News & Views

Peres in Vilnius July-August 2013 Summary Coverage

Posted on 2 August 2013 by Defending History

Israel’s President Shimon Peres Welcomed in Lithuania

THE QUESTION: Did he remember in private at least to mention the fate of Litvaks (mostly Israeli citizens), in their late 80s to 90s, being “sent to hell” as “suspected criminals for posterity” on the basis of antisemitic governmental kangaroo pronouncements designed to invert the narrative of the Lithuanian Holocaust? Two of them, Yitzhak Arad and Joseph Melamed, are heroes of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. Survivors correspond with president’s office.

Posted in News & Views | Comments Off

Open Letter to Evaldas Gustas, new Minister for the Economy in Lithuania

Posted on 2 August 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

SAMPLE IMAGES

Background:

Original 2 May 2013 report; Person identified by the media submits 13 May 2013 complaint to the Press Commission [draft English translation], citing Anarchija.lt, Balsas.lt, KaunoŽinios.lt, Lrytas.lt as well as DefendingHistory.com. He does not deny the identification but disputes the characterization of his work as in harmony with neo-Nazism.

23 July update: Zeppelinus greets Baltic Pride with a new hate image.

Dear Mr. Gustas,

Congratulations on your recent appointment as Economy Minister. May your tenure be blessed with success, wisdom and good fortune for all of Lithuania’s citizens.

We address you on the advent of your tenure on a human rights matter rather than an economic question. We feel certain you would agree that there is a demonstrable correlation between the long-term successful economies of the world and free and open democratic societies that reject all forms of state-supported fascism, racism, antisemitism, homophobia and other forms of hate and exclusionism directed at segments of the population.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Dovid Katz, EU, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Racism, Russian Speakers' Personal Status | Tagged Antisemitism, Evaldas Gustas, homophobia in Lithuania, Human Rights, human rights in Lithuania, racism, Zeppelinus | Comments Off

An Important Book by Lithuania’s Health Minister, Totally Ignored by the Lithuanian Media. Why?

Posted on 1 August 2013 by Defending History

B O O K S

by Geoff Vasil

See also: Andriukaitis’s 2012 reply to the foreign minister; on the floor of parliament; Andriukaitis section

Vytenis Andriukaitis by Defending History

Vytenis Povilas Andrukaitis, health minister of Lithuania. Photo: DefendingHistory.com

Vytenis Andriukaitis is a veteran politician. If you haven’t been following Lithuanian politics since 1990, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of him, and even if you have, there’s a fair chance you didn’t notice him amid the various cults of personality which have dominated the political scene since about 1990.

The reason for that is fairly simple: Andriukaitis has never cultivated or even tolerated a cult of personality to grow up around him. From the very first days of Lithuanian independence, a freedom movement with which Andriukaitis was intimately involved, he has stubbornly clung to the idea of multiparty parliamentary democracy, largely by his own tenacity reviving the pre-World War II Lithuanian Social Democratic Party.

Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Books, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vytenis Andriukaitis | Comments Off

The Fate of an Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery that is Part of Now

Posted on 30 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

This comment first appeared in The Times of Israel on 22 May 2013.

One of the predictable consequences of genocide is the spectacle of old cemeteries without relatives or descendants of the buried to care for the gravestones or the site. Some stones will fall, some will sink, and then some will just be taken as usable components for the foundations of houses, the ballast of roads or the walls of a basketball court.

Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Dovid Katz, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Estonian Pro-Fascists Celebrate Country’s 1944 Waffen SS Legion

Posted on 29 July 2013 by Defending History

This year’s summer celebration of Estonia’s Hitler-allied Waffen SS was held as scheduled, in the Sinimae hills of eastern Estonia last Saturday, the 27th of July. Images and reports were carried by Postimees and other media.

Source: Postimees

Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Estonia, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, News & Views | Comments Off

Revival of Antisemitism in Europe

Posted on 25 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

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

One would have thought that after the destruction of millions of Jews during the war and the creation of Israel, that antisemitism would have disappeared forever from Europe, the harsh and bloody lessons of the Holocaust having been learned. Yet, now, almost seventy years later, antisemitism is still an important factor to be reckoned with, both in Eastern and Western Europe.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, News & Views, Opinion, Roland Binet, Sweden | Comments Off

Zeppelinus, Unmasked as Official at Lithuania’s Ministry for the Economy, Posts New Gay-Hate Image to “Welcome” Baltic Pride Week

Posted on 22 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

The leading neo-Nazi blogger in Lithuania, “Zeppelinus,” who was unmasked several months ago by a number of publications as a high official at the Ministry for the Economy and chairman of the nation’s Tripartite Commission, did not deny the identification.

Instead, quite incredibly, he complained to the press commission against those who would dare deem to be unacceptable his hateful racist, antisemitic, homophobic and pro-fascist productions.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Events, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Racism | Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Gay Rights (LGBT) in Lithuania, homophobia, racism, Zeppelinus | Comments Off

Free Speech and Holocaust Remembrance in the Eastern European Union

Posted on 21 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

NOTE: This was written in response to “Foreign countries use far-right operations to undermine Lithuania’s image” published on June 7, 2013, on the Lithuania Tribune website.

Initially the editor-in-chief of the Lithuania Tribune agreed to publish the following reply in the Lithuania Tribune, but then changed his mind and finally refused, only informing the author a month later…

Posted in Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Free Speech & Democracy, Geoff Vasil, History, Lithuania, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

A Library with an Agenda? Bringing American Naifs On Board the Ultranationalists’ Baltic Holocaust Distortion Train?

Posted on 19 July 2013 by Defending History

SUMMARY COVERAGE OF “VILNIUS JEWISH PUBLIC LIBRARY” EVENTS TO 19 JULY 2013:

Wyman Brent’s prophecy fulfilled?

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Genocide Center and Vilnius Jewish Library, Genocide Center in Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation in Vilnius, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg, Red-Brown Commission, SLS (Summer Literary Seminars) Vilnius, Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Wyman Brent, Zilvinas Bieliauskas | Comments Off

EHU Center for German Studies: “Colloquium Vilnense 2013” is Short on “The Second Opinion” when it comes to The Holocaust

Posted on 19 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

Colleagues at the prestigious European Humanities University in Vilnius (EHU, also known as the Belarusian Humanities University, in exile here in Vilnius) have passed on the public poster for this year’s series of seminars under the title Colloquium vilnense 2013, running from May to November 2013. The A3 size poster is reproduced (much reduced) at the bottom of this page in two halves.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Documents, Double Games, Dovid Katz, EU, Events, Free Speech & Democracy, Germany, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged Belarusian Humanities University (Vilnius), Colloquium vilnense, Colloquium vilnense + Jewish issues, Colloquium vilnense + Yiddish, EHU (European Humanities University), EHU Center for German Studies (Vilnius), European Humanities University + Yiddish, Holocaust Denial and Obfuscation, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation, Vilnius Yiddish Institute | Comments Off

Holocaust Survivors from Lithuania Issue Statement on Sutzkever Prize in Vilnius

Posted on 18 July 2013 by Defending History

On the 15 July 2013 centenary of the birth of the illustrious Yiddish poet of Vilna, Abraham Sutzkever (1913–2010), the last active association of Holocaust survivors from Lithuania released the statement below (also available as PDF). It urges organizers, participants, judges and prize winners to avoid being instrumentalized as cover-up props for Holocaust obfuscation. It proposes that they simply issue public statements calling for written public apologies from the Lithuanian government to the defamed Jewish partisans who knew Sutzkever well from the forests of Lithuania and dozens of years of contact in survivor circles. See the related debate on this year’s Sutzkever Prize.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Documents, Double Games, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Joseph Melamed, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Sutzkever Prize in Lithuania, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged Abraham Sutzkever, Fania Brantsovsky, Joseph Melamed, Rachel Margolis, SLS Jewish Lithuania Sutzkever Prize, Sutzkever Prize in Lithuania, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off

Vexed Revival of “Red-Brown Commission”

Posted on 12 July 2013 by Defending History

State-sponsored Zingeris-Račinskas “red-brown commission” (officially: International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania) in Vilnius posts new list of members.

See also:

Page on the commission

Critiques of the commission and its associated Prague Declaration

DH section on the commission.

Resignations to date from Commission-related bodies include Dr. Yitzhak Arad, Sir Martin Gilbert (London), Prof. Gershon Greenberg (Washington DC), Prof. Konrad Kwiet (Sydney) and Prof. Dov Levin (Jerusalem).

Holocaust survivors themselves have stood up to express disquiet about some aspects of the commission: Yitzhak Arad, Pinchos Fridberg (more), Dov Levin (more), Joseph Melamed (more), Basheva Ran, the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, Jewish Community of Lithuania / Union of Ghetto Survivors. A decade and a half of issues.

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Germany, Holocaust Policies of Mr. Ronaldas Račinskas and the State-Sponsored "International Commission" (ICECNSORL), Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Views of Prof. Sarunas Liekis, Vilnius Jewish Public Library | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Double Genocide, Dov Levin, Emanuelis Zingeris, Holocaust Denial and Obfuscation, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Joseph Melamed, Litvaks, Milan Chersonski, Pinchos Fridberg, Red-Brown Commission, Ronaldas Racinskas, Sarunas Liekis, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off

President of Germany Hails Baltic Double Genocide Revisionism

Posted on 11 July 2013 by Defending History

by Leena Hietanen (Tallinn)

Germany’s president, Joachim Gauck, welcomed intensified cooperation between Estonian and German historians in the cause of continuing the search for Communist crimes in both Soviet Estonia and East Germany. He posed for photographs alongside Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves with a backdrop of the iconic red-equals-brown Hollywoodesque “set” welcoming visitors to the nation’s Museum of the Occupation in Central Tallinn.

german and estonian presidents celebrate double genocide

Photo of the two presidents with red-brown-equals-sign backdrop at the Museum of the Occupation in Central Tallinn: Postimees (Erik Peinar). More red-brown iconography here.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Estonia, EU, Germany, Leena Hietanen, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform" | Tagged Double Genocide in Estonia and Germany, German-Estonian relations, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust in Estonia, Joachim Gauck on Jewish and Holocaust issues, Leena Hietanen, Toomas Hendrik Ilves on Jewish and Holocaust issues | Comments Off

Would a Jewish Museum in Vilnius Graywash the Lithuanian Holocaust?

Posted on 7 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

A recent visit to Vilnius’s “Jewish Museum — Tolerance Center” has revealed a shocking panel purporting to convey the “facts” of June 23rd 1941, the darkest date in Lithuanian Jewish history. It is the date on which the Holocaust in Lithuania began. No need, incidentally, to take our word for it. Ask any Lithuanian Jew, of any generation, current abode or political persuasion: When did the Holocaust in your country start?

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Collaborators Glorified, Double Games, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Lithuania, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Wiesenthal Center Blasts Latest Pro-Fascist Commemoration by Latvian Authorities

Posted on 4 July 2013 by Defending History

JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced the commemoration of the “liberation” of the Latvian city of Limbazi, sponsored by the Visu Latvija political party, a member of the ruling coalition in the nation’s parliament in Riga.

Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, Events, Latvia, News & Views | Comments Off

Chief Lithuanian Bureaucrat/Historian Rehabilitates Nation’s Quislings, Again

Posted on 3 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

In an interview posted on the Delfi website on June 21, 2013, Lithuanian government historian Arūnas Bubnys, head of department for the Orwellian- or even Kafkaesque-sounding Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania, once again lent support to the pro-Nazi Lithuanian Quisling government that seized power on June 23, 1941.

The interview, titled “Lithuanian Historian: June Uprising was Rehabilitation for Shameful Surrender to Soviets,” is available here. An English translation is provided here.

What follows is my commentary on that interview.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Center for the Study of Genocide and Resistance (Lithuania), Genocide Center Vilnius, Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes, Kazys Škirpa, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), Provisional Government of Lithuania in 1941 (PG), Ronaldas Racinskas, World War II | Comments Off

Statement for London Panel by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky

Posted on 2 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky

The following is the author’s prepared statement for a panel discussion this evening on rights and freedoms prior to a performance of Harold Pinter’s “Hothouse” at Trafalgar Studios, London SE1. Panelists are: Shami Chakrabarti, Jonathan Cooper, Nicolas Kent and Michael Pinto-Duschinsky.

In 1970, twelve years after the first performance of “Hothouse”, Harold Pinter chose to accept a valuable award called the “Shakespeare Prize”. The series of Shakespeare Prizes were donated from the 1930s onwards by a Hamburg multi-millionaire with a record for actively supporting the Nazis before, during and after the Second World War.

Posted in News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom | Comments Off

Marching with the Words: “No to Falsification of History!”

Posted on 2 July 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Milan Chersonski

Authorized translation from the Russian by Ludmila Makedonskaya (New York)

In accordance with the law of the Republic of Lithuania for days of commemoration, June 23rd has been declared a national memorial day. It is the day of the 1941 June Uprising. As known, the extermination of the Lithuanian Jewish minority began on the same day as this “uprising.”

Posted in Aleksandras Bosas, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Milan Chersonski Reports on the Antifa Lietuva Event in Kaunas on 23 June 2013

Posted on 28 June 2013 by Defending History

МНЕНИЕ

Милан Херсонский

Шествие под лозунгом

«ФАЛЬСИФИКАЦИИ ИСТОРИИ – НЕТ!»

В соответствии с законом о памятных днях Литовской Республики, 23-е июня провозглашено национальной памятной датой – днём Июньского восстания 1941-го года. Как известно, уничтожение Еврейской общины Литвы началось в тот же день, что и восстание. Continue reading

Posted in Events, In Russian, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Antifa Lietuva, June 23rd, LAF (Lithuanian Activist Front), Milan Chersonski | Comments Off

LGBT Equality Issues Statement after Baltic Pride March is Banned in Central Vilnius

Posted on 27 June 2013 by Defending History

The following statement was issued today by For LGBT Equality:

Vilnius Municipal Authorities Ban Upcoming Baltic Pride 2013 March for Equality

2013 06 27

On 26 June 2013 the Vilnius municipal authorities refused to allow the Baltic Pride 2013 March for Equality through central Gedimino Avenue on 27 July 2013. The administration of Vilnius Municipality has declined not only the location, proposed by the organizers, but also the time and the form of the event, thus in effect banning the march all together. The Lithuanian Gay League is of a position that this decision amounts to the disproportionate and discriminatory limitation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly for the local LGBT* community and is planning to appeal against this decision before the national courts once again.

Posted in Events, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, News & Views | Comments Off

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News & Views

O P I N I O N

Background:

B O O K S

by Geoff Vasil

See also: Andriukaitis’s 2012 reply to the foreign minister; on the floor of parliament; Andriukaitis section

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

O P I N I O N

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

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

SUMMARY COVERAGE OF “VILNIUS JEWISH PUBLIC LIBRARY” EVENTS TO 19 JULY 2013:

Wyman Brent’s prophecy fulfilled?

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

State-sponsored Zingeris-Račinskas “red-brown commission” (officially: International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania) in Vilnius posts new list of members.

See also:

Page on the commission

Critiques of the commission and its associated Prague Declaration

DH section on the commission.

Resignations to date from Commission-related bodies include Dr. Yitzhak Arad, Sir Martin Gilbert (London), Prof. Gershon Greenberg (Washington DC), Prof. Konrad Kwiet (Sydney) and Prof. Dov Levin (Jerusalem).

by Leena Hietanen (Tallinn)

Photo of the two presidents with red-brown-equals-sign backdrop at the Museum of the Occupation in Central Tallinn: Postimees (Erik Peinar). More red-brown iconography here.

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

O P I N I O N

by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky

O P I N I O N

by Milan Chersonski

МНЕНИЕ

Шествие под лозунгом

«ФАЛЬСИФИКАЦИИ ИСТОРИИ – НЕТ!»

Vilnius Municipal Authorities Ban Upcoming Baltic Pride 2013 March for Equality

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