Politics of Memory

The “Double Genocide” Backdrop to Current Disarray of the Red-Brown “Platform”

Posted on 15 January 2014 by Defending History

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 | Comments Off

Artists Knew, Allied Leaders Kept Silent

Posted on 6 January 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

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

When I was in New York last year, I saw an extraordinary exhibition of paintings by Marc Chagall, “War, Exile and Love” at the Jewish Museum. The focus was on the works he produced during his years of exile in the United States. This exhibition, well attended, shed an interesting light on what the artist knew about the horrific events unfolding in Europe at the time of his sojourn in the United States.

Posted in Arts, History, Human Rights, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Roland Binet, United Kingdom, United States | Tagged Jan Karski, Roland Binet, Szmul Zygielbojm, What did the Allies know about the Holocaust? | Comments Off

Efraim Zuroff Interviewed in Belgrade, Serbia by Aleksandar Roknić

Posted on 1 January 2014 by Defending History

I N T E R V I E W

**Efraim Zuroff is interviewed in Belgrade by Aleksandar Roknić. Translation from Danas, 28 December 2013, by Vesna Milosevic.**

Efraim Zuroff: World War II History is Being Rewritten

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office

Even if I were Superman I wouldn’t be able to bring to justice all remaining Nazis. Of course not. It is impossible. Nobody can do it. But if you ask me what is better — a bit of justice or injustice, I would always say — a bit of justice. You know, to me it is clear that even when the last Nazi dies, a battle is not over, because it begins over and over again.

And it is a battle with history which is more important than people may think and understand. Facing the history with sincerity is the best way to build a better future, says Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, while answering a question on whether he thinks that he would be able to bring to justice all remaining Nazis.

Posted in Croatia, Efraim Zuroff, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Eastern Europe, Holocaust in Lithuania, Serbia + Holocaust | Comments Off

New “National Council of Historical Memory” to Control Thought About History in Lithuania?

Posted on 24 December 2013 by Defending History

VILNIUS—Among other news portals in Lithuania, 15min.lt reported on 23 December that a group of nationalists in the Seimas (parliament) had proposed establishment of a new institution, the “National Council of Historical Memory” to set the “indisputable truth about historic events.” Coming on top of the 2010 red-brown criminalization of opinion law that has brought alarm from human rights circles in the European Union, this latest layer of state establishment of alleged historic truth would compound the damage.

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, History, Human Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Democracy in Lithuania, Holocaust in Lithuania | Comments Off

Head of Major Parliamentary Committee in Lithuania’s Parliament says: Israel should pay the pensions for Holocaust-era Rescuers; He Adds: “Jews Just Want to Take”

Posted on 24 December 2013 by Defending History

VILNIUS—Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) veteran Bronius Bradauskas, chairman of the parliament’s powerful Budget and Finance Committee, has sparked controversy in comments he made about whether those who rescued Jews during World War II deserve state pensions in line with “freedom fighters’ pensions” received among others by veterans of the postwar “Forest Brothers,” some of whom were recycled Holocaust perpetrators.

He told Baltic News Service (BNS):

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Bronius Bradauskas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Righteous Among the Nations in Lithuania | Comments Off

A Love Story

Posted on 24 December 2013 by Defending History

R E P L Y / O P I N I O N

by Pinchos Fridberg

NOTE: Translated from the Russian by Ludmilla Makadonskaya (Grodno). In the event of any matter arising or doubt, the Russian original is alone authoritative.

BNS (Baltic News Service), Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 15:04:

Social Security Ministry: there is no money for possible pensions for [Holocaust-era] Rescuers of Jews.

Continue reading

Posted in Double Games, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory | Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg, Righteous Among the Nations (Lithuania) | Comments Off

Raising Cain on the Resurrection of Abel

Posted on 22 December 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Genesis 3:13

And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. Genesis 4:10

Driving east out of Rokiškis, fields give way to forest, and the lake country leads on to strange and wild hills in an abandoned quarter of the country bordering Latvia. The lake country is beautiful, almost alpine in its effect, and spotted with small settlements and villages of varying sizes, some even boasting gas stations and schools.

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Arts, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Rákishok (Rokiškis), Symbology | Tagged Genocide Center in Vilnius, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Obeliai | Comments Off

A Question in Berlin about President Gauck’s Signature on the Prague Declaration

Posted on 20 December 2013 by Defending History

BERLIN—It was reported today that German president, Joachim Gauck, was cited at a 9 December 2013 news conference here about his signature on the controversial 2008 Prague Declaration, that is widely considered to be the foundation document of the “Double Genocide” movement in Europe that seeks to legislate complete equivalence between Nazi and Soviet crimes, thereby downgrading the Holocaust.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Germany, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Jewish Berlin, Miriam Magall, Prague Declaration + Presdent Gauck | Comments Off

World Union for Progressive Judaism “Fully Endorses” the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD)

Posted on 19 December 2013 by Defending History

LONDON—The World Union for Progressive Judaism released the following statement today, endorsing the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD). It also appears on the WUPJ website.

The news release, which was also circulated widely via the WUPJ’s emailed news reports, follows by half a year the SYD’s endorsement by Britain’s major Orthodox union, The United Synagogue, in the summer of 2013. [SYD text in European languages]

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Estonia, EU, Events, Latvia, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom | Tagged Double Genocide, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), Prague Declaration of 2008, Seventy Years Declaration, Waffen SS in Estonia, Waffen SS in Latvia, World Union for Progressive Judaism + Holocaust | Comments Off

Facebook Discussion (3 to 11 Dec. 2013) on a Nov. 2013 University of Toronto Event

Posted on 19 December 2013 by Defending History

Dovid Katz shared a link.

December 3 ·

Friends in TORONTO and CANADA: Some links relating to the recent “Holocaust in Lithuania” symposium at the University of Toronto: https://defendinghistory.com/summary-coverage-of-toronto-24-nov-2013-symposium-on-the-holocaust-in-lithuania/61406 Toronto | DefendingHistory.com defendinghistory.com

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Canada, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged Christoph Dieckmann, Christoph Dieckmann + Holocaust in Lithuania, Fern Smiley, Holocaust Studies in Toronto, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Sara Ginaite | Comments Off

Yiddish Roulette? One Resigns in Bloomington, Another Rides In from Buffalo

Posted on 19 December 2013 by Defending History

Sources in Bloomington, Indiana and Vilnius, Lithuania, confirmed this week that Dr. Daniel R. Berg, an eminent physician in the greater Bloomington area, has resigned from the rump “Board of Friends” of Sarunas Liekis’s “Vilnius Yiddish Institute” (VYI). The institute’s website abruptly removed Dr. Berg’s name and photograph from the board. No letter of resignation was released to the media, but a source close to the doctor said he was dismayed to see the institute’s resources being dedicated to a campaign of defamation against its own former Yiddish professor and founder, whose name and contributions have been deleted from the historic faculty page, in the classic Soviet style of revising history.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Bloomington-Borns Program Manipulated?, Double Games, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Richard Maullin, United States, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged AHEYM, Bloomington, Borns Jewish Studies Program at Bloomington, collector's item Yiddish t-shirt, Dan Opatoshu, Dov-Ber Kerler (Boris Karloff), Dr. Daniel Berg (Bloomington, Indiana University, Jerold Frakes + Jerusalem of Lithuania (Vilna), Jerold Frakes + Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Liekis + Yiddish institute, Richard Maullin, Sarunas Liekis, Sarunas Liekis + Yiddish institute, Steven Spielberg + Holocaust, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Vilnius Yiddish Summer Program, Yiddish at Borns Jewish Studies Program, Yiddish at Buffalo | Comments Off

Summary Coverage of 1-2 December 2013 London Events at ORT and Westminster Synagogue Sponsored by Lithuanian Embassy

Posted on 6 December 2013 by Defending History

Monica Lowenberg Issues Public Letter on Lithuanian Embassy Event

Embassy’s Latest PR Initiative Entangles Westminster Synagogue and British ORT

Lowenberg Family Severs Lifelong ORT Ties

EVENT ORGANIZERS DID NOT ALLOW PETITION TO BE READ OUT

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Monica Lowenberg, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom | Tagged British ORT, Lithuanian Embassy in London, London, Monica Lowenberg, Westminster Synagogue | Comments Off

Summary Coverage of Toronto 24 Nov. 2013 Symposium on the Holocaust in Lithuania

Posted on 5 December 2013 by Defending History

University of Toronto’s Centre for Jewish Studies is latest target of Lithuanian Government’s one-sided roadshow featuring the “Red Brown Commission”; Recent gigs in Vilnius, Berlin, LA, London, Philadelphia

But in addition to THREE Commission members, announced panel also included Kovno Ghetto survivor and scholar Prof. Sara Ginaitė who challenged ongoing revisionism re outbreak of the Holocaust in the week of 22 June 1941

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", Canada, Double Games, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged University of Toronto Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto Holocaust Studies | Comments Off

An Open Letter to Steve Linde, Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post

Posted on 5 December 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Olga Zabludoff

Editor’s note: This and other responses were first offered to the Jerusalem Post for publication.

The Lithuanian government is pouring ever more resources and doing an ever better job with its PR campaign to turn Litvaks (Jews of Lithuanian origin) into virtual PR agents who now go further than they do themselves: painting a picture of the New Jewish Paradise in Lithuania without even mentioning the existence of painful current issues. Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Steve Linde no doubt meant only the best with his Chapter-of-Psalms, and will, I feel confident, now be happy to give the issues some rounded airing.

Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Games, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Israel, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Olga Zabludoff, Opinion, Politics of Memory, South Africa | Tagged Brothers Zingeris (Lithuania), Holocaust in Lihuania, Jerusalem Post + Lithuania, Olga Zabludoff, South Africans + Lithuania, Steve Linde | Comments Off

A Decision to Not (!) Regard Holocaust Rescuers as Heroes of the Nation

Posted on 4 December 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Evaldas Balčiūnas

Authorized translation from Lithuanian by Geoff Vasil

This week the Lithuanian government resolved not to grant so-called hero’s pensions to surviving rescuers of Jews.

The decision is an odd one and raises doubts concerning the values to which this government claims to adhere. Although truth be told, this isn’t the first instance of unseemly conduct showing disrespect to hundreds of thousands of people murdered just because they were Jewish and towards those Lithuanians who attempted to save those scheduled for execution.

Posted in Evaldas Balčiūnas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Monica Lowenberg Releases Text of Letter to British ORT on Latest Lithuanian Embassy Sponsored “Litvak Do” in London

Posted on 27 November 2013 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Monica Lowenberg

Monica Lowenberg’s office has released for publication the following public letter sent to British ORT.

British ORT, FAO The Chief Executive, Mr. Dan Green

25 November 2013

Dear Mr. Green,

It is with deep regret that my 90 year old father, Ernest Lowenberg, former Berlin ORT pupil and I write to you today.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Collaborators Glorified, Documents, Double Games, EU, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Monica Lowenberg, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom, World Jewish Congress (WJC) and ORT | Tagged British ORT, Egidijus Aleksandravicius, Lionidas Donskis, Lithuanian Embassy in London, Litvaks, Monica Lowenberg, University College London (UCL), Vytautas Magnus University, Westminster Synagogue | Comments Off

Lithuanian Parliament’s Communications Unit Replies to Professor Fridberg

Posted on 22 November 2013 by Defending History

VILNIUS—The communications department of the Chancellery of the Parliament (Seimas) of the Republic of Lithuania has replied to Professor Pinchos Fridberg, confirming that his query will be forwarded to the appropriate committee. Full translation of the 19 November 2013 letter follows beneath the facsimile below. Translation by Geoff Vasil. This report was updated on 1 December 2013.

Posted in Lithuania, News & Views, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Lithuanian State Language Commission Turns Down Jewish Community’s Suggestion for a Spelling Rule that “Holocaust” Be Spelled with a Capital “H”

Posted on 21 November 2013 by Defending History

VILNIUS—Defending History today obtained from local sources a copy of the official statement of the Lithuanian State Language Commission concerning the spelling, in Lithuanian, of the word for Holocaust, usually Holokaustas.

For some it will sound astounding that in the country with the highest percentage of Jews killed (96.4%) in Holocaust era Europe, where a massive state effort has been underway to promote “Double Genocide” and the “Prague Declaration,” a simple suggestion from the tiny remnant Jewish community that Holocaust be spelled with a capital letter (denoting its status as a unique event in history) has drawn a tortured, convoluted reply from the state language commission, one that seems to wittingly confound the capitalization question with the issue of whether holocausts strike far and wide, like hurricanes.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Symbology | Comments Off

Street Names Honoring Holocaust Collaborators

Posted on 20 November 2013 by Defending History

Text of a Letter to the Editor in today’s International New York Times:

Lithuania’s Holocaust debate

Regarding “Lithuania’s unloved sentinels” (News, Nov. 13): James Kanter admirably sums up the pros and cons of retaining in central Vilnius “the last major monuments on public display here that still trumpet Communism,” namely a set of statues on Green Bridge. Although he mentions that there is “now little trace of a once thriving Jewish community obliterated in the Holocaust,” he neglects to mention the street names, museum exhibits, public plaques and more that honor local Holocaust collaborators and perpetrators (on the grounds that they were “also” anti-Soviet). The lively debate raging here shouldn’t be kept from Western eyes.

Dovid Katz, Vilnius, Lithuania

Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Vilnius Genocide Center Releases a New Graywash on the Vilna Ghetto

Posted on 19 November 2013 by Defending History

B O O K S / O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

◊

The unfortunate and wasteful campaign of Holocaust obfuscation waged by certain East European state institutions continues apace. The level of investment continues to strike outsiders as puzzling, given current economic and cultural issues and the younger population’s clear focus on the future and a better life for all in the new and multicultural European Union. Here in Lithuania, the first victims of the government’s (rather Soviet-style) “genocide industry” are the hard-working people of the country who deserve more judicious disbursement of their nation’s resources. The state-sponsored Genocide Center has just released three simultaneous editions (English, Lithuanian and Russian) of a new book on the Vilna Ghetto by historian Arūnas Bubnys, its own “director of the Genocide and Resistance Research Department.”

Dr. Bubnys is also a member of the state-sponsored “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania” (known for short as the “red-brown commission”). He was one of a minority of members of the Commission who refused to sign the (in the opinion of some, inadequate) letter of 14 October 2013 to Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Books, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dovid Katz, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Dr. Rokhl (Rachel) Margolis (1921-2015), EU, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Poland, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai), Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust Obfuscation, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Lithuania, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off

Dozens of authors & sections. Thousands of posts (& pages). Editor’s papers. Seminars. Contact. Support defending history.

———

Scholars & journalists: When you use DH, please cite DH.

———

Litvak Times

• LYVA: Lithuanian Yiddish videos

• Vilna Jewish mini museum

• Interwar mini museum

• Litvak language atlas

• Towns and cities

• Gaon of Vilna

• Mikháleshik yizkor book

• Contemporary Litvak affairs

• Resource page

• Windows to a Lost Jewish Past

• Seven Kingdoms of the Litvaks

• Work in Litvak Studies

• Kaddish

• SUPPORT PROJECTS

◊

Yiddish

◊

Latest

Politics of Memory

O P I N I O N

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

I N T E R V I E W

Efraim Zuroff is interviewed in Belgrade by Aleksandar Roknić. Translation from Danas, 28 December 2013, by Vesna Milosevic.

Efraim Zuroff: World War II History is Being Rewritten

R E P L Y / O P I N I O N

by Pinchos Fridberg

NOTE: Translated from the Russian by Ludmilla Makadonskaya (Grodno). In the event of any matter arising or doubt, the Russian original is alone authoritative.

O P I N I O N

by Geoff Vasil

Dovid Katz shared a link.

University of Toronto’s Centre for Jewish Studies is latest target of Lithuanian Government’s one-sided roadshow featuring the “Red Brown Commission”; Recent gigs in Vilnius, Berlin, LA, London, Philadelphia

But in addition to THREE Commission members, announced panel also included Kovno Ghetto survivor and scholar Prof. Sara Ginaitė who challenged ongoing revisionism re outbreak of the Holocaust in the week of 22 June 1941

O P I N I O N

by Olga Zabludoff

Editor’s note: This and other responses were first offered to the Jerusalem Post for publication.

O P I N I O N

by Evaldas Balčiūnas

O P I N I O N

by Monica Lowenberg

B O O K S / O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

◊

**Scholars & journalists: When you use DH, please cite DH.**

**Efraim Zuroff is interviewed in Belgrade by Aleksandar Roknić. Translation from Danas, 28 December 2013, by Vesna Milosevic.**