70 Years Declaration

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The text of the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) is available in a number of European languages:
https://defendinghistory.com/the-seventy-years-declaration-in-various-languages
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Are Leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania ‘Taking Advantage’ of Ukraine Tragedy? They Call on EU to Support Far-Right Holocaust-Obfuscating ‘Prague Platform’

Posted on 28 July 2022 by Defending History

Reports in Baltic Times and Delfi

For over a decade Defending History has exposed the far-right”Double Genocide” history-revisionist, Holocaust-obfuscating agenda of the “Prague Platform of European Memory and Conscience” which has repeatedly covered for East European efforts to glorify Nazi collaborators and perpetrators

“Putin’s criminal and barbaric invasion must be countered to the hilt and we must rally unfettered to the cause of Ukraine’s freedom. But for far-right double-genocider revisionists in the Eastern E.U. to take advantage of it for Holocaust obfuscation is just plain wrong.”

Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Efraim Zuroff is first to respond (in Times of Israel blogs)

Will Western leaders — and institutions dedicated to the history of the Holocaust and leaders in Holocaust education and commemoration — speak out and subject the “Prague Platform” to some long overdue scrutiny, and warn the European Commission about this “new initiative”? European citizens’ hard-earned euros continue to flow to the revisionists whose “unholy bible” is still the Prague Declaration of 2008… Defending History is proud to have helped provide the European parliamentary response, the Seventy Years Declaration…

Defending History’s statement on the war in Ukraine

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When Ottawa Citizen and The New York Times broke taboo on wartime discussion of East European state-sponsored Holocaust obfuscation

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But what is the “Prague Platform”?

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, Estonia, History, Latvia, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Poland, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform" | Tagged Holocaust Revisionism, PRague Declaration (Holocaust revisionism), PRague Platform of European Memory and Conscience | Comments Off

In Reponse to the Media: 9 July 2016

Posted on 9 July 2016 by Defending History

Western Mainstream Media Fails to Mention that East European Allies of the West are Investing in Glorification of Hitler’s Local Collaborators

Huffington Post Piece on Stepan Bandera Worship in Ukraine Omits his Organization’s Responsibility for Hundreds of Thousands of Murders of Poles and Jews; Landmark Historical Book on Bandera Still Goes Unmentioned by Most Mass Media

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", 70 Years Declaration, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Rūta Vanagaitė | Tagged Battle of the Declarations, Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes, Efraim Zuroff, Prague Declaration, Ruta Vanagaite, Seventy Years Declaration, Stav Gil in Newsweek, Stepan Bandera | Comments Off

Appeal to Conscience of the “Red-Brown Commission”

Posted on 28 April 2016 by Defending History

[updated]

Appeal to the conscience of the members of the renewed state-financed “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania”

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", 70 Years Declaration, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Double Genocide, Germany, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform", Yad Vashem and Lithuania, Yiddish Affairs, Yivo Manipulated? | Tagged Historical Commission (Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust studies manipulated?, International Commision for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off

Danny Ben-Moshe’s “Rewriting History” Back in Melbourne

Posted on 24 July 2015 by Defending History

Melbourne: Tíshebov Showing of the Documentary Film Rewriting History

Topics Include: Double Genocide, Holocaust Revisionism, the Lithuanian Holocaust, the Prague Declaration, the Seventy Years Declaration and the Campaign against Jewish Partisan Veterans

Reviews of the Film

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Arts, Australia, Danny Ben-Moshe, Film, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Lithuanian Translation of Dovid Katz’s 17 April 2015 Vilnius Conference Lecture

Posted on 18 May 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

Note: This text is the Lithuanian translation, provided by the Being a Jew project, of the written text of a lecture from the 17 April 2015 conference on the Holocaust in Lithuania organized by Rūta Vanagaitė. The original English is here.

Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", 70 Years Declaration, Dovid Katz, Dr. Rokhl (Rachel) Margolis (1921-2015), EU, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged Dovid Katz, Dovidas Katzas, Dovydas Kacas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holokaustas Lietuvoje | Comments Off

Dovid Katz’s Lecture at Vilnius Conference on 17 April 2015

Posted on 20 April 2015 by Defending History

Politics, Policy, and Lithuanian Holocaust Discourse

Good afternoon. Sincerest thanks to everyone who made today possible, above all to dear Rūta Vanagaitė for successfully bringing together folks from many sides of today’s issues here in Vilnius for the first time in the twenty-first century, in the fine spirit of openness and tolerance that is particularly important, now, when politics and current events can easily deflate freedom of opinion on history, the progress of civil discourse, and the dignity of education.

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, State Glorification of Holocaust Collaborator J. Noreika | Comments Off

No Cover-Up at Auschwitz!

Posted on 23 January 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

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The following text is the original draft, submitted on 20 January 2015 at the invitation of the London Jewish Chronicle. An edited version (processed with all courtesies to the author) appeared in the JC on 22 January. This version is posted here simply to emphasize the author’s belief that ceremonies at Auschwitz that do not address the current massive campaign by eastern EU states to downgrade and obfuscate the Holocaust are unwittingly part of a cover-up of the very unique historical phenomena they are meant to accurately preservce and pass on. The related issue of whether Russia’s leaders will be invited to the ceremonies has been analyzed in recent pieces by Efraim Zuroff and Pinchos Fridberg.

No Cover-Up at Auschwitz!

The heralded 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz approaches, amidst a grand oblivion to what is happening before our very eyes to the actual history of the Holocaust. If we fail to speak out about the irksome issues too, the pomp and circumstance ipso facto morph into an unsavoury cover-up.

Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, 70 Years Declaration, Dovid Katz, EU, Events, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged Auschwitz commemorations, Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, Holocaustw Remembrance Day, Prague Declaration, Seventy Years Declaration | Comments Off

“Double Genocide” Snuck into Congress?

Posted on 6 June 2014 by Defending History

Did “Double Genocide” from the “Prague Declaration” Land Under the Radar in the United States Congress?

PAIN IS EXACERBATED AS PLOY COINCIDES WITH 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF D DAY EVENTS

: By stealth out of the East?

A Shock for Veterans, Holocaust Survivors & their Families: US Congress Approves Mixed Soviet-Nazi Commemoration Day in Line with 2008 “Prague Declaration” (Text)

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?, Yitzhak Arad | Tagged 70th Anniversary of D-Day, Abraham Cooper, D-Day + Baltic countries, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust + US Congress, Holocaust revisionism + Congress, Holocaust Survivors in 2014, Jewish issues + US Congress, Lithuanian Embassy in Washington DC, Seventy Years Declaration, Yehuda Bauer, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off

Holocaust Survivor Asks UK Prime Minister to Support the Seventy Years Declaration

Posted on 9 May 2014 by Defending History

Hundreds of Holocaust survivors in the UK were invited to the 5 May 2014 Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission Survivors’ Consultation Event. Greetings from Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince Charles were distributed at the Wembley Park event to the survivors and their families.

One of the participants, 91 year old Ernst Lowenberg had participated in a friendly protest outside the Lithuanian embassy in London in December 2012, where he handed the consul a copy of an international petition (that is still underway online).

Back in Dec. 2012, Ernst Lowenberg (center) handed the Lithuanian consul in London a petition. Report here. PHOTO: MARK DAVIDSON

He has been closely following the efforts to obfuscate the Holocaust emanating from some East European governments that are investing heavily in exporting the “Double Genocide” revisionist model of Holocaust history.

Mr. Lowenberg followed up today with a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, which he released for publication in Defending History. In the letter, he asks the British government to help preserve the memory of the Holocaust by rejecting the current revisionist campaign and supporting the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) of 2012, which was signed by fifteen British parliamentarians from across the political spectrum (DH section on the SYD).

Mr. Lowenberg’s letter follows.

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, EU, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom | Tagged Ernst Lowenberg, Holocaust Education in the UK, Prague Declaration (2008), SYD, UK + Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) | Comments Off

Dan Stone’s “Goodbye to All That?” Has Discussion on Battle of the Declarations

Posted on 3 May 2014 by Defending History

Dan Stone’s new book, Goodbye to All That? A History of Europe Since 1945 (Oxford University Press, March 2014) has some discussion on the “Battle of the Declarations” in Europe: the Prague Declaration (“PD” of 2008) and the Seventy Years Declaration (“SYD” of 2012).

Each of the declarations has its own website: the PD at praguedeclaration.eu; SYD at: seventyyearsdeclaration.org. The SYD was produced as an initiative of Defending History, which has its (openly partisan) section on the Seventy Years Declaration, its text in European languages, and a page of critiques of the Prague Declaration. The SYD’s launch was greeted by the then Lithuanian foreign minister’s “moustache comparison” and his attack on the eight Lithuanian parliamentarians who had signed it. The 2012 documentary film Rewriting History focuses on the origins of the Seventy Years Declaration.

The following is a brief excerpt from Dan Stone’s Goodbye to All That? from page 281:

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Books, Documents, Double Genocide, History, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Dan Stone, Double Genocide, Goodbye to All That A History of Europe Since 1945, Lithuanian Activist Front, Prague Declaration, Seventy Years Declaration, Waffen SS in Latvia and Estonia | Comments Off

British Board of Deputies Includes Effort Against Prague Declaration in New 2014 Manifesto

Posted on 23 March 2014 by Defending History

LONDON—In its just published A Jewish Manifesto: The 2014 European Elections, the British Board of Deputies has included a statement rejecting the attempts of recent years to downgrade the Holocaust. Section 3.3, entitled “Holocaust Revisionism” appears on page 10 of the online version of the Jewish Manifesto.

The Manifesto notes the “alarm among many Jewish communities” caused by the 2008 Prague Declaration, the de-facto central document of the Double Genocide movement, and calls on MEPs to “challenge their European colleagues on these narratives that seek to downplay or minimize the Holocaust.” The Prague Declaration sports the word “same” five times referring to Nazi and Soviet crimes, effectively claiming there were two equal genocide-causing regimes and thereby writing the Holocaust out of history as unique event, without denying a single death.

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Documents, Double Genocide, EU, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., News & Views, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform", United Kingdom | Comments Off

Hungary Rewrites History

Posted on 26 February 2014 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

by Danny Ben-Moshe

This comment, republished here with the author’s permission, first appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 22 February 2014.

My 2012 documentary film Rewriting History tracked the emergence of “Double Genocide” and the rewriting of the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

The film warned that what was occurring in Lithuania was a harbinger of something that could become more widespread and ultimately mainstream in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately recent events in Hungary bear this out.

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Collaborators Glorified, Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide, EU, Film, Hungary, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion | Tagged Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide (Hungary), Double Genocide + Lithuania, Genocide Museum Vilnius, Green House (Vilnius), Holocaust in Hungary, Holocaust in Lithuania, Rewriting History (film), Seventy Years Declaration | 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, 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

British MP John Mann, Chair of Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, Speaks Out on “Double Genocide”

Posted on 11 October 2013 by Defending History

MP John Mann (photo: Guardian)

2013: “It is an industrial rewriting of history in Eastern Europe to excuse mass murders carried out on behalf of the Nazis.”

— John Mann, 5 October 2013

Continue reading

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, Genocide Center (Vilnius), John Mann, UK MP, News & Views, Politics of Memory, United Kingdom | Tagged Double Genocide, John Mann, MP, Prague Declaration | Comments Off

Wikipedia Entry for Seventy Years Declaration Rapidly Sabotaged

Posted on 2 May 2013 by Defending History

The recently entered Wikipedia entry on the Seventy Years Declaration has been rapidly distorted by the usual right-wing Baltic nationalism operatives who use the free on-line encyclopedia to foster the misimpression that Prague Declaration politics are “neutral” while its opponents who oppose glorification of Nazism in Eastern Europe are “left wing.” Moreover numerous inaccuracies and impertinent points have been introduced in an obvious attempt to render the entry untenable and have it removed, while the far-right’s Prague Declaration politics continue to be propagated on Wikipedia with the energy of a full-time PR team.

EARLIER VERSION OF WIKIPEDIA ENTRY

AFTER SABOTAGE BY THE FAR RIGHT’S WIKI SQUAD

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) Website is Launched

Posted on 16 April 2013 by Defending History

The new SYD-dedicated website www.SeventyYearsDeclaration.org was launched today.

The website marks a new phase in the international effort to halt the progress of the East European far right’s “Double Genocide” campaign across Europe and beyond. For more background on the Seventy Years Declaration (SYD) see the dedicated page, European languages page, and section in Defending History.

BACKGROUND:

SYD in European languages.

Early history and coverage (Jan-Feb 2012), including the eight bold Lithuanian parliamentarians (all social democrats) who signed the SYD.

Presentation at European Parliament (March 2012).

The documentary film Rewriting History launched in Australia (Sept 2012) and in the United States (April 2013).

The film Defending Holocaust History (Spring 2013).

Defending History section on the Seventy Years Declaration.

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, History, Human Rights, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Comments Off

Monica Lowenberg’s Petition to the Lithuanian Ambassador to the UK, HE Asta Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė

Posted on 2 December 2012 by Defending History

The text of Monica Lowenberg’s petition that appeared today on Change.org. To sign please visit:

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/he-ambassador-asta-skaisgiryt%C4%97-liau%C5%A1kien%C4%97-lithuanian-ambassador-london-uk-abandon-state-sponsored-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-obfuscation

Abandon state sponsored Antisemitism and Holocaust Obfuscation

To:
HE Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė
Lithuanian Ambassador for London, UK

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Antisemitism & Bias, Double Games, Double Genocide, Human Rights, Litvak Affairs, Monica Lowenberg, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, UCL Manipulated?, United Kingdom | Tagged Asta Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė, East-Central Europe, Fania Brantsovsky, Holocaust in Lithuania, Joseph Melamed, Lithuanian-Jewish relations, Monica Lowenberg, Post-Communist Europe, Post-Communist views of the Holocaust, Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, Rachel Margolis, Seventy Years Declaration, Yitzhak Arad | Comments Off

Seventy Years Declaration: Summary Coverage to 1 November 2012

Posted on 1 November 2012 by Defending History

The Seventy Years Declaration

Solemnly commemorates the Holocaust and reaffirms human rights of all people. Opposes the Prague Declaration and ‘Double Genocide’ politics. Rejects glorification of the Waffen SS of Estonia and Latvia and the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF).

Lithuania’s foreign minister’s “moustache response” came within minutes of SYD’s release.

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TEXT AND LIST OF FOUNDING SIGNATORIES

PRESENTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

UPDATE: DOCUMENTARY FILM RELEASED

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Denis MacShane, Double Genocide, Events, History, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Double Genocide, Prague Declaration (European Conscience and Communism), Seventy Years Declaration | Comments Off

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Includes “Historical Memory Policy” (= Double Genocide) Among Nation’s Prime Goals for 2013 EU Presidency

Posted on 2 August 2012 by Defending History

In a curious annual statement to his nation’s diplomats around the globe, Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis recently proclaimed publicly that “historical memory policy” would be one of the main goals of Lithuanian’s foreign policy, particularly as it looks forward to its rotating presidency of the EU next year.

EARLIER REPORT

The insistence on the Eastern European right wing’s history appears alongside energy and transport infrastructure, economic development, consular services for citizens resident abroad, military security, international alliances and more. The speech also mentions the need for more coordination of Lithuania’s “body and mind” implying the need for more rather than less diplomatic work in the field of history revisionism internationally.

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Games, Double Genocide, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, History, Human Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory, The OSCE | Comments Off

Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Planning to (Ab)use EU Presidency to Push Red-Brown Politics

Posted on 17 July 2012 by Defending History

In spite of the repeated visible damage to Lithuania’s standing emanating from previous attempts, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has now announced that red-brown politics in the service of Double Genocide would be one of the goals of its upcoming stint in the rotating presidency of the European Union.

There was diplomatic blood on the floor following the foreign ministry’s failed attempt to insinuate Double Genocide into the Stockholm Program in 2010 (reports here, here, and here).

Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Double Genocide, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged Bloodlands, Double Genocide, Foreign Minister Azubalis, Jewish + Lithuania, Prague Declaration, Roger Cohen, Seventy Years Declaration, Timothy Snyder | Comments Off

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

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Litvak Heritage

• Windows to a Lost Jewish Past

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Yiddish

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Latest

70 Years Declaration

Reports in Baltic Times and Delfi

“Putin’s criminal and barbaric invasion must be countered to the hilt and we must rally unfettered to the cause of Ukraine’s freedom. But for far-right double-genocider revisionists in the Eastern E.U. to take advantage of it for Holocaust obfuscation is just plain wrong.”

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Western Mainstream Media Fails to Mention that East European Allies of the West are Investing in Glorification of Hitler’s Local Collaborators

Huffington Post Piece on Stepan Bandera Worship in Ukraine Omits his Organization’s Responsibility for Hundreds of Thousands of Murders of Poles and Jews; Landmark Historical Book on Bandera Still Goes Unmentioned by Most Mass Media

Appeal to the conscience of the members of the renewed state-financed “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania”

Topics Include: Double Genocide, Holocaust Revisionism, the Lithuanian Holocaust, the Prague Declaration, the Seventy Years Declaration and the Campaign against Jewish Partisan Veterans

O P I N I O N

by Dovid Katz

Note: This text is the Lithuanian translation, provided by the Being a Jew project, of the written text of a lecture from the 17 April 2015 conference on the Holocaust in Lithuania organized by Rūta Vanagaitė. The original English is here.

by Dovid Katz

Politics, Policy, and Lithuanian Holocaust Discourse

by Dovid Katz

No Cover-Up at Auschwitz!

Did “Double Genocide” from the “Prague Declaration” Land Under the Radar in the United States Congress?

PAIN IS EXACERBATED AS PLOY COINCIDES WITH 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF D DAY EVENTS

A Shock for Veterans, Holocaust Survivors & their Families: US Congress Approves Mixed Soviet-Nazi Commemoration Day in Line with 2008 “Prague Declaration” (Text)

by Danny Ben-Moshe

This comment, republished here with the author’s permission, first appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 22 February 2014.

2013: “It is an industrial rewriting of history in Eastern Europe to excuse mass murders carried out on behalf of the Nazis.”

— John Mann, 5 October 2013

BACKGROUND:

SYD in European languages.

Early history and coverage (Jan-Feb 2012), including the eight bold Lithuanian parliamentarians (all social democrats) who signed the SYD.

Presentation at European Parliament (March 2012).

The documentary film Rewriting History launched in Australia (Sept 2012) and in the United States (April 2013).

The film Defending Holocaust History (Spring 2013).

Defending History section on the Seventy Years Declaration.

The text of Monica Lowenberg’s petition that appeared today on Change.org. To sign please visit:

Abandon state sponsored Antisemitism and Holocaust Obfuscation

Solemnly commemorates the Holocaust and reaffirms human rights of all people. Opposes the Prague Declaration and ‘Double Genocide’ politics. Rejects glorification of the Waffen SS of Estonia and Latvia and the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF).

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