Monthly Archives: February 2015

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

The Nazis are Just Nuts

Posted on 4 February 2015 by Defending History

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

by Geoff Vasil

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Somewhere in his voluminous correspondence, correspondence that far surpasses in quantity any of his literary endeavors, H. P. Lovecraft mentions what he sees as the almost arbitrary adoption of Christianity by northern European peoples, and comments that another religion might work just as well. That sense of another religion operating in parallel runs heavily throughout his stories, and nowhere is his notion better illustrated than in his short piece The Festival, roughly centered around an “I’ll be home for Christmas” motif in an unknown village of New England that turns terribly strange but somehow familiar for all its strangeness.

Posted in Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Geoff Vasil, News & Views, Opinion | Tagged Geoff Vasil | 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, Genocide Center (Vilnius), Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | 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 Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Chaim Bargman, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion | Comments Off

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Monthly Archives: February 2015

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

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

by Geoff Vasil

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

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