of the four day program is available here.

Memorial Conference: “The Academic, Educational, Resistance and Political Activity of Juozas Brazaitis”

Catholic Theology Faculty Hall, Vytautas Magnus University, Gimnazijos 7, Kaunas

Saturday 19 May 2012

 

11 AM:

Opening Ceremony:

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Double Games, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Day of Shame (May 19th) Can Still be Averted at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas

“Correcting the Past”

Posted on 8 May 2012 by Defending History

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.

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Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, History, Lithuania, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on “Correcting the Past”

ИСПРАВЛЯЮТ ПРОШЛОЕ

Posted on 7 May 2012 by Defending History

М Н Е Н И Е

Милан Херсонский

2-го мая 2012-го года СМИ Литвы сообщили: мэр Каунаса Андрюс Купчинскас, руководящий специально созданной рабочей группой, заявил, что прах бывшего в 1941-ом году председателем Временного правительства Литвы Юозаса Амбразявичюса-Бразайтиса (далее – Ю.Амбразявичюс), , будет доставлен в Литву из США, где в 1974-м году он был похоронен в штате Коннектикут.

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, In Russian, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on ИСПРАВЛЯЮТ ПРОШЛОЕ

Box Coverage to 5 May 2012: Quisling Litvaks?

Posted on 5 May 2012 by Defending History

It seems to some that the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry continues to seek naive Jewish acolytes to help cover for ongoing obfuscation: pursuit of the Double Genocide model of WWII history (e.g. the “Prague Declaration”), while deflecting attention from: whitewash of the murderous role of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF); projects to actually honor the killers; state-countenanced antisemitism.  “Fake Litvak”  initiatives include events and op-eds that omit the living Jewish Community of Lithuania, as well as the genuinely valiant members of the Lithuanian parliament who signed the Seventy Years Declaration and were rapidly trashed by the current foreign minister. . .

♦Embassy anoints vassal “King of  Sunflower Litvaks” (9 Nov 2011).

♦H. Felstein & A. Oleck in the Jerusalem Post (23 Nov 2011).  Replies: D. Katz (28 Nov 2011;  24 Apr 2012).

♦E. Cassedy in Haaretz (12 April 2012).

♦Sunflower Litvaks do the Windy City (15 April 2012).  Reply: DefendingHistory.com (15 April 2012).

♦H. Felstein in the Times of Israel (17 April 2012).

♦E. Cassedy in the Baltimore Sun (18 April 2012).  Reply: O. Zabludoff (23 April 2012).

DISCUSSION IN VILNEWS.COM  (AS HTM)

BUT THE EMBASSY NEVER REPLIED TO THE 2,156 PEOPLE (INCLUDING MANY HUNDREDS OF LITHUANIAN CITIZENS) WHO PETITIONED FOR THE CANCELLATION OF THE CAPITAL’S  NEO-NAZI MARCH ON THE NATION’S INDEPENDENCE DAY.  IT CONTINUES…  RECRUITING FOR THE RED-BROWN COMMISSION.

Posted in Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Box Coverage to 5 May 2012: Quisling Litvaks?

“Prime Minister” of Lithuania’s 1941 Nazi Puppet Government to be Glorified, Re-interred and Subject of a Commemorative Conference at Vytautas Magnus University

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Defending History

VILNIUS—In a move causing anguish and an aura of disbelief among Holocaust survivors and their families, and Lithuania’s small Jewish community, the remains of a major 1941 collaborator of Nazi rule will be re-interred this month with full honors during a series of events designed to honor him, and by extension, wider institutionalized local Nazi collaboration.

Lithuanian media, including BNS, Bernardinai.lt, Kauno diena and 15min.lt have reported that the remains of Juozas Brazaitis (Ambrazevičius), who died in the United States in 1974, will be re-interred from Putnam, Connecticut, to the Church of the Resurrection in Kaunas this month. En route, he will be honored in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, in a ceremony slated for 17 May. In a statement, Andrius Kupčinskas, the mayor of Kaunas, said: “Every head of state must be honored by the state.”

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on “Prime Minister” of Lithuania’s 1941 Nazi Puppet Government to be Glorified, Re-interred and Subject of a Commemorative Conference at Vytautas Magnus University

“Moderate Litvak” Status is Conferred by his Highness, the Norwegian Property Magnate cum Editor-in-Chief of Vilnius

Posted on 1 May 2012 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

 

Getty Images

Thought experiment: Imagine an African American in the city of Columbia, South Carolina, being called an extremist or fanatic for peacefully expressing the opinion that it is offensive for the Confederate flag to be hoisted on the grounds of the state capitol building. Imagine him or her being called extremist or fanatic for failing to be grateful that the flag was, after much protest, moved from atop the dome to the mere grounds of the capitol and its design slightly changed to conform to the Confederate Battle Flag (as a “concession”).

Imagine if a snow-white editor of a web journal singled out for David Duke style praise “Moderate African Americans” who just say “Thank you” when a pathetic morsel of PR is offered up by local authorities in the face of mounting international opprobrium.

There would be public outrage at the racism.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Dovid Katz, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Racism, South Africa, Vilna's Great Synagogue & its Courtyard (Shúlheyf), VilNews.com, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like? | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on “Moderate Litvak” Status is Conferred by his Highness, the Norwegian Property Magnate cum Editor-in-Chief of Vilnius

Rabinowitz-Dorf PR Campaign for Lithuanian Embassy and “Fake Litvaks” Backfires Bigtime

Posted on 30 April 2012 by Defending History

[Updated 3 May 2012] The following is a reprint, including comments up to today, of the 13 April 2012 VilNews.com article “First-time event in Chicago this Sunday, April 15, to address lingering issues affecting Lithuanian-Jewish relations.” This page, as posted today [3 May 2012], is also preserved in webpage format here.

Rabinowitz-Dorf: Did the PR firm sell out Lithuanian Jewry to help the current right-wing government “change” the history of the Holocaust with American Jewish cover, while enabling “Fake Litvaks” to  misrepresent themselves as representing the Jewish community in Lithuania?

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Posted in American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Lithuania, Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Media Watch, News & Views, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?, Use and Abuse of Sugihara, VilNews.com, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like? | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Rabinowitz-Dorf PR Campaign for Lithuanian Embassy and “Fake Litvaks” Backfires Bigtime

Neo-Nazi Youth Organization is Admitted into National “Lithuanian Council of Youth Organizations” (a recipient of European Union “Structural Funds”)

Posted on 30 April 2012 by Defending History

The Union of Lithuanian Nationalist Youth (ULNY), one of the organizers of the annual neo-Nazi march in the center of Vilnius on the nation’s independence day, has been made a member of  the Lithuanian Council of Youth Organizations, a body that is a recipient of European Union structural funds as well as Lithuanian government funding.

Media reports confirm that at the national conference last weekend, there were no votes against granting the ULNY full membership in the nationwide umbrella organization of accredited youth groups eligible for state funding. The vote was 19 in favor, zero against with seven abstentions.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, EU, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, News & Views | Tagged | Comments Off on Neo-Nazi Youth Organization is Admitted into National “Lithuanian Council of Youth Organizations” (a recipient of European Union “Structural Funds”)

The History of Three “Lithuanian Freedom Army” (LFA) Colonels Who Served the Nazis

Posted on 28 April 2012 by Defending History

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.

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Posted in Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas, Collaborators Glorified, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged | Comments Off on The History of Three “Lithuanian Freedom Army” (LFA) Colonels Who Served the Nazis

Thinking About Those Anniversaries of 2011. . .

Posted on 25 April 2012 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Milan Chersonski

On 21 September 2010, that year’s annual commemorative event was held in the forest of Ponár (Paneriai) at the monument to the seventy thousand Jews who were murdered there and whose remains were then burned at the site.  Shortly before the ceremony’s conclusion it was announced that the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) had decided to declare the year 2011 the “Year of Commemorating Lithuanian Residents who Became Victims of Holocaust.” The parliament’s move came as a complete surprise to the Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC). The country’s Jewish community had appealed neither to the president of Lithuania nor to the parliament with any such request.

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Use and Abuse of Sugihara | Comments Off on Thinking About Those Anniversaries of 2011. . .

Baltic “Double Genocide” Discourse Slips into Naive American Jewish Articles on Lithuania

Posted on 24 April 2012 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

Can history be bought up by even a small state’s nationalist government that has talked itself into the idea that revision of history and wide acceptance of that revision is somehow a national cause? It becomes a serious issue when that state is willing to invest heavily in the enterprise, at a time when the targeted influential foreigners are far from the issues at hand and easily manipulated.

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Posted in American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Lithuania, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dovid Katz, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Baltic “Double Genocide” Discourse Slips into Naive American Jewish Articles on Lithuania

MEP Donskis

Posted on 24 April 2012 by Defending History

When the news came out, he issued a bold statement within minutes
Then he wrote an essay that could outlive all the rest
Posted in Boxes | Comments Off on MEP Donskis

Baltics

Posted on 24 April 2012 by Defending History

Estonia: Valentine’s Day Law
Latvia: Waffen SS
Lithuania: Nazi ‘PM’ Honored. UN on swastikas.
Posted in Boxes | Comments Off on Baltics

Hungary

Posted on 24 April 2012 by Defending History

State honors collaborator:  Elie Wiesel & Knesset Speaker Rivlin react

Romania

Obfuscator is appointed minister

Posted in Boxes | Comments Off on Hungary

Lithuania Tries to Whitewash its Role in the Holocaust

Posted on 23 April 2012 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Olga Zabludoff

Note: The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Baltimore Sun.  It is republished here by permission of the author. [Update of 2 May 2012: The editor of VilNews, in a 29 April article, said of the letter’s author: “In this case, she goes too far.” This in turn elicited a response from the editor of DefendingHistory on 1 May.]

 

In response to Ellen Cassedy’s “We are here” (April 18), I offer a second opinion.

Can there be hope for a country that claimed the highest percentage of Jewish deaths in all of Europe? More than 95 percent of Lithuania’s Jews were annihilated — most of them murdered by Lithuanian collaborators who began the frenzied executions of their Jewish neighbors even before the Germans had marched into Lithuania. Yes, there can be hope — if lessons are learned from their past and if the truth is faced by this nation which is now an EU/NATO democracy.

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Posted in Lithuania, News & Views, Olga Zabludoff, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Lithuania Tries to Whitewash its Role in the Holocaust

РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ О ЮБИЛЕЯХ 2011-го ГОДА

Posted on 23 April 2012 by Defending History

М Н Е Н И Е

Милан Херсонский

 

21-го сентября 2010-го года, – в Паняряйском лесу, возле памятника 70-ти тысячам расстрелянных, а затем и сожженных евреев проходил ежегодный траурный митинг. Незадолго до его окончания было объявлено, что Сейм постановил провозгласить 2011-й год «Годом памяти жителей Литвы, ставших жертвами Холокоста». Постановление Сейма было полной неожиданностью для Еврейской общины Литвы (далее – ЕОЛ): ни к президенту Литвы, ни в Сейм, ни к правительству ЕОЛ с такой просьбой не обращалась.

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Posted in Double Games, In Russian, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Opinion | Tagged , , | Comments Off on РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ О ЮБИЛЕЯХ 2011-го ГОДА

News Box on Winter 2011-12 Antisemitic Outrages in Lithuania (to 21 April 2012)

Posted on 21 April 2012 by Defending History

Lithuanian Government, Human Rights Monitors, Antisemitism Envoys, Western Embassies Fail to React to Outrages

1: Neo-Nazi marches on national holidays in the city centers of Kaunas (16 February 2012) and Vilnius (11 March 2012). Both with state-issued permits and both addressed by members of parliament.

———

2: Front page of mass circulation newspaper on ‘The Jews’ being tax cheats with large image of a local rabbi (21 December 2011). REPORT HERE.

———

But the Simon Wiesenthal Center rapidly reacted to both. See here and here.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Events, Human Rights, News & Views | Comments Off on News Box on Winter 2011-12 Antisemitic Outrages in Lithuania (to 21 April 2012)

Lithuanian Government Calls for “Bigger Investments from Litvaks” as South Africa’s Glasenberg is Welcomed

Posted on 20 April 2012 by Defending History

Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore: Celebrated Litvak scion is feted by government operatives in Vilnius

According to a BNS news report released today (full text below), the Lithuanian prime minister’s advisor Mykolas Majauskas reported that discussions were held with Glencore’s CEO Ivan Glasenberg concerning plans to inspire more Litvaks to invest in the country. Mr. Majauskas also claimed that “some Litvaks are considering buying farms in Lithuania in order to take active part in communal activities.”

DefendingHistory.com takes the view that Litvak investment should progress in tandem with genuine progress on Lithuanian-Jewish issues, and not as long as the present “dual-track” (“double game”) policies continue to be applied. Ruses attempted have on occasion entailed usurpation of the Litvak identity by government agencies.

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Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, News & Views, South Africa, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like? | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Lithuanian Government Calls for “Bigger Investments from Litvaks” as South Africa’s Glasenberg is Welcomed

No Gesture at Ponár

Posted on 20 April 2012 by Defending History

 

Note: This news box was posted on page one until the end of 19 April 2012.

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Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Double Games, News & Views, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai) | Tagged | Comments Off on No Gesture at Ponár

Glorification of Local Holocaust Perpetrators in Lithuania

Posted on 18 April 2012 by Defending History

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:

STATE HONORS FOR THE 1941 NAZI PUPPET PRIME MINISTER

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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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, History, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, News & Views, State Glorification of Holocaust Collaborator J. Noreika, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged | Comments Off on Glorification of Local Holocaust Perpetrators in Lithuania