Author Archives: Defending History

Six Countries Try to ‘Slip in’ Double Genocide in the ‘Stockholm Programme’; European Commission says ‘No’

Posted on 2 January 2011 by Defending History

Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry had announced on 14 December 2010 that it was the initiator of a new demand from six East European countries ― Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania  — to Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, that Double Genocide sentiments, and support for effective  criminalization of  the view that the Holocaust was a unique genocide, be incorporated in the new Stockholm Programme before the end of 2010. Less than a week earlier, Lithuania’s president took the same demand with her to a meeting in Brussels.

The Road from Prague to Stockholm (via Vilnius?)

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Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Hungary, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Latvia, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Six Countries Try to ‘Slip in’ Double Genocide in the ‘Stockholm Programme’; European Commission says ‘No’

An Orwellian Description of the Drive to Revise History in the Direction of Double Genocide

Posted on 1 January 2011 by Defending History

Extract (from original posting by François Guesnet, Corob Reader in Jewish History, University College London) from the description of the (foregone?) conclusions of the “No Simples Stories” conference on 6-10 February 2011:

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Posted in Documents, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, UCL Manipulated?, United Kingdom | Comments Off on An Orwellian Description of the Drive to Revise History in the Direction of Double Genocide

Estonia’s Absence on last Red-Brown Letter Explained by ‘Blizzard’

Posted on 23 December 2010 by Defending History

The foreign minister of Lithuania explained to reporters today the absence of Estonia’s name on the 14 December letter to Viviane Reding of the European Commission, asking for Double Genocide language and sentiment to be inserted into the Stockholm Programme, a move since rejected by the Commission. This journal was among those speculating on a possible change in Estonia’s  policy.

But today, the Lithuanian foreign minister, Audronius Ažubalis, explained to reporters that his Estonian counterpart ‘only arrived, because of the blizzard, after the other signatures had been signed, and wished to correct the text. But we didn’t have an opportunity’.

It remains for Estonia to clarify matters.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Estonia, EU, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Estonia’s Absence on last Red-Brown Letter Explained by ‘Blizzard’

Polish Embassy Releases English Text of Ambassador’s Letter

Posted on 20 December 2010 by Defending History

The Polish Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, today released to DefendingHistory.com the authorized English text of the letter which Ambassador Janusz Skolimowski had published in Veidas, on 26 November 2010, in relation to the Stankeras Affair and Holocaust Denial more generally; it was issued one day after the letter from seven European ambassadors to Lithuania’s leaders.

The English text of Ambassador Skolimowski’s letter is posted here.

It is hoped that release of the Polish ambassador’s letter will make it easier for release to be authorized of the seven other ambassadors’ letter, of 25 November, 2010, as recently proposed in the Commons by MP Denis MacShane.

Posted in EU, News & Views, Poland | Comments Off on Polish Embassy Releases English Text of Ambassador’s Letter

Speculation on Estonia’s Position

Posted on 19 December 2010 by Defending History

This journal notes with satisfaction that the government of Estonia did not sign the 14 December 2010 letter from six East European ambassadors in support of inserting ‘Double Genocide’ language into EU’s new Stockholm Programme. The six are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

For opponents of the new Far Right’s revisionist history of World War II, it was also a welcome surprise that Estonia’s ambassador to Lithuania did sign the 25 Nov 2010 letter from seven European ambassadors protesting antisemitism in Lithuania and ‘spurious efforts’ to equalize Nazi and Soviet crimes. British parliamentarian Denis MacShane has asked for that letter to made public.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Estonia, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Speculation on Estonia’s Position

‘Prague Declaration’ Supporters Inserting ‘Double Genocide’ in the EU’s ‘Stockholm Programme’

Posted on 18 December 2010 by Defending History

According to a December 14th posting on the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s website, (reported also on Isria.com and elsewhere), Lithuania’s foreign minister is taking the lead in the latest initiative to insert ‘Double Genocide’ into European Union law and policy, which on this occasion  includes his colleagues from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, and Romania. Other media reports here.

It becomes ever more difficult for observers of East European minority rights and Holocaust history issues to keep up, as the Holocaust Obfuscation undertones of the Prague Declaration are gradually infiltrated into the Stockholm Programme. In both cases, observers discern New Accession EU governments’ efforts to insinuate one or another incarnation of ‘Double Genocide’ (in Eurospeak: ‘equal evaluation of totalitarian regimes’) into general European Union consciousness.

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Posted in EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Hungary, Latvia, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on ‘Prague Declaration’ Supporters Inserting ‘Double Genocide’ in the EU’s ‘Stockholm Programme’

Does the Road from Prague to Stockholm Go Through Vilnius?

Posted on 16 December 2010 by Defending History

Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry announced on 14 December 2010 that it was the initiator of a new demand from six East European countries ― Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania  — to Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, that Double Genocide sentiments, and support for effective  criminalization of  the view that the Holocaust was a unique genocide, be incorporated in the new Stockholm Programme before the end of 2010. Less than a week earlier, Lithuania’s president took the same demand with her to a meeting in Brussels.

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Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, The Czech Republic | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Does the Road from Prague to Stockholm Go Through Vilnius?

Interview from the Pits of Paneriai, or, We Are Weighing Death

Posted on 16 December 2010 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Sergejus Kanovičius

Very recently I looked at the Delfi.lt webpage and could barely hold back the tears watching one of the episodes of Mission Siberia (http://tv.delfi.lt/video/ST5zL0DJ) which aired this year, an interview with Lithuanians who have lived [in Siberia] eight decades now, unable to speak Lithuanian and explaining why they who have lived their entire lives in Siberia see no sense nor opportunity to return to Lithuania…I was saddened because of the tragedy of their lives, but at the same time I was glad that they are alive and healthy.

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Only in Eastern Europe: Convicted Nazi War Criminal, 96, is the Plaintiff

Posted on 16 December 2010 by Defending History

Judge Viktor Vadasz dismissed the case against the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel Office director, Dr Efraim Zuroff, some ten minutes after its 8:30 AM start at the District Court of Pest at 25 Marko utca.  Defending History.com was in court (with ATV and Hetek).

The Faith Church of Hungary, led by Pastor Sándor Németh, a major figure in the battle against antisemitism and Holocaust revisionism in the region, supported Dr Zuroff steadfastly throughout the saga. The hearing was also attended by representatives of the Novi Sad Municipal Assembly along with the former president of the Novi Sad Jewish community, Dr Ana Frenkel, who represented the community at the hearing. Novi Sad, Serbia, is the site of the murder of many of the victims of the alleged Nazi war criminal who brought this case.

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Posted in Events, Hungary, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Only in Eastern Europe: Convicted Nazi War Criminal, 96, is the Plaintiff

MP Denis MacShane Calls for Release of 7 Ambassadors’ Letter on Antisemitism and the ‘Double Genocide’ movement in Lithuania

Posted on 13 December 2010 by Defending History

The following exchange between human rights advocate MP Denis MacShane and the government’s Minister for Europe, David Lidington, was reported today in the House of Commons:

Mr MacShane:To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish the letter of 25 November 2010 sent by the UK and other ambassadors in Lithuania concerning the growing manifestations of anti-Semitism in Lithuania. [29665]

Mr Lidington:It has not been the practice of successive Governments to publish letters sent by diplomats in a confidential capacity. It is important for the effective conduct of international relations for diplomacy to be able to take place on a confidential basis where necessary.

The letter referred to was reported in this journal on 25 November 2010.

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Posted in Ambassador Simon Butt, Denis MacShane, Estonia, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom | Comments Off on MP Denis MacShane Calls for Release of 7 Ambassadors’ Letter on Antisemitism and the ‘Double Genocide’ movement in Lithuania

On 1941, the Jews, and Us

Posted on 13 December 2010 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Nida Vasiliauskaitė

I read Kęstutis Girnius’s and Leonidas Donskis’s essays on this more than once and can’t get rid of some strange impressions. Even if I pretended that I knew nothing about the Provisional Government, the LAF and that historical period in general, and my only source of information were these two texts addressed to each other, they would suffice to start to make clear some things not just about the past, but also about its intimate connection with the present. How this is being talked about here and now is not less important than that (and the things connected with that) which actually happened. 

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Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, History, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Leonidas Donskis, Lithuania, Nida Vasiliauskaitė, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on On 1941, the Jews, and Us

Where is that Line?

Posted on 11 December 2010 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Leonidas Donskis

An unattributed piece that just appeared in the weekly magazine Veidas (it turned out the author does actually exist and even works at the Lithuanian Interior Ministry), intended to discuss the Nuremberg trial, and has become a new delimiter in our political life and public space. For the first time since the restoration of independence in 1990, the Holocaust has been publicly and openly denied in Lithuania (see here).

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Posted in Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Leonidas Donskis, Opinion | Comments Off on Where is that Line?

Jewish and Holocaust Polemics Flare up in Vilnius

Posted on 10 December 2010 by Defending History

There has been a two-pronged assault today in the mainstream mass media in Lithuania on the tiny but vibrant Jewish Community of Lithuania. The community has been busy in recent days with concluding Chanukah festivities and moving on one day later to a photography contest for young people. The judges include some of the top Lithuanian art photographers, and the event, popular on Facebook, features Jewish and Lithuanian photography lovers enjoying themselves together in harmony.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, News & Views, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off on Jewish and Holocaust Polemics Flare up in Vilnius

Lithuanian Jewish Community Counters Disinformation Campaign

Posted on 10 December 2010 by Defending History

The Jewish Community of Lithuania today issued a statement, a full translation of which follows: 

On November 15, 2010, the Russian Federation news website Komsomolskaya Pravda posted an article by Nijole Stablingyste called ‘Lithuanian history textbooks: distorted facts and animosity towards Russia’ which contains the inaccurate information that the book The Power of Historical Truth [Istorijos tiesos jėga] was launched at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The same information was repeated on November 17 on the webpage Zepelinus under the title ‘Why is a Breakthrough on the Stereotype of the Lithuanian Judeo-Bolshevik Being Insinuated?’

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Lithuanian Parliament and Genocide Research Center planning 2011 Film to Sanitize (and Glorify?) the ‘Rebels’ of 1941

Posted on 10 December 2010 by Defending History

Some highly respected international scholars have been persuaded to participate in a film which some leaders of Holocaust Survivor organizations around the world fear will be a cover-up for the main ‘accomplishment’ of the LAF (Lithuanian Activist Front) and related fascist groups, and their local supporters. These groups, often identified by white armbands and known as white armbanders, had started to carry out murder, molestation and pillage of Jewish neighbors in dozens of locations even before the arrival of German Nazi forces in late June 1941. Many of the same killers went on to serve voluntarily as shooters in the annihilation of most of Lithuanian Jewry in the second half of 1941.

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Posted in Arts, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Film, Legacy of 23 June 1941, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Lithuanian Parliament and Genocide Research Center planning 2011 Film to Sanitize (and Glorify?) the ‘Rebels’ of 1941

Uncanny Darkness: Impressions of a Public Debate in Vilnius

Posted on 9 December 2010 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Algirdas Davidavičius

Algirdas Davidavičius, author of the text formerly published here [an essay and memoir on the December 8th 2010 Holocaust discussion held at the Misterija cafe on Totoriu Street in Vilnius, previously announced on Facebook and elsewhere as a public event] hereby apologizes to Mr Arūnas Brazauskas for inaccurately representing his  opinion, and, under legal threat, has [on 16 December 2010] removed the text from DefendingHistory.com.

The author of the removed text also hopes to take and publish in the foreseeable future an interview with Mr Brazauskas on a number of questions mentioned in the formerly published text, and urges Mr Brazauskas to express his opinions more clearly and unequivocally.

  • Algirdas Davidavičius
  • Vilnius
  • 16 December 2010

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Posted in Algis Davidavičius, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Events, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Opinion | Comments Off on Uncanny Darkness: Impressions of a Public Debate in Vilnius

Pro-Fascists Stage Demo for Stankeras of Vilnius — in Budapest

Posted on 6 December 2010 by Defending History

by Mihály Kálmán (Budapest)

Special to DefendingHistory.com

A demonstration was mounted Saturday, 4 December 2010 in Budapest, in support of Petras Stankeras, the recently resigned ‘specialist’ at Lithuania’s Interior Ministry who called the Holocaust ‘a legend’ and the Nuremberg Trials ‘a farce’ (details here). Protesters gathered in front of the Lithuanian Embassy in Budapest.

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US Embassy’s ‘Secret’ Holocaust Conference is ‘Fiasco’

Posted on 6 December 2010 by Defending History

The Survivor community and its supporters, Holocaust studies and commemoration circles, and numerous members of the Lithuanian Jewish community felt betrayed by the largely secret Holocaust education conference organized by the US embassy in Vilnius from 29 November to 3 December 2010, in close cooperation with local state-sponsored ‘Double Genocide’ proponents. The event included excellent individual scholars and educators, both from Lithuania and abroad, alongside notoriously obfuscationist local institutions, including the ‘Red-Brown Commission’ and the Genocide Research Center.

The American embassy’s conference in Vilnius was the subject of comment in  The Tablet (US), and in the London Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff and Dovid Katz).

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Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Lithuania, News & Views, United States, US State Dept Manipulated? | Comments Off on US Embassy’s ‘Secret’ Holocaust Conference is ‘Fiasco’

Prime Minister’s Advisor Demands a Correction — From One Fine Word to Another…

Posted on 29 November 2010 by Defending History

 

Letter from Arkadijus Vinokuras

Vilnius, 29 November 2010

Dear Editor,

I do appreciate your apology.  As you have said, notwithstanding differences of opinion, the facts cannot and must not be twisted deliberately nor by mistake. I see no possibility but to suspect that translators of my text deliberately twisted my words, by improper translation changing the meaning of some passages. This is not acceptable.

It is also not  correct  to present my person (as it is in the translation)  as a government official. It is wrong. I am the public advisor  to the Prime Minister of Lithuania on the issue of Compensation of Religious  Jewish Property. A public advisor is not on the payroll of the state. The public consultant’s responsibility first of all is to defend the public interest.

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Ambassadors of Britain, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden protest Antisemitism in Lithuania; Red-Equals-Brown Movement is Noted

Posted on 25 November 2010 by Defending History

BNS reported today that the Vilnius-based ambassadors of Britain, Estonia, France, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have written in no uncertain terms to the president and other major officials of Lithuania to express concern over the growing manifestations of antisemitism.

Two of the signatories confirmed privately to Defending History that the initiative had come from British ambassador HE Simon Butt, who also drafted the letter. Ambassador Butt had in 2008 organized a letter in moral support of Dr. Rachel Margolis, a walk through the Vilna Ghetto with Ms. Fania Brantsovsky, and had, together with other senior Western diplomats stationed in Vilnius, visited the decaying Jewish partisan fort in the forest.

“Spurious attempts are made to equate the uniquely evil genocide of the Jews with Soviet crimes against Lithuania, which, though great in magnitude, cannot be regarded as equivalent in either their intention or result.”

Excerpt from a letter to the president of Lithuania from the ambassadors of Britain, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, 25 November 2010

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Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Ambassador Simon Butt, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Estonia, EU, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (Fania Brancovskaja): 1922-2024, France, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., News & Views, Norway, Poland, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania, Sweden, Symbology, United Kingdom, United States | Comments Off on Ambassadors of Britain, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden protest Antisemitism in Lithuania; Red-Equals-Brown Movement is Noted