News & Views

German President awards Fania Brantsovsky the Federal Cross of Merit

Posted on 28 October 2009 by Defending History

…Antisemitic Tirade Follows in Vilnius

Antisemitic reaction on Lithuania’s main news portal came within minutes of the German embassy’s press release announcing its award to anti-Nazi Jewish partisan veteran Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. The award is the president’s Federal Cross of Merit. It was presented to her by Germany’s ambassador to Lithuania Hans-Peter Annen in a ceremony at his embassy in Vilnius. Details at Responses (→ 28 Oct 2009).  [May 2010: Disturbingly, neither Fania’s award nor the antisemitic barrage against her has been mentioned to this day on the VYI website.]

English translation of the report on the Baltic internet portal Delfi, including the remarks of a ruling-party member of  parliament. It appeared with this caricature of the 87 year old Holocaust survivor who had just been honored by Germany’s president. Posted comments that threatened her with violence have now been removed. More details at Blaming the Victims (→ 28 Oct 2009). Daiva Repečkaitė and Milan Chersonski reply.

Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Antisemitism & Bias, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Events, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (Fania Brancovskaja): 1922-2024, Germany, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Yiddish Institute | Leave a comment

Rachel Margolis turns 88

Posted on 28 October 2009 by Defending History

also marked Dr Rachel Margolis’s 88th birthday. Dr Margolis, anti-Nazi partisan veteran, historian and biologist, lives in Rechovot, and feels unable to return to Vilnius because of the situation. Birthday greetings at Responses (→ 28 Oct 2009, II). [Added Sept 2010: See now the later report of 27 January 2010 on the letter sent by five senior members of the United States Congress to the prime minister of Lithuania concerning Dr Margolis and the other Holocaust Survivors defamed by the far right’s ‘Double Genocide’ industry in the Baltics.]

Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Dr. Rokhl (Rachel) Margolis (1921-2015), Human Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Leave a comment

Guardian Report Notes Vilnius Yiddish Summer Course’s “Secret Lectures in Students’ Homes”

Posted on 20 October 2009 by Defending History

Jonathan Freedland’s article in today’s Guardian includes the sad tale of the founder of the  Vilnius Yiddish Institute having to give his lectures at students’ homes after being banned by the (non-Yiddish-specialist) government operative installed as  “director” after state prosecutors launched proceedings against Holocaust survivors for their “crime” of having escaped the ghetto to join up with anti-N azi Soviet forced who were, in alliance with the United States and Great Britain during the Holocaust, the only force seriously fighting the Nazis in Lithuania and the rest of Eastern Europe.

Is the Vilnius Yiddish Institute about to become a PR unit of the government agencies responsible for Holocaust manipulation and the ongoing investment in Yiddish and Jewish projects as cover for history manipulation?

The article, by Jonathan Freedland is available here.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs | Comments Off on Guardian Report Notes Vilnius Yiddish Summer Course’s “Secret Lectures in Students’ Homes”

Slanted ‘Baltic Times’ Coverage of Lithuanian Parliament’s Work on new Red-Brown Jailtime Law

Posted on 8 October 2009 by Defending History

Supposedly impartial Baltic Times coverage of a later version of the proposed law that would max out at just two years of imprisonment for disagreeing with the state’s version of ‘Soviet and Nazi genocide’.

The BT report also gloats that ‘Earlier this year, the members of the European Parliament decided that Stalin’s USSR and Hitler’s Germany were equal’ (cf. materials on the Prague Declaration page). [14 September 2010: On the law eventually passed, in June 2010, see here].

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Free Speech & Democracy, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Slanted ‘Baltic Times’ Coverage of Lithuanian Parliament’s Work on new Red-Brown Jailtime Law

‘Roving Reporter’ asks Public’s Views about Holocaust Collaboration

Posted on 29 September 2009 by Defending History

‘Memory being trampled. Neither our Parliament nor our diplomats want to defend Lithuania’s heroes from Jewish libel’ by Ignas Jacauskas. This multi-part feature on the front page extends to an editorial (p. 5) and to a ‘Voice of the Nation’ feature (p. 3), where Ruta the student, Laura the housekeeper, Raimonda the know-it-all, Irenijus the internet specialist and Juozas the construction worker express their views at the reporter’s behest.  English translation.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, News & Views | Comments Off on ‘Roving Reporter’ asks Public’s Views about Holocaust Collaboration

Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors Release 1998 Letter on the “Red-Brown Commission”

Posted on 18 September 2009 by Defending History

The Tel Aviv office of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, one of the world’s last active organizations of Holocaust survivors hailing from Lithuania, today authorized HolocaustInTheBaltics to publish its 6 November 1998 letter to the president of Lithuania protesting the establishment of the “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.” The letter first appeared in facsimile form in the book Crime and Punishment, edited by the association’s chairman, Tel Aviv attorney Joseph A. Melamed. The letter follows.

Continue reading

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors Release 1998 Letter on the “Red-Brown Commission”

Meir Shub (1924 — 2009)

Posted on 6 September 2009 by Defending History

 

Professor Meir Shub

Holocaust in the Baltics, established on 6 September 2009, is dedicated to the memory of Professor Meir  Shub (1924—2009), pictured at right teaching a class at Vilnius University in the early 2000s.

A historian and philosopher, he dedicated the last decades  of his life to rebuilding Jewish studies in Vilnius, despite severe health issues deriving from his World War II wounds sustained as a Red Army soldier during the struggle against Nazism.

He was determined to inspire and train students of all backgrounds who would freely research Judaic topics, including the Holocaust. He was convinced that the success of these studies depended on the retention of a robust and intellectually free-feeling Jewish community component in such projects in Eastern Europe.

Meir Shub’s booming voice (which grew louder as his deafness worsened), straight talk, and high Litvak expectations of his students were trademarks. He is sorely missed. He played a pivotal role in achieving the first Oxford-Vilnius agreement in Judaic studies, and, in 1991-1992, was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University. His works include a study of the Gaon of Vilna.

Posted in Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Obituaries | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Meir Shub (1924 — 2009)

Posted on 22 August 2009 by Defending History

A reception was held at a central Vilnius residence in honor Vilnius  of Professor Sara Ginaite of Toronto, veteran of the anti-Nazi resistance, who defied prosecutors’ threats to visit her native Lithuania. In a show of support, the United States Embassy’s political officer Tim O’Connor joined the group honoring Prof. Ginaite, as did the Lithuanian foreign ministry’s Jolanda Kriskovieciene (in a personal capacity).

Continue reading

Posted in Events, News & Views | Comments Off on

Seminars in Secret at the Annual Summer Program in Yiddish when the Topic is Holocaust Obfuscation

Posted on 1 August 2009 by Defending History

Seminars on Holocaust Obfuscation had to be held in private apartments during the Summer Program in Yiddish Language and Literature. [UPDATES added in later months as these materials appeared: Memoirs have been published by  Julia Blaukopf (Photographic Interiors, Pennsylvania); Jana Hock (Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch); Michael Cohen (more recent article here); Josh Markovitz (both UCLA). There have been comments in the Guardian and the Nation.]

The Vilnius Yiddish Institute staff list distributed to summer course students was purged of staff who spoke out publicly on behalf of the accused survivors and against ‘Double Genocide’. Lectures were convened at private apartments on August 10, 17, 19, 20 (more details at: Events). Image from 17 August; first and last slides; slide on European Parliament issues; more at Jamie Ehrenpreis’s Facebook site. Group of participants after the 19 Aug. presentation; more by J. Ehrenpreis here.

Austrian Holocaust museum volunteer Adalbert Wagner set up power-point facilities, generously lent by the Green House Holocaust Museum. The organization of these lectures was assisted by VYI summer course participants  Dr Judy Freier, Dr Ilya Levin, Prof Abraham Lichtenbaum, Daniel Nemenyi, Dr Shimon Samuels, Berti Wagner. Larry Mandel, Daniel Nemenyi and  Martina Ravagnan for opened up their homes to one lecture each.

It is thought that the ‘Dirty Tricks Department’ of the Lithuanian government unit aiming to manipulate Jewish issues is planning for the Yiddish institute to become a PR tool of the government, with the Yiddish professor of Bloomington, Indiana brought over summertime and for select events to provide the necessary Yiddish Studies Cover for several weeks a year.

UPDATES HERE

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Seminars in Secret at the Annual Summer Program in Yiddish when the Topic is Holocaust Obfuscation

Founding Director of the ‘Litvak Foundation’ Publishes an Antisemitic Article after Quitting Job

Posted on 16 July 2009 by Defending History

‘Jewish property and a burnt-out land’ on the country’s main news portal Delfi.lt by the former director of the ‘Litvak Foundation’ (Litvaku fondas), whose accomplishments include the projects to erect statues of famed Jewish personalities Tsemakh Shabad and Romain Gary; image published with the article. Text includes the statement: ‘There are about 3000 Jews in Lithuania, and one must keep in mind that only some 1000 are really Lithuanian Jews (heirs and successors to the former Jewish communities), rather than aliens from the East.’  English translation.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Antisemitism & Bias, Double Games, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like? | Comments Off on Founding Director of the ‘Litvak Foundation’ Publishes an Antisemitic Article after Quitting Job

Front Page Image of the Head of the Jewish Community with a Soviet-era Abacus

Posted on 15 July 2009 by Defending History

Image from the front page of the daily Vakaro zinios: a photomontage of the elected 80 year old chairman of the Jewish Community of Lithuania and a Soviet-era abacus.

The headline and accompanying article on p. 4 suggest that ‘the Jews’ are plotting to expropriate money from the country.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Human Rights, News & Views, Shimon Alperovich (1928 – 2014) | Comments Off on Front Page Image of the Head of the Jewish Community with a Soviet-era Abacus

Rachel Margolis Honored in Tel Aviv

Posted on 19 June 2009 by Defending History

A certificate of appreciation for Dr Rachel Margolis, issued by Great Britain’s Lord Janner of Braunstone, was delivered at the Dr Rachel Margolis event chaired today at Leivick House in Tel Aviv by its director, composer Daniel Galay.

The keynote speaker was Israeli ambassador to Latvia and Lithuania, Chen Ivri Apter, who awarded Dr Margolis a certificate of merit from the Israeli embassy in Riga. Tel Aviv schoolchildren who study Yiddish with Hannah Pollin-Galay presented a cultural program of song, and a gift of flowers to Dr Margolis. Other speakers included professors Israel Bartal, Dov Levin (Jerusalem) and Dovid Katz (Vilnius).

Images: Dr Margolis addresses the audience. After the event. Dr Margolis with Ambassador Apter. Photos by Leyzer Burko. Leivick House report on the event.

Posted in Dov Levin (1925 - 2016), Events, Human Rights, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Litvak Affairs, Lord Janner of Braunstone, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Yiddish Affairs | Leave a comment

Paper Claims the Jews are Changing Lithuanian Law to Take Away Culture Ministry Building

Posted on 10 June 2009 by Defending History

Headline and image from page 2 of Vakaro zinios: a photo of the Culture Ministry building, with the caption and article suggesting that ‘the Jews’ are working to take it away from the government. The article is headed ‘Lithuanian law being corrected by the Jews’ with the word ‘Jews’ in rather large type.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Human Rights, News & Views | Comments Off on Paper Claims the Jews are Changing Lithuanian Law to Take Away Culture Ministry Building

Professor Leonidas Donskis elected to the European Parliament

Posted on 7 June 2009 by Defending History

Professor Leonidas Donskis was elected in Lithuania as a member of the European Parliament, running on the Liberal Party ticket. Born in Klaipeda in 1962, he has been for years professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, and dean of its Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy. He is the author of numerous seminal books on philosophy, political science and the history of ideas. His works have been translated into a dozen languages, and he has been a visiting professor in Britain, Sweden, the United States, and other countries. His unique television discussion show Without Anger (in Lithuanian) won a large following and promoted tolerance and openness. In recent years, Prof. Donskis has spoken out with inspirational courage and with unmatched sophistication, against the wave of antisemitism, Holocaust Obfuscation and ’Double Genocide’ misinformation in his country (see for example here, here, and here).

DONSKIS IN DEFENDING HISTORY

DEFENDING HISTORY’S 15 MAY 2009 EVENING ENABLING CANDIDATE DONSKIS TO MEET WITH SOME OF THE WESTERN DIPLOMATIC CORPS IN VILNIUS

Continue reading

Posted in It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Leonidas Donskis, News & Views | Comments Off on Professor Leonidas Donskis elected to the European Parliament

Student Asked ‘Did the Jews pay you to do this topic?’ at Thesis Defense in Vilnius

Posted on 1 June 2009 by Defending History

A student was asked at the oral defense of his/her thesis: ‘Did the Jews pay you to do this topic?’ There was no comment from any committee member, and no written protest from the student’s supervisor or sponsoring department. Note: The student’s topic had no connection to Holocaust issues.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Human Rights, News & Views | Comments Off on Student Asked ‘Did the Jews pay you to do this topic?’ at Thesis Defense in Vilnius

Vilna Ghetto Victims Substituted for War Criminals List in the Baltic Times; VYI Chief calls the Association of Lithuanian Jews ‘Extreme Right-Wingers’

Posted on 29 May 2009 by Defending History

Part of a list of Jewish victims of the Vilna Ghetto (including fallen resistance hero Yechiel Sheinboim) appears in the Baltic Times instead of the captioned list of alleged Nazi-allied murderers (zoom-in).

The young foreign reporter was wholly innocent; a still unidentified source provided the wrong list. An obscure and ambiguous correction appeared the following week.

Moreover, director of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute Sarunas Liekis is quoted (misquoted?) in the article (column 2), as calling the last active group of Litvak Holocaust survivors in the world (the ALJ in Tel Aviv) ‘extreme right-wingers’, adding that ‘scholars don’t talk to them’. Although now aged, these survivors’ ranks still include prominent Holocaust scholars.

The Baltic trend to delegitimize Holocaust survivors and their supporters is part of the wider series of attempted conceptual realignments deemed ‘necessary’ to propagate the Double Genocide bandwagon, and obfuscation of the Holocaust, within the context of regional unltranationalism.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Views of Prof. Sarunas Liekis, Vilnius Yiddish Institute | Comments Off on Vilna Ghetto Victims Substituted for War Criminals List in the Baltic Times; VYI Chief calls the Association of Lithuanian Jews ‘Extreme Right-Wingers’

Parliamentary Proposal to Curtail Free Speech that would Disagree with Red-Brown Equivalence; 3 Years Imprisonment Envisaged

Posted on 21 May 2009 by Defending History

Proposal 154(1), registered by the Seimas (parliament) of Lithuania, would impose up to three years of imprisonment for one who ‘denies, severely diminishes or justifies the genocide accomplished by Communism or Fascism’ etc.  English translation. 9 June 2009 summary.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, News & Views | Comments Off on Parliamentary Proposal to Curtail Free Speech that would Disagree with Red-Brown Equivalence; 3 Years Imprisonment Envisaged

Dovid Katz: The “Prague Declaration”: A European attempt to equate Communism with Nazism will falsify history

Posted on 21 May 2009 by Defending History

O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz

Reprinted from the Jewish Chronicle (London), 21 May 2009

◊

Not many have heard about the Prague Declaration, which is currently making the rounds at the European Parliament. Proclaimed last June in Prague (but cooked up in the Baltics), its innocuous theme is “European Conscience and Communism”. Now who would oppose that? The heinous crimes of Communist regimes clearly merit full exposure. Victims deserve recognition. When the grand jamboree of freedom, fun and prosperity got under way for us lucky westerners in 1945, entire nations ceded to Stalin were condemned to totalitarian rule.

Continue reading

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dovid Katz, Dr. Rokhl (Rachel) Margolis (1921-2015), EU, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (Fania Brancovskaja): 1922-2024, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Dovid Katz: The “Prague Declaration”: A European attempt to equate Communism with Nazism will falsify history

Vicious Attack on Bold Lithuanian Journalist Andrius Navickas

Posted on 21 March 2009 by Defending History

After the intrepid journalist and human rights advocate Andrius Navickas (see Bold Citizens) protested to the press commission about the front page cartoon of the Jew and the Gay controlling the world, a caricature of his head and body was inserted in both figures on the front page of a mass circulation newspaper. This had the effect of deterring others in the public arena who might have wished to make their opinions known about the proliferation of 1930s style hate materials appearing on the front page of mass circulation newspapers.

Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Free Speech & Democracy, Media Watch, News & Views | Comments Off on Vicious Attack on Bold Lithuanian Journalist Andrius Navickas

Human Rights Advocate Andrius Navickas is ‘put inside the Jew and the Gay’ on Page 1 of Vakaro Zinios (Evening News)

Posted on 21 March 2009 by Defending History

After human rights advocate and journalist Andrius Navickas lodged a protest against the publication of the antisemitic and homophobic cartoon, a caricature of his face and body was inserted into the ‘Jews and Gays control the world’ cartoon and published on the front page of Vakaro zinios. It appeared along with the article ‘What is the Gay Manifesto?’  English translation.

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Media Watch, News & Views | Comments Off on Human Rights Advocate Andrius Navickas is ‘put inside the Jew and the Gay’ on Page 1 of Vakaro Zinios (Evening News)