- April 2010: The Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Efraim Zuroff comments (in the Guardian) on the American ambassador’s assurance that “The United States and Lithuania are partners in the fight against antisemitism and in efforts to address the legacy of the Holocaust” bereft of any mention of the “slight problems,” e.g. state-sanctioned neo-Nazi marches on independence day, attempted prosecution of Holocaust survivors, glorification of Nazi perpetrators, disturbing comments by top officials and a general decline into the acceptability of antisemitism.
- Continue reading
Politics of Memory
The Disquieting 2010-2012 Record of the American Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory, The Great SLS About-Face, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged Ambassador Anne Derse, Efraim Zuroff, Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonathan M. Berger, Lithuania, Marc Tracy, Markas Zingeris, United States embassy in Vilnius
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Lithuanian President’s Decree on “Red-Brown Commission” is Re-issued with “New Sentence”
Baltic News Service (BNS) has just released yet more convoluted news on the renewal of the “red-brown commission” by, it appears, yet another revised presidential decree. Full text of the BNS report follows below.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem and Lithuania
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Yivo and the Lithuanian Government: Box coverage to 16 October 2012
New York: Yivo’s Lithuanian Circus—Blow to Holocaust Survivors and their Families—Coming to Town on Tuesday
Milan Chersonski (Vilnius)
Allan Nadler (Drew University)
Faye Ran (New York)
Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem)
From surrendering books to surrendering history: “sad and mad” Yivo saga continues. When it all started…
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Dr. Jonathan Brent
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Former Director of Yivo Speaks Out on Current Policies Concerning Lithuania
The comments on Dr. Efraim Zuroff’s 14 Oct. 2012 op-ed in The Times of Israel on Yivo’s current policies regarding Lithuanian issues include one (dated 15 Oct.) from Yivo’s former director, Professor Allan Nadler of Drew University. His comment:
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Dr. Jonathan Brent (Yivo)
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US Documentary Film Maker Releases Correspondence with Yad Vashem on Alliance with Lithuanian “Red-Brown Commission”
The American documentary film maker Richard Bloom, who has produced a number of documentaries on the Holocaust, today released for publication his recent correspondence with Yad Vashem. He said his decision was taken after he failed to receive substantive replies to his recent queries about Yad Vashem rejoining the Lithuanian government’s “red-brown commission.”
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Arts, Film, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem and Lithuania
Tagged International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Richard Bloom, The Litvak Connection, Yad Vashem
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Ukrainian Ultranationalists Sponsor Lecture Tour Across North American Universities
O P I N I O N
by Per Anders Rudling
Last week, a Canada-wide lecture tour by Ruslan Zabily was announced. He is the former director of the Center for the Study of the Liberation Movement and the current director of the Lonsky Street Prison National Memorial Museum (for short: the Lonsky Museum) in Lviv, Ukraine.
AT THE LONSKY MUSEUM: JEWISH HOLOCAUST VICTIMS PHOTOSHOPPED OUT. A woman has just recognized a loved one among the victims of the NKVD killings in 1941. In the background of the original photo one also sees groups of Jewish victims of the massacre which followed within days of the NKVD murders (Jews were forced to carry and rebury these victims). Thousands of Jews were killed as Soviet crimes were blamed on them and used to incite antisemitic violence and murder. In this photoshopped version on display at the Lonsky Museum, the nationalists’ Jewish civilian victims are literally covered by the circular insertions of Soviet crime statistics, implicitly ethniziced as Ukrainian suffering.
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The original image, before photoshopping at the Lonsky…
The lecture tour includes some of the most prestigious universities in Canada — the universities of Alberta, Toronto, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ottawa — as well as Harvard University’s Ukrainian Studies Institute in the United States. The lectures in Alberta and Toronto are facilitated by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies; the Peter Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine; the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies; the Harvard Institute of Ukrainian Studies and its Chair of Ukrainian Studies.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Bandera, Canada, Collaborators Glorified, Events, Free Speech & Democracy, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Per Anders Rudling, Politics of Memory, Ukraine
Tagged Askold Lozynskyj, Harvard University Ukrainian Studies Institute, Lonsky Museum in Lviv (Ukraine), Per Anders Rudling, Ruslan Zabily, Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian ultranationalism in Cnada
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Efraim Zuroff Comments on Facebook on Next Tuesday’s Zingeris Event at Yivo in New York City
Efraim Zuroff, the Holocaust historian, Nazi-hunter and author, today posted the following message on his Facebook page. It is reproduced here with the permission of Dr. Zuroff, who is director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel office and its Operation Last Chance. For more on the alleged US embassy (Vilnius) blackballing of Dr. Zuroff from an international 2011 summer program in Vilnius see here. Background to the Yivo event: see Milan Chersonski’s article.
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This is a call for action to those in the NYC area. This coming Tuesday, October 16 at 7 PM, YIVO is hosting an evening at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th St. entitled “Reclaiming The Jewish Narrative in Lithuania Today.” The problem is that the featured guests are all supporters of the Lithuanian government’s efforts to promote the canard of equivalency between Communist and Nazi crimes and are minimizing the huge role of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jews. Anyone able to go and confront Markas Zingeris, the Lithuanian PM’s advisor on genocide, and former US ambassador to Lithuania Anne Derse whose embassy blackballed my participation in a seminar on Lithuanian Jewish history at the request of the Lithuanian authorities, will be doing a big mitzva!!!
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Efraim Zuroff, Events, Free Speech & Democracy, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Anne Derse, Center for Jewish History, Efraim Zuroff, Markas Zingeris, Yivo, Yivo Lithuania
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Canadian Missile Lands in Sweden
The following is the letter dated 5 October signed by a number of leading figures of Ukrainian nationalist groups in Canada and sent to the vice-chancellor of Lund University in Sweden complaining about the opinions voiced by postdoctoral fellow Per Anders Rudling, a prominent young historian. [Updates: Dr. Rudling’s DefendingHistory.com article on the subject is here; an open letter from scholars supporting him is here.]
Posted in Canada, Documents, News & Views, Per Anders Rudling, Politics of Memory, Sweden, Ukraine
Tagged Per Anders Rudling
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Samples of the Work of a Holocaust-Twisting, Antisemitic, Homophobic Envelope Designer
The following are among the envelopes designed by Antanas Šakalys who continues to be honored by his (other) works being exhibited at both Vilnius University and the Central Post Office in the Lithuanian capital. Details and further links.
These samples are categorized as follows:
1. Holocaust Distortion/Inversion (blaming of victims, honoring of perpetrators, defamation of historians).
2. Antisemitism.
3. Homophobia and Assault on Equal Rights.
4. Defamation of Lithuanian personalities who call for tolerance.
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Holocaust Distortion/Inversion (blaming of victims, honoring of perpetrators, defamation of historians)
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Bloomington-Borns Program Manipulated?, Collaborators Glorified, Documents, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Russian Speakers' Personal Status
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Lithuanian Translation of the 25 September 2012 Letter from Congressmen Sherman, Wachman, Berman to the Prime Minister of Lithuania
The following is a translation into Lithuanian of the letter signed by US congressmen Brad Sherman, Henry Wachman and Howard Berman on 25 September 2012. English original is here. Published Russian translation. Both translations were provided by Jacob Piliansky (Vilnius).
- JAV Kongresas
- Vašingtonas
- Rugsėjo 25, 2012
Gerbiamasis, Ministre Pirmininke Kubiliau
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, September 23rd Commemorations, United States
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Vylius-Vėlavičius: Patriot or Another “Tuskulėnai Peace Park” Holocaust Perpetrator?
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
In my recent article about the war criminals buried at Tuskulėnai Memoral Park in Vilnius I provided a list of Nazi collaborators convicted by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1943, and May 24, 1944 of murdering civilians during the Holocaust. This does not mean, however, that those convicted under other laws are guiltless.
SEE ALSO:
Milan Chersonski on Tuskulėnai Park in Vilnius
According to criminal case materials and archival material examined by Lithuanian historians, there are rabid Nazi collaborators buried at Tuskulėnai Memoral Park. Despite the facts, today falsified, but very “patriotic,” biographies for these people are being crafted and disseminated, according to which they are portrayed as fearless warriors who battled for a free Lithuania.
I have written about one of them, Jonas Noreika, nicknamed General Vėtra, convicted under sections 1a and 2 of article 58 of the criminal code of the RSFSR, but who was recently decorated posthumously by Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus, so I won’t repeat that here.
Posted in "Tuskulėnai Peace Park", Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Exotic Jewish Tourism, History, Lithuania, Museums, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Evaldas Balciunas, Ignas Vylius- Vėlavičius, Ninth Fort
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Dr. Per Anders Rudling’s Email to Colleagues of 3 October 2012 Concerning the Zabily Speaking Tour In North America
The following is the text of the email which Dr. Per Anders Rudling circulated to colleagues today on the subject of Ruslan Zabily’s planned North American lecture tour, including engagements at top universities and a meeting with the prime minister of Canada.
3 October 2012 16:03:03 CEST Dear Colleagues,
Posted in Bandera, Canada, Documents, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Per Anders Rudling, Politics of Memory, Sweden
Tagged Per Anders Rudling
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A “New” Postcard, Featuring Antisemitic Distortion of the 1941 Lietukis Garage Massacre, Comes to Light as Vilnius University Calls the Envelope-Maker “Humanistic”
Just as Vilnius University put up a sign in Lithuanan and English, defending as “humanistic” its exhibition of a collection of envelopes by the antisemitic and homophobic designer Antanas Šakalys, the VU employee who had first provided the offensive images to DefendingHistory, which we published on 21 September 2012, provided another, at 2PM today, to coincide with the time of the scheduled gala opening of the exhibition, cancelled after our article and the 25 Septenber Delfi.lt report by Eglė Samoškaitė. The 2PM slot was then symbolically taken up at the university by a group of nine dauntless protesters against the glorification of an antisemitic and homophobic designer.
Ironically the envelope released today, a production of the same designer, also refers to “humanism”…
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Symbology
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Yad Vashem Sinking Deeper in Lithuanian “Commission” Morass with Political Campaign for Compensation from Russia
The polite fiction that the renewed Lithuanian state sponsored “Red-Brown Commission” will advance Holocaust research and research on Soviet crimes strictly at the academic and educational levels took a big hit today, before even its first meetings.
A BNS report released today confirms that the Commission, officially known as The International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, is one of the bodies that will be involved with demanding compensation from Russia for Soviet crimes against Lithuania.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Israel, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Yad Vashem and Lithuania
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Three United States Congressmen Write to Lithuanian Prime Minister on the Reburial and Glorification of the 1941 Nazi Puppet Prime Minister
The following letter (PDF here), addressed to Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubulius, from US congressmen Brad Sherman, Henry Waxman and Howard Berman was made available today.
Posted in Documents, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
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US Congressmen Sherman, Waxman and Berman Write to Lithuania’s Prime Minister on the 2012 Honoring of the 1941 Nazi Puppet Prime Minister
The following letter to the prime minister of Lithuania, Andrius Kubilius, from three members of the United States Congress representing southern California districts was released today to DefendingHistory. The letter is signed by US representatives Brad Sherman (San Fernando Valley, California), Henry Waxman (Santa Monica & Beverley Hills) and Howard Berman (Panorama City & North Hollywood).
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Documents, Human Rights, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States
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Holocaust Commemoration Vilnius Style — with an Israeli Twist
E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T / O P I N I O N
The ceremony today to commemorate Lithuanian Holocaust victims at Ponár, the country’s largest mass murder site, outside the capital city of Vilnius, on the day officially known as Day to Commemorate the Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, went off pretty much as most official commemorations do here: inappropriate and with seeming desperation to focus on any topic except the circumstances of the actual Lithuanian Holocaust—the massive collaboration and participation that led to the country’s having the highest proportion of Holocaust murder in Europe.
Ponár is the site’s Yiddish name. It is today Paneriai and is known as Ponary in Polish.
The official date, the 23rd of September was marked this year on the 24th, apparently so officials wouldn’t have to interrupt their weekend break.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dovid Katz, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Israel, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai), Symbology, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius
Tagged Lithuanian-Israeli Relations, Menachem Begin + Vilnius, Ponar (Paneriai, Ponary), Remigijus Šimašius, Vilna Ghetto commemoration
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Replika/ Replica/ Реплика
O P I N I O N
by Pinchos Fridberg
Straipsnis / Article / Статья
Prisimenant žydų atminimą, Vilniuje ir Kaune bus skaitomi gete kalėjusiųjų vardai
http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/prisimenant-zydu-atminima-vilniuje-ir-kaune-bus-skaitomi-gete-kalejusiuju-vardai.d?id=59568765#ixzz27HDV3Frm
EN: In memory of the victims of Jewish genocide in Lithuania, the names of Ghetto Prisoners will be read in Vilnius and Kaunas.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, In Russian, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory
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Vilnius University to Host Exhibit by Antisemitic, Homophobic “Envelope Artist”
According to Vilnius University’s website, a ceremony to open an exhibition of “envelope art” by Antanas Šakalys will be held in the White Hall of the university’s main library on 27 September at 2 PM. Mr. Šakalys’s antisemitic postcards were on sale for many years at the capital’s main Post Office, and were exposed in 2008 by the Jewish community’s newspaper, Jerusalem of Lithuania.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Bloomington-Borns Program Manipulated?, Collaborators Glorified, Events, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Racism, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs
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ГОСПОДИН ИСПОЛНИТЕЛНЫЙ ДИРЕКТОР, ЭТО ВАШ ВЫБОР?
Уважаемый г-н Джонатан Брент,
12 сентября 2011 года я, Милан Херсонский, написал Вам первое Открытое письмо. Я писал Вам о том, что вечер памяти жертв геноцида евреев Вильнюса с участием министра иностранных дел Литовской Республики Аудрониса Ажубалиса неуместно проводить в стенах YIVO. Если Вы своевременно не прочитали мое письмо, то сейчас Вы можете найти его в интернете: https://defendinghistory.com/milan-chersonski-longtime-editor-of-jerusalem-of-lithuania-releases-a-public-letter-to-the-director-of-yivo-in-new-york/21916 Насколько мне известно, не один я протестовал против приглашения А.Ажубалиса на это собрание. Протесты были не случайны: незадолго до Вашего приглашения А.Ажубалис позволил себе (и увы, не впервые!) антисемитскую эскападу, продемонстрировав таким образом свою подлинную политическую позицию в отношении евреев.
Posted in In Russian, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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