News & Views

Nobody could love or respect the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research more than I do. It was founded as the Yiddish Scientific Institute in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1925. Yivo remains a symbol for all who cherish our Yiddish heritage and, now, its last prewar survivors. Through the years I have spent many wondrous hours at Yivo, digging, discovering, and learning about my Litvak ancestors, their shtetlakh, and their culture. Being there always felt like being home. The books and documents I handled seemed almost sacred. Memories of conversations with Yivo’s’s revered librarian Dina Abramowicz still make me smile. . .

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Olga Zabludoff, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged Dr. Jonathan Brent, Neo-Nazi marches of Feb 16th and March 11th (Lithuania), Olga Zabludoff, Yivo Lithuania | Comments Off

Updates to 14 February 2014: Neo-Nazi March in Kaunas, Gov. Sponsored Camouflage Symspoium at Yivo in New York

Posted on 14 February 2014 by Defending History

Colleagues in Lithuania of all backgrounds invited to meet Dr. Efraim Zuroff, and join silent, peaceful protest against state-enabled neo-Nazi glorification of local Holocaust collaborators: Sunday 16 Feb, 2 PM, Ramybes Park, Kaunas

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Celebrations of Fascism, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Kaunas, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yiddish Affairs | Comments Off

Vilnius Holocaust Survivor Pinchos Fridberg Posts New Comment in The Tablet

Posted on 12 February 2014 by Defending History

The following comment by Professor Pinchos Fridberg was posted in Tablet on 11 February 2014, as a comment on a previous comment by Dr. Efraim Zuroff in the same discussion. See also Defending History sections on Prof. Fridberg and Dr. Zuroff.

Continue reading

Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg | Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Pinchos Fridberg | Comments Off

Efraim Zuroff on Tablet Magazine’s Co-Sponsorship of Lithuanian Government’s Yivo Event, and a Suggestion for Yivo’s Audience

Posted on 10 February 2014 by Defending History

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust historian, Nazi-hunter, and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, has posted the following comment on the website of Tablet magazine, as one of the comments to a new book review. The comment also appears separately on Facebook.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Efraim Zuroff, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States | Tagged Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Lithuania, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Yivo + Holocaust, Yivo Lithuania | Comments Off

Dr. Efraim Zuroff Calls on Croatian Authorities to Act Decisively in War Crimes Case

Posted on 7 February 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Efraim Zuroff

The following is the original English text, received today from the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office in Jerusalem, of its director Efraim Zuroff’s public letter to Croatian authorities, published in Croatian translation on 6 February, and referred to in a press release from SWC earlier today.

Posted in Croatia, Efraim Zuroff, News & Views | Comments Off

Wiesenthal Center Urges Croatian Authorities to Expedite Case of Auschwitz Guard

Posted on 7 February 2014 by Defending History

JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today urged the Croatian authorities to expedite the prosecution of Auschwitz guard Jakob Dencinger, who was discovered living in Osijek by the Croatian daily Jutarnji List late last week.

In an op-ed published on 6 Feb. in Jutarnji List by the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the importance of bringing Dencinger to justice was emphasized. The original 2 Feb. English text of Dr. Zuroff’s article appears here.

According to Zuroff:

Posted in Croatia, Efraim Zuroff, EU, News & Views | Comments Off

Film Maker Attempts to Gift New Film on Riga Ghetto to Latvian Embassy in German

Posted on 7 February 2014 by Defending History

The following is the English translation, by Monica Lowenberg, of a letter sent today by German film maker Jürgen Hobrecht to the Latvian ambassador in Berlin.

Dear Mrs. Japina,

Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Film, Germany, Latvia, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged Jürgen Hobrecht | Comments Off

More Mainstream Media Coverage of the Swastika Issue in Lithuania

Posted on 7 February 2014 by Defending History

The following, for our readers’ information, is Geoff Vasil’s translation of a 3 February 2014 article that appeared in 15min.lt. Please see the original Lithuanian for the photos referenced herein by their captions in square brackets.

Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, EU, Human Rights, Lithuania, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania, Symbology | Tagged swastikas in Lithuania | Comments Off

Fate of the Old Jewish Synagogue in Náyshtot-Távrik (Žemaičių Naumiestis); Updates to 6 February 2014

Posted on 6 February 2014 by Defending History

ניישטאָט⸗טאַווריק / Náyshtot-Távrik (Žemaičių Naumiestis):

A Municipality in Western Lithuania May Soon Demolish 1816 Synagogue Building

Samuel Gruber’s Report and Proposals

Posted in Exotic Jewish Tourism, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Riga, Capital of European Culture: Waffen SS, Stags and Silence?

Posted on 4 February 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Monica Lowenberg

The UK’s home secretary Theresa May, the Hungarian Jobbik party, and Holocaust Memorial Day have all been in the press lately. Reading how the leader of pro-Nazi Jobbik party was, in the interests of free speech, allowed to hold his rally in Hyde Park, I have to question why Ms. May allowed this man entry into the UK and hadn’t called his racist attitudes, “unacceptable” as she had in the past with, “Every Muslim should be a terrorist” Zakir Naik. What had changed?

In the Capital of European Culture: Waffen SS Calendar (Riga 2014)

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, Latvia, Monica Lowenberg, News & Views, Opinion, Riga's Waffen SS Marches, Symbology, United Kingdom | Tagged Europe Secretary David Lidington, Jobbik party, Monica Lowenberg, Waffen SS marches in Latvia | Comments Off

Is Tom Lantos’s Widow on Hungarian Government’s List of “Useful Foreigners”?

Posted on 2 February 2014 by Defending History

The Hungarian government, like others in Eastern Europe, is enlisting well-intentioned Western naifs in its plans to mobilize Holocaust commemoration itself as part of the East European revisionist Double Genocide movement. The effort seeks to downgrade the Holocaust, downplay local collaboration and participation, and to cover tracks with sophisticated revisionism. Along the way, memberships in august bodies, prizes, awards and junkets are generously offered to select foreigners. The efforts by the Lithuanian government have been in the forefront of the tendency.

Posted in Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Hungary, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Nations | Tagged Annette Lantos, Holocaust in Hungary, Hungarian Spectrum, Mária Vásárhely, Tom Lantos | Comments Off

New Joseph Levinson Website Has Page on Old Jewish Cemeteries in Lithuania

Posted on 2 February 2014 by Defending History

The recently launched website JosephLevinson.com provides renewed opportunities for acquiring his two major books that are available in English. One, The Shoah in Lithuania, includes documents of the Lithuanian Activist Front detailing their intentions for Jewish citizens, issued before the outbreak of war on 22 June 1941. It is also rich in resources on understanding how, where and why the far right’s “Double Genocide” revisionism arose in the first place. These are just two of the many areas covered by the book.

Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Joseph Levinson, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views | Tagged Alex Levinson, Joseph Levinson (Vilnius), Lithuania, old Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, The Double Genocide theory | Comments Off

Swedish Film Director Speaks Out on the Lithuanian Holocaust, Sort of, a Little Bit

Posted on 1 February 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

Jonas Öhman is a Swede who has been coming to Lithuania and living here on and off from almost the beginning of modern independence in the 1990-1991 period. During that time he has produced a number of films, only one of which appears to his credit on the internet film database imdb.com, but all of which deal more or less with a mythologized version of the history of Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisans.

Posted in Arts, Film, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Sweden | Tagged Double Genocide, Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Öhman | Comments Off

Aleksandrs Feigmanis Documents Mysterious Eight-Pointed Star in Riga Synagogue

Posted on 31 January 2014 by Defending History

Following publication last year of an article on the mysterious eight-pointed star known from some old Jewish cemeteries in western Lithuania (the area known as Zámet in Yiddish, corresponding in part to Žemaitija), DH contributor Dr. Aleksandrs Feigmanis, director of Riga-based BalticGen Tours, has reported that a similar eight-pointed star adorns the (recently renovated) synagogue in Riga, Latvia. Hopefully, images will emerge of the prewar design corresponding to the reconstructed section in question.

Posted in Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Latvia, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Symbology | Comments Off

The Jewish Tragedy in the Baltic States

Posted on 30 January 2014 by Defending History

M U S I C

by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium)

THE AUTHOR’S MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS:

I War

II Ghetto

III The Killing Pits

IV Liberation

V Remembrance

Posted in Arts, Latvia, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Music, News & Views, Roland Binet | Comments Off

Israeli Association of 2nd and 3rd Generation Survivors Calls for Action from Israel and Other Democracies

Posted on 27 January 2014 by Defending History

JERUSALEM—On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed today internationally, Dorot Hahemshech, Israel’s largest association of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, issued a call to both the Israeli government and other democracies to renew and intensify the efforts to bring to justice Nazi war criminals and collaborators while it is still possible. The leaders of the NGO also commented on the growing phenomenon of distorting the history of the Holocaust in a number of countries, particularly in the context of the Double Genocide movement rampant in Eastern Europe.

The following is a translation from the original Hebrew text.

Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Documents, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Israel, News & Views | Comments Off

Kaunas, Vilnius, Riga: Planned 2014 Neo-Nazi Marches (Summary Coverage to 26 Jan. 2014)

Posted on 26 January 2014 by Defending History

Kaunas, February 16th; Vilnius, March 11th; Riga, March 16th:

Will Lithuania’s President and Prime Minister Speak Out to Stop City-Centers on Independence Days Being Gifted to Neo-Nazis Again to Glorify the Holocaust’s Local Collaborators?

Last year, the president, prime minister and mayor failed to rise to the occasion of the neo-Nazi marches

Zabludoff’s Petition Nears the 3,000 Mark

First Stop — Kaunas on February 16th

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, EU, Events, Human Rights, Kaunas, Latvia, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Riga's Waffen SS Marches, Vilnius | Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Antisemitism in Lithuania, February 16th neo-Nazi march, Holocaust in Lithuania, Neo-Nazi marches in Vilnius and Kaunas | Comments Off

Summary Coverage on Upcoming “Baltic March Season”

Posted on 24 January 2014 by Defending History

2014 Winter Nazi Marching Season in the Baltics?

Kaunas, February 16th; Vilnius, March 11th; Riga, March 16th:

Will Lithuania’s President and Prime Minister Speak Out to Stop City-Centers on Independence Days Being Gifted to Neo-Nazis Again to Glorify the Holocaust’s Local Collaborators?

Last year, the president, prime minister and mayor failed to rise to the occasion of the neo-Nazi marches

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, EU, Events, Human Rights, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Riga's Waffen SS Marches, Vilnius | Comments Off

Double Genocide Movement’s “Prague Process” is Foundering — In Prague

Posted on 24 January 2014 by Defending History

The 2008 Prague Declaration was followed by the EU’s controversial establishment of the 2011 “Prague Platform” which has been a major disseminator of Double Genocide political and academic products intended to appear neutral rather than of the East European far right (see Double Genocide section for examples over the years). Internally, the movement has been torn by strife between the “witch hunters” who want to exclude from the Double Genocide movement (known by any number of Eurisms, e.g. “equal evaluation of totalitarian regimes”) persons who held communist related posts before the USSR’s collapse, and those who take a more moderate stance toward their own followers’ pasts.

Followers of our Media page have noticed the rapidly moving events in recent days:

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform", Sweden, The Czech Republic | Tagged 2008 Prague Declaration, Double Genocide, Goeran Lindblad, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Neela Winkelmann, Pavla Foglova, Platform of European Memory and Conscience, red-brown politics | Comments Off

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PRESS: ALFA.LT; ALKAS.LT; BALSAS.LT; DELFI.LT; JERUSALEM POST; KAUNODIENA.LT; SWC REPORT; TV: KAUNAS NEWS; OPINION: Olga Zabludoff; Efraim Zuroff

♦

Lithuanian TV interviews with Efraim Zuroff and Dovid Katz:

1 and 2

♦

O P I N I O N

by Olga Zalubdoff

The following is the text of Olga Zabludoff’s op-ed published on 13 February 2014 in the Algemeiner Journal. Comments by readers are available at the original site of publication.

Yivo, Lithuania, The Holocaust

Colleagues in Lithuania of all backgrounds invited to meet Dr. Efraim Zuroff, and join silent, peaceful protest against state-enabled neo-Nazi glorification of local Holocaust collaborators: Sunday 16 Feb, 2 PM, Ramybes Park, Kaunas

The following comment by Professor Pinchos Fridberg was posted in Tablet on 11 February 2014, as a comment on a previous comment by Dr. Efraim Zuroff in the same discussion. See also Defending History sections on Prof. Fridberg and Dr. Zuroff.

O P I N I O N

by Efraim Zuroff

The following is the English translation, by Monica Lowenberg, of a letter sent today by German film maker Jürgen Hobrecht to the Latvian ambassador in Berlin.

ניישטאָט⸗טאַווריק / Náyshtot-Távrik (Žemaičių Naumiestis):

O P I N I O N

by Monica Lowenberg

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium)

THE AUTHOR’S MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS:

Kaunas, February 16th; Vilnius, March 11th; Riga, March 16th:

Will Lithuania’s President and Prime Minister Speak Out to Stop City-Centers on Independence Days Being Gifted to Neo-Nazis Again to Glorify the Holocaust’s Local Collaborators?

Last year, the president, prime minister and mayor failed to rise to the occasion of the neo-Nazi marches

First Stop — Kaunas on February 16th

2014 Winter Nazi Marching Season in the Baltics?

Kaunas, February 16th; Vilnius, March 11th; Riga, March 16th:

Will Lithuania’s President and Prime Minister Speak Out to Stop City-Centers on Independence Days Being Gifted to Neo-Nazis Again to Glorify the Holocaust’s Local Collaborators?

Last year, the president, prime minister and mayor failed to rise to the occasion of the neo-Nazi marches

**Scholars & journalists: When you use DH, please cite DH.**