Lithuania

Defending History Team in Vilnius Thanks Targum Shlishi for Support

Posted on 5 February 2015 by Defending History

VILNIUS—The Defending History team based here wrote today to Targum Shlishi in the United States to thank its board and director for offering support to the Defending History project at a critical juncture in its seven year history. The Vilnius-based project began in the spring of 2008, its web journal Holocaust in the Baltics got underway in 2009 and was renamed Defending History in 2010.

Targum Shlishi cited Defending History’s work in its newsletter today. The relevant paragraph reads as follows:

Posted in Lithuania, Media Watch, News & Views | Comments Off

Run-Up to the Annual February 16th Neo-Nazi March in Kaunas

Posted on 5 February 2015 by Defending History

WILL LITHUANIA’S LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST GRANTING MAJOR CITY CENTERS ON INDEPENDENCE DAYS TO NEO-NAZI MARCHES THAT ADULATE 1941 HOLOCAUST COLLABORATORS?

WILL “BAGEL SHOP” AND OTHER FUNDED MONITORS ISSUE A MORALLY DIGNIFIED STATEMENT? A MEMBER OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT; HIS EARLIER VIDEOTAPED INTERVIEW IN RICHARD BLOOM’S DOCUMENTARY.

Posted in EU, Events, Human Rights, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania | Comments Off

How Did Lithuanians Wrong Litvaks?

Posted on 5 February 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N / H I S T O R Y

by Andrius Kulikauskas

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Iwill speak about painful things, and so I understand if some of you won’t want to listen and will step out.

It is most important that we empathize with the victims of the Holocaust, and yet we must also empathize with the perpetrators if we wish to understand what happened and who was responsible for what. Litvaks outside of Lithuania feel hurt that Lithuanians shirk responsibility for the Holocaust.

I won’t be indifferent. I am a deliberate Lithuanian. I was born in the diaspora. I chose to be Lithuanian. Is the Lithuanian worldview harmful? I must investigate.

Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Andrius Kulikauskas, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, History, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged Andrius Kulikauskas, Holocaust in Lithuania | Comments Off

Kaunas Police Informs Defending History on Status of February 16th Neo-Nazi March

Posted on 3 February 2015 by Defending History

KAUNAS—As in previous years (for example, 2013), the Kaunas District Police Department today informed Defending History that it has issued no permits for a march on February 16th, referring us instead to the body that would have issued the permit — the Kaunas City Municipality, which has not (yet) responded to our queries. The letter received (image below) states “We inform you that Kaunas County Police have not issued a permit for organizing a march / rally” on 16 February 2015, and suggests “you refer to Kaunas City Municipality.”

Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Documents, EU, Human Rights, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Swastikas in Lithuania | Tagged Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Kaunas Police, Neo-Nazi marches in Kaunas | Comments Off

The Bubnys Event at the 2015 Jewish Community Auschwitz Commemoration

Posted on 2 February 2015 by Defending History

E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T / O P I N I O N

by Julius Norwilla

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This year much of the world commemorates the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. The day of its liberation, January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. To mark the day this year, on the 26th of January, the Jewish Community of Lithuania organized three events, as reported in Defending History.

The final event of the day was the book launch for The Šiauliai Ghetto featuring as sole announced speaker its author, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys, director of the Genocide and Resistance Research Department of the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania; for a critical view of the Genocide Center, as it is known for short, see Defending History’s page and news section on the institution.

Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Books, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Events, Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Faina Kukliansky, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocauast in Lithuania, Jevgenija Sedova, Jewish Community of Lithuania, Jewish museum (Vilnius), Julius Norwilla, Siauliai (Shavl) Ghetto | Comments Off

A Secret Revealed? On Destruction of the Jewish Community of Betygala, Lithuania

Posted on 1 February 2015 by Defending History

H I S T O R Y

by Aleksandras Vitkus and Chaim Bargman

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Betygala (in Yiddish: Betigóle) is one of the oldest towns in Samogitia (Žemaitija), known since the time of Duke Mindaugas in the thirteenth century. The small town is located about 2 kilometers from the River Dubysa, near the little Vieversa stream. The surroundings of Betygala are very beautiful, especially the valley, shores and effluents of the River Dubysa. In Betygala we can find the monument of Vytautas the Great which remained standing even during the Soviet period.

Posted in Chaim Bargman, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion | Comments Off

Jewish Community’s Formal Reply to Dr. Efraim Zuroff

Posted on 31 January 2015 by Defending History

The following statement appeared today on the website of the Jewish Community of Lithuania:

STATEMENT BY THE JEWISH (LITVAK) COMMUNITY

It is not surprising that experienced journalists and politicians as well as leaders of well-known Jewish institutions, who are following Ms. Kukliansky’s activities devoted to expose Nazi criminals as well as to fight Neo-Nazism, were left in a complete state of confusion after reading Mr. Zuroff’s so called protest.

Posted in Events, Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky | Comments Off

Poetry Section Launched

Posted on 29 January 2015 by Defending History

VILNIUS—Defending History today announced its launch of a modest poetry section which will aim to harness the inspire the work of East European poets whose work includes verse in defense of history and human rights and exposing racism and antisemitism.

The section starts with the work of two poets in Lithuania: Ken Slade’s My Dream of When the Witch is Found; and Nine Poems by the late Aleksandras Bosas (1951-2014), a posthumous awardee of Defending History’s inaugural series of Prophet Amos Awards for Human Rights for 2014-2015.

Posted in Aleksandras Bosas, Arts, Bold Citizens Speak Out, Lithuania, News & Views, Poetry | Comments Off

Wiesenthal Center Blasts Vilnius Genocide Center’s Involvement in Jewish Community’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Event

Posted on 28 January 2015 by Defending History

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement expressing dismay that Vilnius’s state-sponsored Genocide Center (full name: Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania) was included in the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s annual program marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. The third of three events was dedicated entirely to a book produced by the Center. The only announced speaker for the event, the book’s author, is known for rejecting known elements of the historic narrative of the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, for his support for monuments for pro-Hitler forces, and for participation in far-right pro-fascist journals.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Lithuania, Shimon Alperovich, Simon Wiesenthal Center + Lithuania | Comments Off

Three Holocaust Remembrance Day Events in Vilnius on 26 January 2015

Posted on 26 January 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

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For some reason held on 26 January, a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, three events were announced together in a flyer posted by the Jewish Community of Lithuania and disseminated by other interested organizations in Vilnius.

Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Evgenia Sedova, Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Liberation of Auschwitz commemorated, Shavl (Siauliai) Ghetto | Comments Off

Lithuanian Parliamentarian Threatens Violence against LGBT Rights Leader, Accuses Him of “Speaking with an Accent”

Posted on 20 January 2015 by Defending History

H U M A N R I G H T S / L G B T R I G H T S

by Lithuanian LGBT Rights Organization / LGL

Reposted from the LGL site with permission

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On January 18th, 2015, a member of the Lithuanian Parliament (the Seimas), Algirdas Vaclovas Patackas publicly warned the Board Chair of the national LGBT human rights association LGL that the organization is “playing with fire” and that its activities might result in a “black, repulsive and totally unacceptable response” similar to what “happened in Paris.” The statement by the MP was issued as a response to the organization’s humorous suggestion to store 10-litas notes as LGBT souvenirs in the wake of the switchover to the euro on 1 January 2015.

Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion | Tagged human rights in Lithuania, LGBT rights in Lithuania, Vladimir Simonenko | Comments Off

The Two Full Stahlecker Reports: Holocaust Atrocities in the Baltics

Posted on 16 January 2015 by Defending History

D O C U M E N T S

by Rafael Katz

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The Stahlecker Reports offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of what was the onset the Final Solution: the Baltic invasion within Operation Barbarossa. Naturally, Most wartime documents deal with the effect and aftermath of the war. In the sea of war documents, the Stahlecker Reports are pivotal, in that in that they shed some light on the backdrop and the motives behind the war’s operations.

Posted in Documents, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Rafael Katz, Raphael Katz | Tagged Einsatzgruppen, Franz Walter Stahlecker, Holocaust in Lithuania, Rafael Katz, Reinhard Heydrich, Stahlecker Reports (full text) | Comments Off

Some Family Relics of Jewish Vilna

Posted on 15 January 2015 by Defending History

M E M O I R S

by Pinchos Fridberg

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Coming across the Jewish Life in Poland section of Yivo’s website, I decided to write this short memoir. This photograph shows the teachers and graduates of the Vilner Yiddish Real-Gymnasium (Vílner yídishe reál-gimnázye) in 1930. The school’s principal was Leyb Turbowich, and the literature teacher (until his migration to Minsk in 1928) was the great Jewish poet Moyshe Kulbak, the author of a well-known Yiddish poem Vílne, among many others.

Posted in History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Memoirs, News & Views, Pinchos Fridberg | Tagged Jewish Vilnius, Jewish Vina, Pinchos Fridberg | Comments Off

Two “C Words” for Holocaust Museums: Center of Town, and — Collaboration

Posted on 24 December 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

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Christmas-time congratulations are due to the four architects who have won the Vilnius state Jewish museum’s competition for plans to build a Holocaust museum at the mass murder site known as Ponár in Yiddish, Ponary before the war in Polish, and currently Lithuanian Paneriai. It is a short ride outside the capital city Vilnius. The victory of the foursome, Jautra Bernotaitė, Ronaldas Pučka (team leader), Andrius Ropolas and Paulius Vaitiekūnas, is announced on the museum’s website (and on Mr. Ropolas’s site). The competition was jointly run with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. The elaborate description of the project’s conception, by the Union of Architects, includes many sophisticated concepts, with multiple learned citations, from Freud to Foucault. Just one rather simpler word, a word (and exhibit) needed for any Holocaust museum, is missing from the text: collaboration.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai) | Tagged Andrius Ropolas, Holocaust memorials, Holocaust museums, Jautra Bernotaitė, Jewish State Museum of Lithuania, Kazimierz Sakowicz, new museum at Ponar, Paneriai, Paulius Vaitiekūnas, Ponar, Ponary), Rachel Margolis, Ronaldas Pučka | Comments Off

Vilneans of All Backgrounds Invited to Chanukah Celebration at Choral Synagogue

Posted on 18 December 2014 by Defending History

Vilnians of all backgrounds warmly invited Tuesday, 23 December 6PM sharp (1800) for a celebration of Hanukah at historic Choral Synagogue at Pylimo Street 39

Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs | Comments Off

Austrian Volunteer Reflects on Year in Lithuania, Calls for City-Center Holocaust Museum in the Capital

Posted on 16 December 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Sebastian Hager

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Iwas proud to serve as Austria’s remembrance volunteer (Gedenkdiener) in 2013-2014. Based in Vilnius in the Green House, the country’s only serious Holocaust exhibit, I was able to travel extensively and meet Lithuanian citizens from a wide variety of backgrounds. Despite all the hype, the Jewish heritage is not really in the best of shape. There is a lot of ignorance combined with an ethnocentric nationalist worldview.

Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai) | Tagged Green House (Vilnius), Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust museum in Vilnius, Sebastian Hager | Comments Off

The Holocaust Memoir That Doesn’t Fade Out at the Moment of Liberation

Posted on 12 December 2014 by Defending History

B O O K S

by Ira Gold

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Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kilot and Helen Mitsios. Urim Publications: Jerusalem 2011, 288 pp. Amazon.com. Kindle.

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In Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kliot and Helen Mitsios, the authors write a dual memoir of survival and healing. The mother, Rasia, was born into upper class comfort in Vilna (today Vilnius, Lithuania). Her daughter, Helen Mitsios, was born in Montreal, Canada. The dual structure – the first half is titled “Rasia’s Story” and the second half is labeled “Helen’s Story” – works very well.

Posted in Books, Ira Gold, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion | Tagged "Waltzing with the Enemy", books on the Holocaust, Helen Mitsios, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust memoirs, Ira Gold (Touro College), Rasia Kilot | Comments Off

Peter Jukes Tweets on Documentary that Glorifies Alleged Nazi Collaborator

Posted on 7 December 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

LONDON—British author Peter Jukes, best known for his screenplays, literary criticism and political journalism, tweeted last week on the release in the United States of a new documentary film that heroizes certain postwar anti-Soviet “forest brothers” in Lithuania. The film, “The Invisible Front,” that premiered in Greenwich Village’s prestigious Cinema Village theater on 7 November, fails to even mention the view that various of the specific figures it glorifies for their post 1944 activities were in fact alleged recycled Nazi collaborators of 1941. That was the year when, in the days following the Nazi invasion launched on 22 June, the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) started butchering local civilian Jews, often elderly rabbis or young women, before the first German forces had arrived. Premeditation becomes evident from perusal of the LAF’s prewar leaflets.

Posted in Arts, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on Juozas Lukša, Film, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Peter Jukes, Politics of Memory | Tagged Belarusian Humanities University, Cinema Village theater (NY), Darius Udrys, European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius, Forest Brothers Lithuania, Holocaust collaborators in Forest Brothers, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Öhman, Juozas Luksa, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), New York Times + Holocaust, Peter Jukes, The Invisible Front, Vincas Sruoginis | Comments Off

Tomas Venclova Speaks Out on Banderism and its European Analogues

Posted on 30 November 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

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Tomas Venclova

Editor’s note: Our colleague Prof. Pinchos Fridberg drew our attention to a page on Radio Svoboda’s website, by Elena Fanailova, featuring both the audio and transcript of a recent interview conducted by Donata Subbotko for the Polish weekly Gazeta Wyborcza with the famed Lithuanian humanist, poet, essayist and professor Tomas Venclova. Text of the Polish version appears in Gazeta Wyborcza. The Russian text also appeared, at Prof. Fridberg’s initiative, in Obzor.

The following brief excerpt, concerning Banderism in Ukraine and analogous tendencies in Lithuania and elsewhere, has been translated into English (from the Russian) by Ludmila Makedonskaya. See also Defending History’s section dedicated to Tomas Venclova. Our page on bold Lithuanian truth tellers includes some of Prof. Venclova’s writings from the 1970s onward. His famous essay from the period, Jews and Lithuanians, is available in his collection of essays Forms of Hope.

Posted in Bandera, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Tomas Venclova, Ukraine | Tagged Banderism, Donata Subbotko, glorification of Holocaust collaborators, Stepan Bandera, Tomas Venclova, Ukraine + Bandera, Ukraine + far right, World War II revisionism | Comments Off

Member of Lithuania’s Jewish Community Speaks Out on Neo-Nazi Parades, and Govt. Flowers at Monument to Hitler’s Soldiers

Posted on 23 November 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Jacob Piliansky

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Iam proud to be a Litvak, and I am proud to be a citizen of independent and democratic Lithuania. I very much enjoy walking in our city’s delightful Vingis Park, as well as downtown in the beautiful city center area.

However, I feel suddenly both sad and shocked, when I see neo-Nazi parades with swastikas and other fascist symbols along Gedimino Boulevard on our independence day repeating the yelled chants of “Lithuania for [ethnic] Lithuanians.”

Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Jacob Piliansky, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion, Symbology, Vilnius | Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Bagel Shop (Lithuania), Beigelių krautuvėlė (Vilnius), Glorification of Nazi Collaborators, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jacob Piliansky, neo-Nazi marches, Vingis Park monument | Comments Off

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Lithuania

WILL LITHUANIA’S LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST GRANTING MAJOR CITY CENTERS ON INDEPENDENCE DAYS TO NEO-NAZI MARCHES THAT ADULATE 1941 HOLOCAUST COLLABORATORS?

WILL “BAGEL SHOP” AND OTHER FUNDED MONITORS ISSUE A MORALLY DIGNIFIED STATEMENT? A MEMBER OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT; HIS EARLIER VIDEOTAPED INTERVIEW IN RICHARD BLOOM’S DOCUMENTARY.

O P I N I O N / H I S T O R Y

by Andrius Kulikauskas

E Y E W I T N E S S R E P O R T / O P I N I O N

by Julius Norwilla

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H I S T O R Y

by Aleksandras Vitkus and Chaim Bargman

STATEMENT BY THE JEWISH (LITVAK) COMMUNITY

O P I N I O N

H U M A N R I G H T S / L G B T R I G H T S

by Lithuanian LGBT Rights Organization / LGL

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D O C U M E N T S

by Rafael Katz

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O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

Vilnians of all backgrounds warmly invited Tuesday, 23 December 6PM sharp (1800) for a celebration of Hanukah at historic Choral Synagogue at Pylimo Street 39

O P I N I O N

by Sebastian Hager

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by Ira Gold

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Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kilot and Helen Mitsios. Urim Publications: Jerusalem 2011, 288 pp. Amazon.com. Kindle.

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O P I N I O N

O P I N I O N

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O P I N I O N

by Jacob Piliansky

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