The following is a translation of an October 2, 2013 piece published by former Baltic News Service chief Artūras Račas on his blog. For context, see some of Mr. Račas’s previous work on Holocaust related issues, e.g. his comments on state investigations of Holocaust survivors who became anti-Nazi partisans (2008) and on Prof. Pinchos Fridberg and Dr. Efraim Zuroff (2013); see also Prof. Fridberg’s reply.
News & Views
Former BNS Chief Artūras Račas Lets Loose Again on Fridberg, Kanovičius, Pancerovas, Zuroff…
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Antisemitism & Bias, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Three Baltic Governments Sponsor “Round Table” at London U on 5 November: Will Nazi Collaborators be Glorified?
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
It is both right and laudable that University College London, the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and other partners are organizing a “Round Table Discussion: Anti-Soviet Resistance in the Baltic States” in central London, scheduled for 5 November 2013, 2 to 6:30 PM, with free admission for all (free tickets here; Facebook page here).
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Human Rights, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, UCL Manipulated?, United Kingdom
Tagged anti-fascist + London, far right history revisionism London, Latvia Estonia + Holocaust history, Lithuania, SSEES, UCL
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Yehiel Zilberman’s Memoirs (excerpt)
M E M O I R S
by Yehiel Zilberman
Translated from Russian by Olga Gorelik
This is a chapter from the memoirs written by Yehiel Zilberman, translated from Russian by Olga Gorelik (© Yehiel Zilberman & Olga Gorelik). The chapter appears in Defending History by permission of the copyright holders, with thanks to the good offices of Victor Shifrin (Los Angeles).
Yehiel (Yekhíel) Zilberman was born in Lithuania in 1922. In 1940 he graduated from the H. N. Bialik Hebrew High School in Shavl (Šiauliai) and was admitted to the Institute of Commerce in the same city. In June of 1941, one year after Lithuania fell under Soviet rule, Yehiel along with his parents and brother Moshe (Mikhail) was exiled to the Altai Region in Russia where he lived until 1945. In 1949 he graduated with Honors from Gorky Industrial Institute and became a chemical engineer. Yehiel worked in both manufacturing and scientific research. In 1954 he received his PhD from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. In 1965 Dr. Zilberman received the title of Professor. From 1970 to 1990 he taught at Gorky Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Yehiel Zilberman has been resident in Haifa, Israel, since 1990.
Posted in Documents, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Memoirs, News & Views
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust memoirs, Yehiel Zilberman
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Simon Malkes Speaks at the Lithuanian Parliament
The following is the text provided by the office of Simon Malkes (Paris) of the speech he delivered at a conference held at the Lithuanian parliament on 22 September 2013, as part of the series of events of the Fourth International Litvak Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania. Mr. Malkes, a Vilna native and survivor of the Vilna Ghetto, is president of the ORT school network.
Simon Malkes (right) speaks to an old friend on Gedimino Boulevard in central Vilnius, after his speech at a session of the Fourth International Litvak Congress held at the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas).
My name is Simon Malkes. I am a French citizen, living in Paris since 1952. I am a rare survivor, among the less than one percent of Vilna Jewry. I survived thanks to the German officer Karl Plagge who managed the HKP automobile works camp in Vilnius between 1941 and 1944. In 2005, I succeeded to obtain from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem the Righteous Among the Nations title, posthumously, for Karl Plagge.
Posted in France, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Simon Malkes
Tagged Fourth Litvak Congress, Jewish property + citizenship in Lithuania, Simon Malkes, Vilna Ghetto
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English Translation of the Lithuanian Text on the Vilna Ghetto Provided by the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania…
The following is an English translation, by Geoff Vasil, from the original Lithuanian text that appears on the website of the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania concerning the Vilna Ghetto, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of its liquidation on September 23, 1943.
In an important article that appeared in Lithuanian in Bernardinai.lt, and in English in the Lithuania Tribune, author Sergejus Kanovičius pointed out the remarkable disparity of tone between the Lithuanian version on the Chief Archivist’s website (that appears below in English translation), and the English version provided on the Chief Archivist’s website…
Posted in Documents, Double Games, History, Lithuania, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Poland, Politics of Memory
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Part of the Red-Brown Commission Writes to Yitzhak Arad
Defending History Brings Real (But Not Enough) Results…
After 7 Years of Silence, Part of Lithuanian Government’s “Red-Brown Commission” Expresses “Sorrow and Anger” at “Unwarranted Attacks” on Yitzhak Arad
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crtmes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Jonathan Brent (Yivo), Timothy Snyder, Yitzhak Arad
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Program of the 15-16 Oct 2013 Kiev Conference on Antisemitism (on the Centenary of the Beilis Trial)
The following is the text of the final program received today from the organizers:
International Conference on Anti-Semitism
on the occasion of 100th anniversary of the Beilis Trial
15-16 October, 2013, Kyiv, Ukraine
Fairmont Grand Hotel
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Events, News & Views, Ukraine
Tagged Antisemitism in Eastern Europe, conference on antisemitism (Kiev), Mendel Beilis Centenary (Kiev)
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British MP John Mann, Chair of Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, Speaks Out on “Double Genocide”
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
Continue reading
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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