Justice Minister Defies Documented History, Denies Lithuanian Holocaust Collaboration



On his blog, the justice minister of Lithuania, Remigijus Simasius, dismisses the internationally known history of massive (and official and institutional) Lithuanian collaboration with the Nazi annihilation of the country’s Jewish population during the Holocaust. English translation. Delfi summary in Lithuanian.  BNS summary in English. He makes no mention of his own prosecutors’ continuing defamation of Holocaust survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance, or the international condemnation of his prosecutors’ activities. He does, however, fault the US, Great Britain and the USSR in connection with the Holocaust.

His blog cites his prime minister’s earlier HARDtalk interview with the BBC’s Jonathan Charles on 30 Nov (video here; → Holocaust issues at timecode starting ±18:40; alternate here at ±5:55). The PM effectively let slip the policy of investing in Jewish memorials and projects while trying to (a) equate the Holocaust with Soviet crimes, and (b) downplay local collaboration.

[Updates to 22 Dec 2010: See replies by Sergejus Kanovičius [Sergey Kanovich] (2 Dec 2009); Ronald Lauder of the World Jewish Congress (4 Dec 2009); Daiva Repečkaitė (4 Dec 2009); and Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (7 Jan 2010).]

This entry was posted in News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius, World Jewish Congress (WJC) and ORT and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
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