Politics of Memory
Summary Coverage of Announcement on Vilnius Consitutional Court’s Decision to Rule on Double Genocide
Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Unauthenticated Document Purports to be Police Complaint Against Lithuanian Citizen for Writing about Nazi Collaborators
O P I N I O N
VILNIUS—Defending History is making attempts to determine the authenticity of an unverified document (translation here) which purports to be from Lithuanian police issuing notification of a “pre-trial investigation” against a Lithuanian citizen for having written an article referring to alleged Nazi collaborators. More on the topic is available in Defending History in the Collaborators Glorified section, the works of Evaldas Balčiūnas (including an article on the Mr. Noreika = “General Vetra” mentioned in the purported police complaint), the 2012 Brazaitis saga, and the page on street names and university shrines dedicated to Nazi collaborators.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, State Glorification of Holocaust Collaborator J. Noreika
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Sergijus Staniškis Litas: Who’s Hiding the 1941 Gaps in His Biography — and Why?
O P I N I O N / P O L I T I C S O F M E M O R Y / C O L L A B O R A T O R S G L O R I F I E D
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
Authorized translation from the Lithuanian original by Geoff Vasil.
Today Sergijus Staniškis Litas is presented as a noble partisan commander who concentrated his unusual skills on battling the occupiers. At least that’s how the writers of the Lithuanian Center for the Study of Genocide and Resistance present him on their webpage at http://www.genocid.lt/datos/stanisk.htm.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
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Pinchos Fridberg Interviews Pinchos Fridberg
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Bold Citizens Speak Out, In Russian, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory
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Lithuanian-Jewish Affairs: Three Events
(Reposted from today’s Jerusalem Post)
O P I N I O N
by Efraim Zuroff
Three events took place this weekend which reflect the ambiguities of contemporary Jewish life in the Baltics and particularly in Lithuania, the largest of the three new democracies. In reverse order, on Sunday, ultra-nationalist groups staged an Independence Day march, which included anti-Semitic themes, in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania’s interwar capital and the country’s second largest city.Continue reading
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Efraim Zuroff, EU, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Revisionism, Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, LAF (Lithuanian Activist Front), Lithuanian Embassy in London
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Another Panel at Yivo, Neo-Nazi Marches in Lithuania, and American Silence on Glorification of Nazi Collaborators
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
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
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Updates to 14 February 2014: Neo-Nazi March in Kaunas, Gov. Sponsored Camouflage Symspoium at Yivo in New York
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
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Efraim Zuroff on Tablet Magazine’s Co-Sponsorship of Lithuanian Government’s Yivo Event, and a Suggestion for Yivo’s Audience
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
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Film Maker Attempts to Gift New Film on Riga Ghetto to Latvian Embassy in German
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
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More Mainstream Media Coverage of the Swastika Issue in Lithuania
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
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Fate of the Old Jewish Synagogue in Náyshtot-Távrik (Žemaičių Naumiestis); Updates to 6 February 2014
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
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Is Tom Lantos’s Widow on Hungarian Government’s List of “Useful Foreigners”?
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
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Swedish Film Director Speaks Out on the Lithuanian Holocaust, Sort of, a Little Bit
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
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Kaunas, Vilnius, Riga: Planned 2014 Neo-Nazi Marches (Summary Coverage to 26 Jan. 2014)
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
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Summary Coverage on Upcoming “Baltic March Season”
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
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Double Genocide Movement’s “Prague Process” is Foundering — In Prague
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
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Respublika’s Editorial on Nazi Symbols in Use
The following is a translation, by Geoff Vasil for Defending History, of the editorial that appeared on 17 January 2014 in the Vilnius daily Respublika (p. 4), a day after the front page story (16 Jan.) featuring photographs of Faina Kukliansky and Moishe Beirakas, and a day before the front story (17. Jan) featuring Gercas Žakas.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Human Rights, Lithuania, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Symbology
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Respublika’s 16 January 2014 Front Page Article “Jews Don’t Want to Wear Nazi Symbols a Second Time”
The following translation, by Geoff Vasil, is of a front page article in the Vilnius daily Respublika (16 January 2014). The Lithuanian original is available online. See also: Geoff Vasil’s comment on the article which may serve as an introduction to some of the local issues and nuances.
Jews Don’t Want to Wear Nazi Symbols a Second Time
January 16, 2014 by Asta MARTIŠIŪTĖ and Olava STRIKULIENĖ, Respublika reporters MEP Vytautas Landsbergis, chairman of the Supreme Soviet/Restored Parliament of Lithuania, speaking at a solemn event to commemorate January 13 [1991], spoke in his speech about the Holocaust as well. Was it necessary to mention this at a ceremony dedicated to the 14 defenders of Lithuanian freedom who died and who hadn’t even been alive during Holocaust times? Beyond this, January 13 [commemorations] didn’t come off without yet another curiosity. A Wehrmacht symbol was used in the “Forget-me-not” campaign and MP Rasa Juknevičienė said next January it will be possible to acquire these symbols [lapel pins] throughout Lithuania, and not exclusively in the capital. Continue reading
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania, Symbology
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Forget Me Knot
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
In an attempt to maintain their reputation as the most anti-Semitic major newspaper in Lithuania, the editors at Respublika have fired a new salvo in their information war against the international forces of Communist Zionism with a straw-man argument designed to rehabilitate the swastika as a Lithuanian cultural heritage symbol.
Posted in Double Games, Geoff Vasil, Human Rights, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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The “Double Genocide” Backdrop to Current Disarray of the Red-Brown “Platform”
This week has seen a further public and, in most assessments, vitriolic attack, from the president of the (Prague-based) “Platform of European Memory and Conscience,” the European Union financed body responsible for “enacting” the 2008 Prague Declaration, against one of its own founding constituent members, the (Prague-based) “Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.”
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform", Sweden, The Czech Republic
Tagged 2008 Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, Double Genocide, Genocide Center in Vilnius, Platform of European Memory and Conscience, Prague Platform + Prague Institute, Prague Platform on former communists
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