The following is a reprint of Pinchos Fridberg’s article in today’s Russian-language Мы здесь.
Lithuania
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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Monica Lowenberg’s Discussion with Ronaldas Racinskas in NY’s Algemeiner Journal (Feb. 17-19 2014)
The following, in reverse chronological order, is the text of Monica Lowenberg’s two comments to Ronaldas Racinskas’s comment, all in the discussion following Olga Zabludoff’s article in the Algemeiner Journal on the Holocaust in Lithuania and a Yivo symposium in New York. These and other comments appear in the AJ‘s comments section.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Holocaust Policies of Mr. Ronaldas Račinskas and the State-Sponsored "International Commission" (ICECNSORL), Lithuania, Monica Lowenberg, News & Views, Opinion
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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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Wiesenthal Center Statement on Kaunas Protest Against Neo-Nazi Extravaganza in City Center
JERUSALEM—The following statement was issued today by the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office.
WIESENTHAL CENTER ISRAEL DIRECTOR LEADS PROTEST AGAINST EXTREME RIGHT INDEPENDENCE DAY MARCH
16 February 2014 KAUNAS, LITHUANIA—The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel Director and chief Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff yesterday afternoon led a protest against an ultra-nationalist neo-Nazi march in honor of Lithuanian Independence Day, held here, in Lithuania’s inter-war capital, whose large and important Jewish community was virtually totally annihilated during the Holocaust by the Nazis, with highly significant participation of Lithuanian volunteer collaborators.
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, EU, Events, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
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Summary Coverage of 16 February 2014 Neo-Nazi March in Kaunas
Over 1,000 March in Kaunas City Center with Banner Honoring the 1941 Nazi Puppet Prime Minister who Helped Send City’s 30,000 Jews to their Death
PRESS: ALFA.LT; ALKAS.LT; BALSAS.LT; DELFI.LT; JERUSALEM POST; KAUNODIENA.LT; SWC REPORT; TV: KAUNAS NEWS; OPINION: Olga Zabludoff; Efraim Zuroff
♦
Section on Pro-Fascist Marches
Lithuanian TV interviews with Efraim Zuroff and Dovid Katz:
1 and 2
♦
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Events, Human Rights, Kaunas, Lithuania, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Swastikas in Lithuania
Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Kaunas February 16th, Lithuania antisemitism, neo-Nazis in Lithuania, swastikas in Lithuania
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Vilnius Holocaust Survivor Pinchos Fridberg Posts New Comment in The Tablet
The following comment by Professor Pinchos Fridberg was posted in Tablet on 11 February 2014, as a comment on a previous comment by Dr. Efraim Zuroff in the same discussion. See also Defending History sections on Prof. Fridberg and Dr. Zuroff.
Continue reading
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg
Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Pinchos Fridberg
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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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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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New Joseph Levinson Website Has Page on Old Jewish Cemeteries in Lithuania
The recently launched website JosephLevinson.com provides renewed opportunities for acquiring his two major books that are available in English. One, The Shoah in Lithuania, includes documents of the Lithuanian Activist Front detailing their intentions for Jewish citizens, issued before the outbreak of war on 22 June 1941. It is also rich in resources on understanding how, where and why the far right’s “Double Genocide” revisionism arose in the first place. These are just two of the many areas covered by the book.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Joseph Levinson, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
Tagged Alex Levinson, Joseph Levinson (Vilnius), Lithuania, old Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, The Double Genocide theory
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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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The Jewish Tragedy in the Baltic States
M U S I C
by Roland Binet (Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium)
THE AUTHOR’S MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS:
I War
II Ghetto
III The Killing Pits
IV Liberation
V Remembrance
Posted in Arts, Latvia, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Music, News & Views, Roland Binet
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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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Respublika’s 18 January 2014 Front Page Article “Kaunas Jewish Community Chairman Gercas Žakas: One Point for Discord between Lithuanians and Jews”
The following translation, by Geoff Vasil, is of a front page article in the Vilnius daily Respublika (18 January 2014), featuring an interview with Kaunas Jewish community leader Gercas Žakas (the words superimposed on the photo roughly translate: “Perhaps someone really is provoking us and sowing discord intentionally”). The Lithuanian original is available online.
See also the the front page spread featuring interviews with Faina Kukliansky and Moshe Beirakas which appeared two days earlier, on 16 January 2014.
Kaunas Jewish Community Chairman Gercas Žakas: One Point for Discord between Lithuanians and Jews
January 18, 2014
by Olava STRIKULIENĖ
Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas was initially surprised when the daily newspaper Respublika, where his son Arijus worked as a reporter, was deemed an antisemitic newspaper. And now Žakas is surprised our politicians sported a Wehrmacht symbol during Defenders of Freedom Day.
Žakas: “What symbol are you talking about?” Žakas asked. “I know nothing, I was away. Apparently someone wasn’t paying enough attention.”
Respublika: “During the commemoration of January 13 at parliament forget-me-not pins were passed out, which are really a symbol of the Nazi German Wehrmacht military.”
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views
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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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Heritage Articles from Lithuanian Jewish Community’s “Jerusalem of Lithuania” Going Online
A new page has been launched to provide selected articles from the English edition of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Jerusalem of Lithuania. The newspaper was regularly published in four separate editions (English, Lithuanian, Russian and Yiddish) from 1989 to early 2011. These selections are from the years 1999-2011, when the quadrilingual publication was edited by Milan Chersonski, now a senior staff writer at Defending History. The page is being developed in close consultation with Mr. Chersonski.
Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021), News & Views, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Jewish Community of Lithuania, Milan Chersonski
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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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Žilvinas Butkus (Vilnius) and the Association of Lithuanian Jews (Tel Aviv) Release August 2009 Document
D O C U M E N T S
Editor’s note: By agreement of Žilvinas Butkus, author of the following 12 August 2009 email, and its recipient, the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, the document is now published. Note that the draft law appended at the end of the document was adapted by the parliament and signed by the parliament in revised form in June 2010. The bill’s framers had made it clear that promoting Double Genocide in Europe lay close to the heart of this legislative initiative.
August 12, 2009
Hello!
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, Documents, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Free Speech & Democracy, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion
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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”
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
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A Love Story
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:
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)
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