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All Welcome!
Sunday 29 August 2021
Eighty years ago to the day, 29 Aug. 1941, all the town’s Jewish residents were massacred in the Holocaust, mostly by local white-armbander (“LAF”) fascists in partnership with occupying Nazi forces
Malát (Molėtai)
Malát (Molėtai) Museum, in Northeast Lithuania, Invites ‘All the World’ to 29th August Memorial Events
Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), Museums, News & Views
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Malat (Moletai), Malát (Molėtai) Jewish history, shtetl commemorations, Tzvi Kritzer, Viktorija Kazlienė
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Video Released of Marius Ivaškevičius’s Interview with Dovid Katz
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VILNIUS—Famed Lithuanian playwright Marius Ivaškevičius interviewed Dovid Katz as his Vilnius apartment on 20 March 2017 as part of the filming for Tzvi Kritzer’s documtentary “The Last Sunday in August” about the slaughter of the Jews of Malát (today: Molėtai) Lithuania. The much more general interview offers sweeping discourse on the Lithuanian Holocaust and its legacies, and sundry difficult related issues. There was a cameo appearance by the film’s producer Tzvi Kritzer. The footage released is unedited but not complete. Unfortunately, the beginning, with Marius’s detailed opening statement and set of questions, is missing from this footage. The documentary, released in 2018, is on youtube.
Posted in Arts, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, Film, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Dovid Katz, History of Holocaust in Lithuania, Lithuanian collaboration in the Holocaust, Lithuanian-Jewish discourse, Lithuanian-Jewish relations, Malat (Moletai), Marius Ivaškevičiux
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Commemorating the Holocaust and Healing Wounds in our Molėtai (Malát) District
MEMORIALS FOR JEWISH COMMUNITIES | MOLĖTAI (MALAT) | MUSEUMS
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by Viktorija Kazlienė
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Viktorija Kazlienė
Almost five years ago, an exceptional March of Jewish Remembrance took place in Molėtai, on 29 August 2016. On that occasion, an impressive monument was erected at the site of the mass murder of the Jewish citizens of Molėtai (known in Yiddish as Malát). For that, we are grateful to Tzvi Kritzer, a descendant of Molėtai Jews now living in Israel. Leonas Kaplanas, another son of survivors from the town, now living in Vilnius, also contributed significantly to organizing the March.
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The Molėtai (Malát) March of Jewish Remembrance, 29 August 2016. Photo: Alvydas Balanda
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Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views
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Translation of Birutė Vyšniauskaitė’s Interview with Faina Kukliansky
VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE | LITVAK AFFAIRS | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | MEDIA
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Jews and Lithuanians Need to Settle their Disagreements
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by Birutė Vyšniauskaitė (Delfi.lt)
This “working translation” is provided for our readers’ reference (embedded links have been added by DH for our readers’ reference, reflecting this journal’s perspectives, not those of the original publication, and longer direct quotes are presented in indented bloc). In the event of any query arising, the original Lithuanian version alone, published by Delfi on 16 November 2017, is authoritative. Note that an official English translation has appeared in The Lithuania Tribune (English Delfi) and is available to subscribers here. [Update of 27 Nov. 2017: The official Jewish Community website today published its translation.] For more articles in English on these issues, see here.
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Although the scandal caused by statements made by author Rūta Vanagaitė about the partisan leader Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas has by now subsided, the head of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Faina Kukliansky believes that this is no more than a temporary calm. The English translation of R. Vanagaitė’s book Mūsiškiai should appear soon. Furthermore she has the support of the European Jewish Congress and she has many supporters in Israel.
Posted in A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Christian-Jewish Issues, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), Media Watch, News & Views
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Premier Vilnius Showing of “Last Sunday in August” is Free and Open to Public
FILM AND THEATER | EVENTS | VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE | COMMEMORATIONS | MALÁT
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All welcome at next Sunday’s Vilnius showing of the new film The Last Sunday in August about Malát (Molėtai). 24 September 2017 at 6 PM at the Ozas Multi Cinema, Ozo 18, Vilnius 08009. Admission free but pre-registration required (phone or SMS: +3706 718-6202 or +3706 153-9950). For background see DH’s Malát section. Trailer for the film.
Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Film, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views
Tagged "Last Sunday in August", Lithuanian Holocaust, Malat (Moletai)
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Brand New Yiddish Signs Come to Malát (Molėtai), Town in Northeast Lithuania
MALÁT | SHTETL COMMEMORATIONS | YIDDISH AFFAIRS
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MALÁT (MOLĖTAI)—At the initiative of Viktorija Kazlienė, founder and director of the Museum of the Molėtai Region (Molėtų krašto muziejus) in northeastern Lithuania, a series of Jewish historical signs were unveiled this week. The project came to fruition thanks to the material support of the Department of Cultural Heritage, that is under the aegis of Lithuania’s Ministry of Culture.
In the event, these signs mark the one-year anniversary of the internationally acclaimed march of memory held in August 2016 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the massacre of the town’s Jews in 1941 by local collaborators, under the aegis of the Nazis, and during the period of rapid annihilation of Lithuania’s provincial Jewry. In addition to playing a pivotal role in enabling the 2016 march and commemorative events, Ms. Kazlienė organized an extensive exhibition on the centuries-old Jewish life in the erstwhile shtetl, known in Yiddish as Malát. With Leonas Kaplanas, she coauthored a book based on the exhibition. It was featured in this year’s Vilnius Book Fair.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Politics of Memory, Symbology
Tagged Lithuanian shtetl, Malat (Moletai), Viktorija Kazlienė
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S’brent, Bríderlakh, S’brent (It’s Burning, Dear Brothers, it’s Burning)
OPINION | VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE | LITVAK AFFAIRS | DEMOCRACY | HUMAN RIGHTS
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by Leon Kaplan
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Last night, Wednesday the 24th of May 2017, I came home from a long (three-and-a-half-hour) but wonderful gathering. It was the Vilnius Jewish Community’s conference, a democratic, well-organized and well-attended election for the Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) as well as for its new board. When I got home I decided to listen to a disk of Yiddish songs by the late Nechama Lifschitz, a disk that her daughter Roza Litay gave me as a gift during a visit at her apartment in Tel Aviv. Around twelve midnight, while listening to songs of our “singing soul” I opened my Facebook page and could not believe my eyes when I saw the link to an article on the official website of the Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC) that presumed to cover the evening I had myself attended. It had a big picture not of any of the personalities of the evening, but of the chairperson, Faina Kukliansky standing next to a car and making a V for Victory sign like a victorious general gleeful over the destruction of an array of enemies.
Posted in A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Leon Kaplan, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Russian Speakers' Personal Status, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?
Tagged Faina Kukliansky, Leonas Kaplanas, Liova Kaplan, Lithuanian Jewish Community
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Would a Lithuanian Church Proceed in 2017 to Honor an Alleged Local Holocaust Perpetrator?
COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | MALÁT (MOLĖTAI) | COMMEMORATING DESTROYED COMMUNITIES
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by Dovid Katz
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VILNIUS—Two regular Sunday worshipers at the grand old church in Molėtai, a town of some 6,000 inhabitants in northeastern Lithuania, reported to the Defending History team in Vilnius earlier this week that their priest, Father Kęstutis Kazlauskas, has publicly announced that the church is organizing the production of a bas-relief to be commissioned from “a major Lithuanian artist” (?!) and erected within the sacred premises, to honor alleged Holocaust perpetrator Jonas Žvinys. Outside the two church goers, Defending History has been unable to obtain further corroboration of what would be a shocking development, and a very negative one for modern Lithuania, in a town where 100% of the Jewish residents were murdered in 1941 by the Nazis, with the majority of the actual killing, and its on-site organization, carried out by local nationalist elements.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Jonas Zvinys, Malat (Lithuania), Moletai (Lithuania), Stasys Zvinys
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Antisemitism in the 21st Century Shtetl
OPINION | ANTISEMITISM | COMMEMORATIONS FOR DESTROYED COMMUNITIES
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by Dovid Katz
This article appeared today in ISGAP Flashpoint:
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The words “antisemitism in the shtetl” might evoke recollections of Fiddler on the Roof, a touch of family lore “from the old country” way back when, or for those familiar with modern Yiddish literature, a scene from this or that writer. Baffling as it may sound, however, it a substantial contemporary topic in the study of antisemitism, and, perhaps even more surprisingly, part of a phenomenon with implications for the future, given the vast number of cities, towns and villages in the world with a rich Jewish history but no living Jews, where potent anti-Jewish feeling (as well as pro-Jewish feeling) can be observed. As noted back in Flashpoint 21, antisemitism in Eastern Europe is very different from its much better known Western and Middle East incarnations.
READ MORE
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Norway, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Antisemitism in Eastern Europe, Dovid Katz, shtetl, shtetl commemorations
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Media and Debate on Malát (Molėtai) Holocaust Remembrance Project
[UPDATED]
A Selection for English Readers
Project’s Facebook Page; Website
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22 November 2016. ISGAP Flashpoint: ‘Antisemitism in the 21st century shtetl’ by Dovid Katz.
22 September 2016. Tablet: ‘Holocaust commemorations planned throughout Lithuania this weekend’ by Anna Rudnistky.
9 September 2016. Defending History: ‘My take on Malát’ by Julius Norwilla [Norvila].
8 September 2016. En.Delfi.lt: ‘The day Lithuania became a culture of We’ by Alexandra Kudukis.
8 September 2016. Jewish Community of Lithuania website: ‘Molėtai Holocaust procession draws record crowd’ [unsigned article presumably representing the chairperson’s views].
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), Media Watch, News & Views
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust in Malat (Moletai), Lithuanian shtetl, Malat (Moletai) memorial
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My Take On Malát
OPINION | SHTETL COMMEMORATIONS | EVENTS | POLITICS OF MEMORY | COLLABORATOR GLORIFICATION
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by Julius Norwilla
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The year 2016 marks the 75th anniversary of the genocide of the Jews of the Lithuanian shtetls, the smaller towns, villages and countryside, in fact, a solid majority of Lithuanian Jewry (with a smaller component being kept alive in four cities for slave labor and rolling annihilation over the remaining years of the Holocaust). Marking the anniversary, at the end of August and beginning of September this year (a period in 1941 when a number of the local massacres were concentrated), there have been commemorative events in (Yiddish names first) Birzh (now: Biržai), Dusát (Dusetos), Malát (Molėtai), Shádov (Šeduva), Vílkomir (Ukmergė) and more. By far the largest event took place at Malát on the 29th of August. The project, leading to establishment of a new foundation, was initiated by Tzvi Kritzer. The speakers included high representatives from the Lithuanian government, its official Jewish community, and various public and cultural representatives.
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Christian-Jewish Issues, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Malat, Holocaust in the Baltics, Jonas Zvinys, Julius Norvila, Julius Norwilla, Leon Kaplan, Lithuania, Malat (Moletai), Musiskiai, Ruta Vanagaite, Stasys Zvinys, Viktorija Kazlienė, white armbanders (1941), Zuroff and Vanagaite
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Grigory Tzvi Kritzer’s Speech on the 75th Anniversary of the Malát Massacre
Grigory Tzvi Kritzer, a native of Vilnius, Lithuania, who settled many years ago in Israel, is a well-known Israeli soccer (football) agent. He was the primary organizer of the series of events that culminated in a march by thousands, unveiling of a multilingual monument, and launch of an exhibition, book, and film, in the small town (former shtetl) Malát (Molėtai, northeastern Lithuania) on 29 August 2016. The book and exhibition were the products of the initiative and creative work of regional museum director, Viktorija Kazlienė, in close cooperation with Leon Kaplan who edited and translated the book.
The day marked the 75th anniversary of the 1941 massacre of the town’s 2,000 Jews, then a majority of its population. This year’s day of memorial events there has drawn wide and varied media comment and coverage.
The following is the English text of Tzvi Kritzer’s speech, provided by his office at the request of Defending History. The translation is by Aleksandras Federas.
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We decided to walk that road one and a half years ago, and then I imagined that there would be only a few people here… Now, look around, my heart is beating with joy that our relatives and loved ones, who perished here in Molėtai, have not been forgotten.
Thanks to all of you, to those who have come from faraway countries and to those who live here, in Lithuania. I am particularly moved to see here people from all corners of Lithuania. I would like to thank the mayor of Molėtai, Mr. Stasys Žvinis, and all his team for their help and support.
Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Tzvi-Hirsh Kritzer
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust in Malat (Moletai), Malat (Moletai), Tzvi Kritzer
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Leon Kaplan’s Speech on the 75th Anniversary of the Malát Massacre
Leon (Liova) Kaplan (in Lithuanian: Leonas Kaplanas) is a native of Vilnius, Lithuania who settled in Washington DC in the early 1970s. He founded the Washington Conservatory of Music and is a noted pianist and master piano educator. He returned to live in Vilnius in 2004, and has over the past year and a half been one of the people involved in enabling the major series of events that culminated in a march by thousands, unveiling of a multilingual monument, and launch of an exhibition, book, and film, in the small town (former shtetl) Malát (Moletai, northeastern Lithuania) on 29 August 2016. The day marked the 75th anniversary of the 1941 massacre of the town’s 2,000 Jews, then a majority of its population. This year’s day of memorial events there has drawn wide and varied media comment and coverage.
The following is the English text of Liova Kaplan’s speech, provided by his office at the request of Defending History. At the event the speech was given in both English and Lithuanian.
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Honorable Guests,
Thank you to all gathered here, thanks to all those whose conscience does not allow them to forget the tragic events that happened here in Molėtai (Malát), and in almost 300 places across Lithuania, seventy-five years ago. Allow me to quote the book Night by Nobel prize laureate, the late Elie Wiesel:
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Documents, Leon Kaplan, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Opinion
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August and September 2016 Memorials for Destroyed Jewish Communities
Summer and Fall 2016: 75th Anniversary
of the Nazis’ annihilation, with vast local collaboration, of Lithuania’s Jews in the towns, villages, provinces; implementation of ghettoization and mass murder in the cities.
Perhaps among the simplest, most minimalist measures of a municipality’s sincerity (beyond PR bonanzas, photo-ops and legitimizations via useful foreigners): (a) Modest town-center information board on the origins, history, culture, contributions and (true) fate of the town’s Jewish citizens; (b) Rapid removal of any local shrines, street names, museum tributes etc. to the local collaborators and murderers. “You just can’t make heroes out of the killers and expect to cover it up with some annual PR event for the foreigners.”
Language and respect for the victims: In addition to Lithuanian and English, will new memorial texts (including those at forest mass graves and old cemeteries) continue to include Yiddish, the language of 100% of the murdered Jews in all these towns? For many years, Lithuania has had a uniquely admirable record in this regard.
Posted in Birzh (Biržai ), Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, History, Human Rights, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Šeduva (Sheduva, Shádeve, Shádov) and its "Museum of the Lost Shtetl", September 23rd Commemorations
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Lithuanian Prosecutor Writes to Jewish Community Head on Alleged Holocaust Perpetrators in Malát (Molėtai)
DOCUMENTS | LITHUANIA | POLITICS OF MEMORY | GENOCIDE CENTER | OPINION
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VILNIUS—The website of Lithuania’s official Jewish Community today published an English translation of a 2 March 2016 letter (original here) sent by Prosecutor Rimvydas Valentukevičius in reply to a letter from community chairperson Faina Kukliansky. The text of the translation published today follows. The correspondence relates to alleged perpetrators in the northeastern Lithuanian town Malát (Molėtai), where an international commemoration is planned for August 2016.
For other recent interactions with the prosecutor’s office, see our 3 March 2016 report on another request, that for release of (or action regarding) the list of several thousand names of persons that the Genocide Center now concedes were potentially Holocaust perpetrators.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Documents, Genocide Center (Vilnius), History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Lithuanian Shtetl Malát (Molėtai) to be Commemorated in 2016
LITVAK AFFAIRS | EVENTS
by Tzvi-Hirsh (Gregory) Kritzer
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Iam making a documentary film about the Jewish history and legacy of Malát (now Molėtai), a small shtetl in Lithuania. The film will endeavor to cover the history, life and culture of the Maláter, the Jews of Malát, and also the genocide of the entire community carried out by the Nazis and their local collaborators. My father’s family was killed there together with about 1000 Malát Jews.
Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Tzvi-Hirsh Kritzer
Tagged Gregory Kritzer, Holocaust in Lithuania, Malat (Lithuania), Malater Benevolent Association, Moletai (Lithuania), Tzvi Kritzer
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