REPORT. HEAD OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES ISSUES PROTEST. SWC COMMENTS. FATE OF EFFORTS TO ERECT A MEMORIAL TO THE TOWN’S ANNIHILATED JEWISH POPULATION.
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LATVIA SECTION
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LATVIA SECTION
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.]
Dear Mr. Jonathan Brent,
A little over a year ago, on 12 September 2011, I wrote my first open letter to you. I wrote that it is inappropriate to hold an event commemorating the Jews of Vilna who were victims of genocide together with the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Audronis Ažubalis on the premises of Yivo. If you did not then find time to read my letter, you can find it now online.
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:
As of today, both Vilnius University and the Central Post Office are still featuring the “historic envelope art” of designer Antanas Šakalys, though neither of the prestigious venues publicly includes any samples of his antisemitic, Holocaust-distorting and homophobic output.
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).
Gerbiamasis, Ministre Pirmininke Kubiliau
A number of antisemitic and fascist-sympathizing ads have recently appeared in the course of the campaign for the Lithuanian parliamentary elections to be held in two rounds on 14 and 28 October 2012.
UPDATE: JTA
It does not help that public swastikas were legalized in Lithuania in 2010. That year a group of ambassadors in Vilnius got toegether to write a letter to the nation’s leaders on various Jewish and Holocaust issues, including the swastika issue. The United Nations Human Rights Committee finally commented this year on the attempted rehabilitation of the swastika.
One parliamentary candidate’s campaign uses a photo of him sporting a swastika-decorated tie. Another is a vulgar caricature of a Jew getting money from the state and threatening to take more (a reference to this year’s restitution bill providing communal compensation for confiscated property). A third expresses the wish for a “Third Republic” state with a Nazi-like logo.
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.
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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.
3 October 2012 16:03:03 CEST Dear Colleagues,