MP John Mann (photo: Guardian)
2013: “It is an industrial rewriting of history in Eastern Europe to excuse mass murders carried out on behalf of the Nazis.”
— John Mann, 5 October 2013
News & Views
British MP John Mann, Chair of Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, Speaks Out on “Double Genocide”
Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, John Mann, UK MP, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Double Genocide, John Mann, MP, Prague Declaration
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Keep the Local History Out of Mind?
REVIEW OF KEEP ME IN MIND
by Geoff Vasil
The Contemporary Art Center’s reading room in Vilnius is hosting an unusual-for-Lithuania Holocaust event called Keep Me in Mind. Briefly, visitors are invited to wander among different tables where good-looking and polite people await them with small boxes and sheaves of papers. When you sit down the narrator at the table tells the story of an individual Holocaust survivor, from childhood to the present. Almost all of the survivors seem to now live in Haifa, Israel. One survivor, Benjamin Ginzburg, came from Vilnius.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Arts, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged "Keep me in Mind", Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Politics
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Learning from the King
O P I N I O N
by Danny Ben-Moshe (Melbourne)
As I watch the news of tourists excluded from national parks in America, as Federal Government is shutdown, I recall my visit to Washington DC’s famous National Mall, when I was recently in the city for a screening of Rewriting History.
I viewed several memorials of inspiring individuals: Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. People who said no to hate and tried to foster positive political change. Physically I was in the American capital, but in the midst of Rewriting History screenings, my head was in an East European space, and this was the prism through which I saw many of the city’s magnificent exhibits. One memorial resonated with me more than any other: The Martin Luther King Memorial.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Danny Ben-Moshe, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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Getting It Right: Three Memoirs Tell It Like It Is
B O O K S
by Olga Zabludoff
Ponary Diary 1941-1943: A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder, by Kazimierz Sakowicz; edited by Yitzhak Arad. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005
Ruta’s Closet, by Keith Morgan with Ruth Kron Sigal. London: Unity Press (an imprint of Unicorn Press Ltd), 2013
Malice, Murder, and Manipulation: One Man’s Quest for Truth, by Grant Arthur Gochin. Los Angeles, 2013
The concept “Holocaust memoir” encompasses many subgenres in time and place. This review will cover the interlocking treatments by three very different types of witnesses:
Posted in Books, Lithuania, News & Views, Olga Zabludoff, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged and Manipulation, Grant Arthur Gochin, Kazimierz Sakowicz, Keith Morgan, Malice, Mujrder, Olga Zabludoff, Ponaryh Diary, Ruta's Closet, Ruth Kron Sigal
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Inclusion and Occlusion
O P I N I O N
A REVIEW OF THE PRAGUE PLATFORM’S TRAVELLING EXHIBITION “TOTALITARIANISM IN EUROPE” PAID FOR BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (CURRENTLY ON SHOW AT TUSKULĖNAI PARK IN VILNIUS, LITHUANIA)
by Geoff Vasil
At the edge of downtown Vilnius, along the river Neris where the buildings suddenly turn old and worn and bushes, trees and grass take on unmanicured forms, across the bridge whose entree is gated by the Danish and British embassies to Lithuania, there is a strange park nestled in between some very empty Soviet-looking and much older buildings.
Posted in "Tuskulėnai Peace Park", Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Geoff Vasil, History, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform"
Tagged Double Genocide, Geoff Vasil, Prague Declaration of 2008, Prague Platform on European Conscience and Communism, Tuskulenai Peace Park (Vilnius)
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Chersonski Replies to Aleksandravičius on the 2012 Kaunas Reburial with Full Honors of 1941 Nazi Puppet Prime Minister
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, History, In Russian, Lithuania, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Politics of Memory
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An Old Jew From Vilna Writes a Letter to Moshe Rabeinu
O P I N I O N
by Pinchos Fridberg
Some facts
In 1998 the “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania” was established by Lithuanian presidential decree.
The commission is directed in tandem by Emanuelis Zingeris and Ronaldas Račinskas. The former is the commission’s chairman and a Conservative MP in the Lithuanian Seimas, while the latter is the commission’s executive director. The Lithuanian Jewish Community has no representation on the commission.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Humor (Of Sorts), Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Emanuelis Zingeris, Holocaust in Lithuania, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg
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An Inalienable Right to be Schizophrenic?
O P I N I O N / E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T
by Geoff Vasil
On Friday, September 13, 2013, the Baltos Lankos publishing firm in Vilnius held a discussion at their main book sales outlet in Vilnius to present a book edited by Professor Jurgita Verbickienė about the Jews of Lithuania.
The discussion on this doubly auspicious day—eve of Yom Kippur and Friday the 13th—began with Verbickienė presenting a short sketch of the book and two other participants in the discussion, Zigmas Vitkus and Simonas Gurevičius. The latter is the executive director of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The topic was how Lithuanians view Jews.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Books, Events, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Jurgita Verbickiene, Lietuvos zydai, Zeppelinus
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Old Blood Libel Plaque Still Displayed, Without Comment, at Bernardinai Church in Vilnius
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
WHERE THE BLOOD LIBEL STILL STANDS: Seventeenth century plaque commemorating a seven year old allegedly killed by 170 Jewish-inflicted wounds, on display at Bernardinai Church, Maironio Street 10 in Vilnius
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Christian-Jewish Issues, Dovid Katz, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Human Rights, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Bernardinai (Vilnius), blood libel, Lithuanian Jews, Vilna (Vilnius) Jewish history
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Dr. Shimon Alperovich, Former Chairman of Lithuanian Jewish Community, Motivates his Doubts on Plans to Rebuild the Great Synagogue
SHIMON ALPEROVICH | GREAT SYNAGOGUE AND ITS SQUARE
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Dr. Shimon Alperovich, who was chairman of the Jewish Community of Lithuania from 1992 to earlier this year when he retired, gave an interview today on the contentious subject of the project to rebuild the Great Synagogue in Vilnius’s old town. It was lovingly known in Vilna Yiddish as di gréyse shúl or di shtót-shul.
Dr. Alperovich stressed that he was speaking in a personal capacity.
The interview is available, in Yiddish, on YouTube. Continue reading
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Shimon Alperovich (1928 – 2014), Vilna's Great Synagogue & its Courtyard (Shúlheyf), Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Shimon Alperovich, Simonas Alperavicius, Vilna Great Synagogue Courtyard, Vilner Shulheyf, Vilnius Great Synagogue
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“Swastika Wood Art” Up & Down Gedimino Boulevard at Central Vilnius Arts Fair
The following is the content of a front page item that appeared on 11 September 2013:
The arts and crafts festival held on Vilnius’s central Gedimino Boulevard featured a number of disturbing swastika themes in woodwork. Here is one example:
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, News & Views, Swastikas in Lithuania
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In Parubanka, Roma People say History is Repeating Itself
O P I N I O N
by Lina Žigelytė
Lina Žigelytė
Residents of Parubanka immediately notice strangers. An empty police booth with broken windows marks the entrance to this Roma settlement in the outskirts of Vilnius. Here, there are no paved roads. A dusty dirt track winds along dozens of flimsy wooden houses and shacks. Some children walk barefoot on paths that have shards of glass and needles protruding from them. After a recent public transport reform, the nearest bus stop is about three kilometers away.
This area is home to 500 Roma people — raging from the very young to the elderly. Each time a car approaches or someone walks by, locals look over wooden fences that surround houses and often recognize visitors. The majority of these outsiders are so-called tarchoks – drug users, who come to Parubanka for a fix. I learnt of this term from Fiokla Kiurė.
Posted in Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Lina Žigelytė, News & Views, Opinion, Roma
Tagged Fiokle Kiure, Lina Zigelyte, Parabanks, Roma / Romani / Gypsies in Lithuania, Roma Issues in the Baltics
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Where You Have to Step on Old Jewish Gravestones to go to Church
C E M E T E R I E S / C H R I S T I A N – J E W I S H R E L A T I O N S
by Dovid Katz
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The following are translated (and edited) excerpts from a longer letter in Yiddish received from a survivor who has asked to remain anonymous, about the Jewish gravestones that form the steps going up to the Reformed Evangelical Church at Pylimo 18 in Vilnius.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Dovid Katz, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Reformed Evangelical Church (Vilnius)
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Christian-Jewish relations, Jewish gravestones as steps to church, Lithuania, Reformed Evangelical Church in Vilnius, Reformed Evangelical Church Lithuania
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Protected: The Dozen Holocaust Mass Graves in the Vilnius Area
Posted in News & Views
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An Article Sent to the South African Jewish Report
O P I N I O N
by Olga Zabludoff
NOTE: This article was submitted to the South African Jewish Report last spring. It never appeared and is therefore posted here for information and in the spirit of the ongoing discussion. It is again poignantly relevant in view of the South African contingent to be courted by government officials at the Fourth International Litvak Congress to be held in Vilnius later this month.
The Ball Is Now in Your Court
I have just returned from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The newly launched special exhibition, “Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust,” left me feeling drained. It’s not that I learned anything I didn’t already know. It’s just that the message, delivered in marquee-style displays, old photographs, video footage from the period, and recent oral testimonies, juxtaposed to create the sensation that I had been there — a victim.
“But what do we learn that resembles what we have seen? We have barely begun to understand the killing fields of Lithuania. . . .” writes Edward Rothstein in his review of the new exhibition (“Bystanders, Not So Innocent,” April 25, 2013, New York Times).
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Collaborators Glorified, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Olga Zabludoff, Opinion, Politics of Memory, South Africa
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Donskis Speaks Out on East European Antisemitism and “Double Genocide” Discourse
The renowned philosopher and current Liberal MEP representing Lithuania, Professor Leonidas Donskis, has spoken out again on the interrelationships between current antisemitism and Double Genocide discourse, and on the enormous credit due Lithuanian authors who dare confront the historic truth. The following article appeared in the print edition of The Baltic Times on 29 August 2013. Daiva Čepauskaitė’s 2011 play, Day and Night, referred to in the article, was reviewed in Defending History in December 2011. See also our Bold Citizens page.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Leonidas Donskis, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Double Genocide, East European antisemitism, Leonidas Donskis
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Never Have So Many Owed So Much to So Few: Reflections on an August 2013 Visit to Some Museums in Vilnius
O P I N I O N
by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud/Belgium)
I recently returned home to Belgium from a visit to Vilnius, Lithuania. As is my custom, I visited different museums where the memory of the victims of the Holocaust is kept alive. I went first to the Green House on Pamenkalnio St 12. Not easy to find for foreigners as there are few indications on the streets. I also went to the Center for Tolerance. Apart from my wife and me there was no one else in either museum at the time of our visits there (in the high tourist season in August).
Posted in Exotic Jewish Tourism, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Roland Binet, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
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Double Genocide Lands by Stealth in Washington D.C. for “Black Ribbon Day”
[record of front page coverage]
“Double Genocide” Lands in the United States of America
BY STEALTH BOMBER OUT OF THE EAST, UNDER THE RADAR
Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged American Holocaust policy, Black Ribbon Day, Double Genocide + US
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Red-Brown Commission’s PR Roadshow Heads for Philadelphia PA Gig on November 10th
Three members of the Lithuanian government’s renewed “Red-Brown Commission” are to headline its next American PR event, scheduled for Philadelphia on 10 November. The Commission is widely seen as one of the politico-academic engines of Holocaust revisionism in the European Union in the spirit of “Double Genocide.” Moreover the body publicly supports the (2008) Prague Declaration, the “bible” of the Double Genocide movement. Its website does not mention existence of the European parliamentary rejoinder, the (2012) Seventy Years Declaration, signed by seventy-one EU parliamentarians, including six courageous MPs and MEPs from Lithuania.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United States, Views of Prof. Sarunas Liekis
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation Lithuania
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Yad Vashem and the “Two Genocides”
O P I N I O N
by Danny Ben-Moshe (Melbourne)
This op-ed was first published in Jerusalem Report in August 2013.
I remember my first visit to Yad Vashem as a 16-year-old visitor to Jerusalem. It had a profound, and indeed formative, effect on me. I left there with a badge clipped to my lapel inscribed with the motto, zakhor, the Hebrew word for remember.
Yet for all its splendid work, Yad Vashem whose formal title is The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, I am sorry to say, is now dramatically failing both the martyrs and heroes of the country where the percentage of the Jewish community annihilated in the Holocaust was higher than anywhere else in Europe – Lithuania.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Australia, Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem and Lithuania
Tagged Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide, Emanuelis Zingeris, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg, Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism (2008), Yitzhak Arad
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