Editor’s note: This article has been translated for our readers at the suggestion of Professor Pinchos Fridberg, whose note to us (here translated from the original Yiddish) reads: “As a Holocaust survivor, I respectfully request that Defending History arrange for translation and publication of this article, in which the director-general of the Genocide Center in Vilnius is quoted as saying that ‘Not all people who contributed to the Holocaust should be considered murderers of Jews’.”
Collaborators Glorified
Translation of Lithuanian News Report on Recent Statements by Genocide Center’s Director
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
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A Russian Observer Replies to Recent Feast of an American Daily Beast
O P I N I O N
by Alex Nosovich (Kaliningrad)
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The governments of the Baltic countries, while cheerleading the introduction of new sanctions against the Russian Federation, are also doing something else that is going unnoticed. They are exploiting tensions between the West and Russia to settle scores with local dissidents, who advocate equal rights for national minorities and oppose glorification of Nazi collaborators. They are prevented from holding events, and impacted at the personal level, while their activities are marginalized so that they might become invisible in the eyes of the international community. This is done with help of American Neocons (neoconservatives), including the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), an organization established in 2009.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Latvia, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Alex Nosovich, Anti-Nazi Group Secretly Helping Kremlin, Daily Beast, Daily Beast + World Without Nazism, James Kirchick, Neocons (Neoconservatives) + antisemitism, Neoconservatives + Holocaust + Russia, World Without Nazism
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Defending History’s Eyewitness Report on Kaunas, February 16, 2015
Wiesenthal Center – Defending History Team of 12 Monitors & Protests Kaunas Independence Day Neo-Nazi March
UPDATE:
Lithuanian Jewish Community Issues Statement on Feb. 20th
MARCH FEATURED LONG SERIES OF FASCIST-STYLE TAUNTS OF LIETUVA LIETUVIAMS (“LITHUANIA FOR [ETHNIC] LITHUANIANS”) ALONG WITHSWASTIKAS, OTHER FASCIST SYMBOLS AND A HUGE BANNER OF THE 1941 NAZI PUPPET PM WHO COLLABORATEDIN THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS CITY’S CITIZENS WHO WERE JEWISH. MAYOR’S OFFICE GAVE PERMITS FOR CITY CENTER TRAVESTY ON NATION’S INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Events, Kaunas, Lithuania, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Swastikas in Lithuania
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Wiesenthal Center’s Efraim Zuroff Writes to Mayor of Kaunas on Neo-Nazi March
JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office here today released the text of a letter sent by director Dr. Efraim Zuroff to the mayor of Kaunas, Lithuania, Andrius Kupčinskas, concerning the neo-Nazi march scheduled for February 16th. See also Defending History’s correspondence with the mayor’s office and our background summary.
SEE EXTENDED COVERAGE ON PAGE 1
The text of the letter is as follows:
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February 12, 2015
Meras Andrius Kupčinskas
Laisves al. 96 201 kab.
Kaunas
LITHUANIA
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Dear Mayor Kupčinskas,
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, EU, Events, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Andrius Kupcinskas, Efraim Zuroff, February 16th in Kaunas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, mayor of Kaunas, neo-Nazis in Lithuania, Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel Office
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Correspondence with Kaunas Mayor’s Office to 11 February 2015
D O C U M E N T S
Below, (1) the text of DH’s letter to the mayor of Kaunas, (2) the response received today from his office, and (3) our further response, in connection with the annual neo-Nazi march planned for 16 February 2015 in central Kaunas. See also section on previous marches, and our 3 February 2014 correspondence with the Kaunas police. Note that a banner featuring a major Kaunas Holocaust collaborator, the Nazi puppet prime minister Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis (reburied with full honors as a hero in Kaunas, in 2012), is depicted in a 2014 photograph used by the march’s organizers to advertise the 2015 event.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Documents, EU, Events, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania
Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Holocaust in Lithuania, Kaunas neo-Nazi march 2015
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Kaunas Police Informs Defending History on Status of February 16th Neo-Nazi March
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.”
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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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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Peter Jukes Tweets on Documentary that Glorifies Alleged Nazi Collaborator
O P I N I O N
LONDON—British author Peter Jukes, best known for his screenplays, literary criticism and political journalism, tweeted last week on the release in the United States of a new documentary film that heroizes certain postwar anti-Soviet “forest brothers” in Lithuania. The film, “The Invisible Front,” that premiered in Greenwich Village’s prestigious Cinema Village theater on 7 November, fails to even mention the view that various of the specific figures it glorifies for their post 1944 activities were in fact alleged recycled Nazi collaborators of 1941. That was the year when, in the days following the Nazi invasion launched on 22 June, the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) started butchering local civilian Jews, often elderly rabbis or young women, before the first German forces had arrived. Premeditation becomes evident from perusal of the LAF’s prewar leaflets.
Posted in Arts, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on Juozas Lukša, Film, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Peter Jukes, Politics of Memory
Tagged Belarusian Humanities University, Cinema Village theater (NY), Darius Udrys, European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius, Forest Brothers Lithuania, Holocaust collaborators in Forest Brothers, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Öhman, Juozas Luksa, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), New York Times + Holocaust, Peter Jukes, The Invisible Front, Vincas Sruoginis
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UN Resolution Against Glorification of Nazism Opposed on 21 Nov. 2014 by Just Three Countries
D O C U M E N T S / G L O R I F I C A T I O N O F C O L L A B O R A T O R S
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The following is the official 21 Nov. 2014 United Nations voting sheet for the resolution (A/C.3/69/L.56/Rev.1) “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” The original is posted on the UN website. This copy has three added arrows for rapid identification of the three states that voted “No.”
Media coverage includes: Margaret Besheer in Voice of America; Joseph Brean in Canada’s National Post; Ken Hanly in Digital Journal; Dovid Katz in The Times of Israel; Ryan Maloney in Huffington Post; Jim Miles in CounterPunch; Boruch Shubert in JP Updates; Sam Sokol in the Jerusalem Post.
Glorification of Nazi collaborators (and local perpetrators) by states and their elites is a serious issue in various countries, including Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine.
Posted in Canada, Collaborators Glorified, Documents, History, Israel, News & Views, Ukraine, United Nations, United States
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Member of Lithuania’s Jewish Community Speaks Out on Neo-Nazi Parades, and Govt. Flowers at Monument to Hitler’s Soldiers
O P I N I O N
by Jacob Piliansky
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Iam proud to be a Litvak, and I am proud to be a citizen of independent and democratic Lithuania. I very much enjoy walking in our city’s delightful Vingis Park, as well as downtown in the beautiful city center area.
However, I feel suddenly both sad and shocked, when I see neo-Nazi parades with swastikas and other fascist symbols along Gedimino Boulevard on our independence day repeating the yelled chants of “Lithuania for [ethnic] Lithuanians.”
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Jacob Piliansky, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion, Symbology, Vilnius
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Bagel Shop (Lithuania), Beigelių krautuvėlė (Vilnius), Glorification of Nazi Collaborators, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jacob Piliansky, neo-Nazi marches, Vingis Park monument
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Latvian Musical that Sanitizes Holocaust Perpetrator Starts its Grand Tour
New Musical, “Sugar Herbert Sugar” Glorifies Herberts Cukurs
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REACTIONS & REPORTS:
From Jerusalem: EFRAIM ZUROFF IN I24; IN THE JERUSALEM POST; IN THE LONDON JEWISH CHRONICLE
From Riga: ALEKSANDRS FEIGMANIS IN DEFENDING HISTORY
From Liepaja: MIKE COLLIER REVIEWS PREMIERE IN LSM.LV
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
Tickets sold online for performances around the country. About the show. Signature tune released on YouTube (Would they have done better with the old Archies version of “Sugar Sugar” or Just “Springtime for Hitler”?)
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Arts, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Herberts Cukurs, Human Rights, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
Tagged Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Efraim Zuroff, Herberts Cukurs, Holocaust in Latvia, Springtime for Hitler
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Ukraine’s “Centrist” Leaders Honor Holocaust-Era Nazi Collaborators as “Heroes”
Ukrainian Parliament’s Debate on Glorifying World War II Hitlerist Nationalists Ends in Disarray
But “Centrist” President Poroshenko Proclaims Day of Fascist Group’s Founding as National Holiday
Mainstream Western Media Mostly Ignores the News (but see: Sunday Times)
In a September tweet, Ukraine’s president said UPA fighters were an “example of heroism.” It was a prelude to the scheduled Oct. 14th debate in parliament on declaring Hitler’s executioners in Ukraine to be “freedom fighters.” When violence broke out on the 14th outside the national parliament, the Western media, including the BBC, whitewashed the Hitler-era Holocaust perpetrators being glorified by Ukraine’s nationalist leaders.
Posted in Bandera, Collaborators Glorified, News & Views, Symbology, Ukraine
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Ukraine’s President Poroshenko Proclaims Day of Fascist Group’s Founding as National Holiday
UKRAINE | COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED
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Ukrainian Parliament’s Debate on Glorifying World War II Hitlerist Nationalists Ends in Disarray
But “Centrist” President Poroshenko Proclaims Day of Fascist Group’s Founding as National Holiday
Mainstream Western Media Mostly Ignores the News (but see: Sunday Times)
In a September tweet, Ukraine’s president said UPA fighters were an “example of heroism.” It was a prelude to the scheduled Oct. 14th debate in parliament on declaring Hitler’s executioners in Ukraine to be “freedom fighters.” When violence broke out on the 14th outside the national parliament, the Western media, including the BBC, whitewashed the Hitler-era Holocaust perpetrators being glorified by Ukraine’s nationalist leaders.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Ukraine
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What Riga Ghetto Survivors Recall about Herberts Cukurs, Now “Hero” of New Show in Latvia
O P I N I O N / H I S T O R Y
by Aleksandrs Feigmanis (Riga)
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Herberts Cukurs (1900-1965) had been an officer and a famous aviator during the years of the interwar Latvian Republic (1918-1940). After Nazi Germany’s 1941 occupation of Latvia, he became a significant figure in the infamous Arājs Kommando (or Sonderkommando Arajs), a notorious killing unit during the Latvian Holocaust. The Arājs group consisted of about 1,200 people, mostly local Latvians. It was established at the beginning of July 1941 within the German security services.
The Arājs Kommando carried out the killing of at least 30,000 Jews in numerous cities and towns in Latvia. The toll included the family of my grandfather in Vilani (in Yiddish Vilon), which occurred at dawn on August 4, 1941. The victims were his parents, and his sisters and their husbands and young children.
Posted in Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Antisemitism & Bias, Arts, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, EU, Herberts Cukurs, History, Latvia, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Balticgen.com, Balticgentour.com, Herberts Cukurs, Holocaust in Latvia
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Hungarian Government’s Holocaust Policies Meet Robust Responses in 2014
[last update]
The following links represent a selection only. Sincere gratitude to Professor Michael Shafir for his assistance in tracking relevant media.
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, History, Hungary, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Aleksandras Bosas (1951-2014)
O B I T U A R Y
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
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Aleksandras Bosas (1951 — 2014). Photo: Sandrauga.
Aleksandras Bosas, a respected Lithuanian poet, died unexpectedly on July 24, 2014. The wider Defending History community extends deepest condolences to the family and friends of our suddenly departed colleague, who is survived by his wife, Natalija, three sons and a daughter.
We have lost a courageously active literary voice against fascism and against the contemporary attempts at high levels to glorify fascism via posthumous honors for collaborators and local perpetrators of the Lithuanian Holocaust.
At the beginning of 2014 his book of poems dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust in Lithuania appeared. It is called Iš ten sugrįžtantiems (“For Those Who Returned from There”).
Posted in Aleksandras Bosas, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Legacy of 23 June 1941, News & Views, Obituaries, Opinion
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Is “Sugar Herbert Sugar” the Latvian Version of “Springtime for Hitler”?
New Latvian Musical, “Sugar Herbert Sugar” Glorifies Holocaust Mass Murderer Herberts Cukurs
Tickets now available online for performances around the country. About the show. Signature tune released on YouTube (Would they have done better with the old Archies version of “Sugar Sugar“?)
Are we back to Springtime for Hitler, just focused on celebrating a local mass murderer of Latvian Jewry? Will the hosting venues, including the City Cultural Centers in Jelgava and Valmiera, and prestigious halls in Riga, Liepāja, Rēzekne and Ventspils also be holding memorials for their citizens murdered in the Latvian Holocaust in which Herberts Cukurs, known as the “Hangman of Riga,” took such a personal and violent part?
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Arts, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, EU, Herberts Cukurs, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Double Genocide laws in Latvia, Herberts Cukurs, Holocaust in Latvia
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Latvian Court Downgrades Holocaust While High Society Readies for New “Springtime for Cukurs” Musical
Latvian Constitutional Court Upholds “Double Genocide” Restriction on Free Speech
Opinion that there was one genocide in the country (the Holocaust) remains criminalized by 2014 law, in the spirit of the laws passed in Hungary and Lithuania in 2010
Comment on Eastern EU speech laws by: Milan Chersonski, Leonidas Donskis, Dovid Katz, Efraim Zuroff; See also: FREE SPEECH Section
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At the Same Time: New Latvian Musical (“Sugar, Herbert, Sugar”) Glorifying Holocaust Mass Murderer Herberts Cukurs Rehearsing for October 11th Premiere.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Arts, Collaborators Glorified, Free Speech & Democracy, Herberts Cukurs, Human Rights, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Antisemitism in Latvia, Double Genocide laws in Latvia, Free speech in the Baltics, Herberts Cukurs, Holocaust in Latvia
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The Politics of History
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
Translated from the Lithuanian by Geoff Vasil. Final version approved by the author.
Much has been said about recent history policy in Lithuania. What this means, different speakers understand differently. It probably isn’t wise to dwell long on the concept. Let’s just say “history policy” is the interpretation of historical events provided by state institutions and officials.
SEE SECTION ON
FREE SPEECH
The truth is specific. I will give one example of how this appears in our and neighboring states and how that illuminates the history of our state.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, Latvia, Lithuania, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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Revisionism and Resurrection
B O O K S
by Peter Jukes
The following review of Laima Vince’s Journeys through the Backwaters of the Heart originally appeared in Aspen Review (Dec. 2013). The review is now republished here by permission of Peter Jukes, whose latest book is The Fall of the House of Murdoch.
Ms. Vince’s Journeys was also reviewed in Defending History by Geoff Vasil.
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While filming a re-enactment of a battle between Lithuanian nationalists and their Soviet- backed NKVD persecutors, Jonas Kadzionis (a survivor of the “Forest Brothers” partisans) warned the author Laima Vince: “Don’t get lost in the forest, and don’t lose your conscience.”
Unfortunately, in her book Journeys through the Backwaters of the Heart Vince has managed to do both.
Posted in Books, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on Juozas Lukša, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Peter Jukes, Politics of Memory
Tagged "Journeys Through the Backwaters of the Heart", Holocaust in Lithuania, Juozas Luksa, Laima Vince, Peter Jukes
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