VILNIUS—The website of the Jewish Community of Lithuania today posted a powerful response by chairperson Faina Kukliansky to the statement released earlier in the week by the national state-funded “Genocide Center.” That statement attempted to whitewash the infamous Holocaust perpetrator and Nazi collaborator Jonas Noreika, and itself came as a response to a petition and series of articles last summer calling for removal of one of the public shrines to Noreika in the center of this city, the nation’s capital.
Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial
Faina Kukliansky, Chair of Lithuanian Jewish Community, Issues Sharp Response to Latest Genocide Center Whitewash of a Local Holocaust Perpetrator
Wiesenthal Center “Shocked at Whitewash of Lithuanian Holocaust Perpetrator”
JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the website of the Lithuanian Jewish Community for what it termed a “brazen whitewash of the Holocaust crimes of one of the perpetrators of the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry.”
REPORT IN THE JERUSALEM POST
Double Genocide Discourse Now Standard for the New York Times?
O P I N I O N / M E D I A W A T C H
VILNIUS—Naturally the New York Times cannot publish or even post very many of the Letters to the Editor that it receives. But when a dozen or so reactions from different parts of the world to a single article are all discarded, it is perhaps worth someone posting a submitted letter elsewhere for the record. This is especially true where there is a larger concern. In this case, it is the paper’s imposition, in recent years, of a wall of silence about the Holocaust Obfuscation, World War II revisionism and far-right historiography peddled by East European countries. These are, as it happens, the same countries who are in today’s geopolitics America’s and the West’s most reliable European allies in the New Cold War against the authoritarian, revanchist Putin regime.
The Times’ policy has sometimes extended to misrepresenting the East European far right’s history revisionism as accepted fact by publishing multiple op-eds from only one side of the argument. When the Times did (obliquely) cover the Seventy Years Declaration in early 2012, its reporter, tightly controlled by the State Department, would not mention the declaration by name, would not meet any of the government’s critics to hear their views, confused the two declarations in contest, and quoted a famous Brandeis professor without mentioning he was in town to receive a medal from the Lithuanian president for helping the state’s PR.
Evaldas Balčiūnas at Vilnius County Court Next Monday 15 June 2015
VILNIUS THIS MONDAY:
FRIENDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, FREE SPEECH AND DEFENDING HISTORY INVITED TO COME OBSERVE / SUPPORT OUR WRITER
Evaldas Balčiūnas
Lithuania’s President and Entourage Lay Wreaths at Ponár on May 8th…
VIDEO
Dovid Katz in Times of Israel (11 May)
Efraim Zuroff in i24 (12 May)
“Equally” at Monuments for Jewish, Lithuanian and Polish Victims, but Skipping the Stone Commemorating the 7,514 Red Army Prisoners of Various Nationalities Starved and Murdered at the Site.
Double Genocide in Action? Victims and Perpetrators Interchangeable
O P I N I O N
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VILNIUS—Ronaldas Račinskas, executive director of the Lithuanian-government financed “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania,” widely known for brevity as the “Red-Brown Commission,” has revealed — on camera, to the producers of the documentary film Liza Ruft — his thoughts about the “war crimes investigation” into Fania Brantsovsky. The video clip of his statement was released today on Youtube.
Tomas Venclova’s Lecture at Vilnius Conference on 17 April 2015
O P I N I O N
by Tomas Venclova
The following text is the authorized English translation of Professor Venclova’s address at a conference on Holocaust issues, organized by Rūta Vanagaitė, held at Vilnius City Hall on 17 April 2015. The original Lithuanian text. Video of Tomas Venclova speaking. Conference program. Conference’s final press release.
Dovid Katz’s Lecture at Vilnius Conference on 17 April 2015
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
The following is the written version of Dovid Katz’s presentation at the International Conference on Holocaust Education organized by Rūta Vanagaitė as part of a Europe for Citizens project, held at Vilnius City Hall on 17 April 2015. Conference program. Conference’s final press release. Project website.
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Politics, Policy, and Lithuanian Holocaust Discourse
Good afternoon. Sincerest thanks to everyone who made today possible, above all to dear Rūta Vanagaitė for successfully bringing together folks from many sides of today’s issues here in Vilnius for the first time in the twenty-first century, in the fine spirit of openness and tolerance that is particularly important, now, when politics and current events can easily deflate freedom of opinion on history, the progress of civil discourse, and the dignity of education.
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.
A Lowpoint in American (and Canadian) Diplomacy?
UN Resolution for “Combating Glorification of Nazism”Passes in General Assembly Committee (115 for, 3 against, with 55 abstentions)
Resolution, offered by Russia, seen as inherently flawed by Putinist machinations, Russia-Ukraine crisis & East-West feuding; EU abstains, asBaltic nationalists gloat (Delfi.lt)
STILL A SHOCK that three member states voted against: Ukraine, USA,Canada. Ukraine’s government recently made “heroes” of Nazi collaborators; catalogue of the last year.
A Historic Ukrainian Low for US (and Canadian) Foreign Policy?
UN Resolution for “Combating Glorification of Nazism”Passes in General Assembly Committee (115 for, 3 against, with 55 abstentions)
Resolution, offered by Russia, seen as inherently flawed by Putinist machinations, Russia-Ukraine crisis & East-West feuding; EU abstains, asBaltic nationalists gloat (Delfi.lt)
STILL A SHOCK that three member states voted against: Ukraine, USA,Canada. Ukraine’s government recently made “heroes” of Nazi collaborators; catalogue of the last year.
Text of the Resolution
Are unchecked Neo-Con politics behind the failure to Just Say No to the adulation of Nazi collaborators?
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.
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.
Holocaust Obfuscation and Double Genocide: The Show Goes On
O P I N I O N
by Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson
The latest “Double Genocide” conference sponsored (naively?) by the European Union has just ended in Prague. The two-day event (12-13 June 2014) has a convoluted history (see earlier DH reports: 15 Jan. 2014; 24 Jan. 2014; 26 Feb. 2014; 27 Feb. 2014; 7 March 2014; 20 March 2014; 23 March 2014; 20 May 2014).
Tel Aviv’s Leyvik House Issues Call to World Jewish Congress on Vilnius Yiddish Jobs in the Works
TEL AVIV— Daniel Galay, director of Leyvik House in central Tel Aviv, one of Israel’s major Yiddish culture institutions, issued the following statement today on the Leyvik House website (copy), and on its Facebook page (see also Efraim Zuroff’s Facebook comment). For background see our earlier report.
Appeal to the World Jewish Congress
Tel Aviv, 12 June 2014
Like all lovers of Yiddish language and culture, we at Leyvik House in Tel Aviv, home to the Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Israel, were happy to see the recent announcement that the World Jewish Congress would be facilitating a new Yiddish center in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Could WJC get Ensnared in “Yiddish” as Cover for Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania?
O P I N I O N
A recent report, also available as PDF, suggests sudden and deep involvement of the World Jewish Congress in the Lithuanian government’s repeatedly documented use of Yiddish, Judaic studies and even Holocaust studies as means to advance — or cover for — state-sponsored Double Genocide revisionism with respect to the essential narrative of the Holocaust. The report has proven to be disturbing for the wider Holocaust survivor community and its supporters.
“Double Genocide” Snuck into Congress?
Did “Double Genocide” from the “Prague Declaration” Land Under the Radar in the United States Congress?
PAIN IS EXACERBATED AS PLOY COINCIDES WITH 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF D DAY EVENTS
A Shock for Veterans, Holocaust Survivors & their Families: US Congress Approves Mixed Soviet-Nazi Commemoration Day in Line with 2008 “Prague Declaration” (Text)
Would an EU Sponsored Conference Banish Second Opinions?
“Double Genociders” in Prague Triumphantly Announce Participation of “Cabinet of Viviane Reding” at 12-13 June Conference on “Legacy of Totalitarianism Today”…
Will EU’s Commissioner for Justice legitimize the Prague campaign to obfuscate the Holocaust for the East-European-nationalist inspired rewrite of history?
Will there be a single paper on current glorification of Nazi collaborators in a conference on “Legacy of Totalitarianism Today”?
Latvian Parliament’s New “Double Genocide” Law:
Up to Five Years Imprisonment for Those Who Disagree with Double Genocide
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Further Diminution of Democracy in the Eastern EU
Surpasses Lithuanian law (up to two years imprisonment) and Hungary’s version (up to three years)
“Double Genocide” Language Accepted by the US Congress on 21 May 2014
The following is the text of Amendment 134, Section 1266 that passed the US House of Representatives’ military appropriations bill on 21 May 2014, as recorded in the Congressional Report (background and more coverage here).



