[Last media link update: 26 Feb. 2017]

Defending History Monitors Kaunas Neo-Nazi March on Lithuania’s Feb. 16th Independence Day

OUR REPORT ON THE RUN-UP TO THE MARCH

Media coverage of the march: JTA; History News Network; Times of Israel (French edition); BNS / Delfi.lt; Bernardinai.lt; Alkas.lt; Diena.lt; Kaunaskasvyksta.lt; Kauno.diena.lt; 15min.lt; tv3.lt;  Novaya Gazeta; Antisemitism.org.il; Izrus.co.il; EinNews.com; CBS8.com; WFMJ.com; Fox8Live; TodayInTheNews.com; Official Lithuanian Jewish Community response; TelAvivTimes.com

The five-person Defending History team was the only human rights monitor  this year. “We came to remember the 30,000 murdered Jews of Kaunas on the independence day that they too patriotically marked with love every year. It is shocking that yet again the mayor and city council have gifted the center of the city, including Liberty Boulevard and the plaza of the historic presidential palace, on the cherished independence day, to the neo-nazis who so damage the name of modern, tolerant, democratic Lithuania.”

PHOTO GALLERIES:

EVALDAS BALČIŪNAS (on Facebook)

JULIUS NORWILLA

The good news: There were around 175 marchers, fewer than ever before.

The bad news: One of the two front banners was of Kazys Škirpa, the pro-Nazi “diplomat” who called for ethnic cleansing of his country’s Jewish minority months before the Nazi invasion. See Dr. Andrius Kulikauskas’s study of Škirpa in Defending History (also: report on Nov. 2016 Vilnius debate; page on public shrines for collaborators; DH section). Defending History’s comment: “It seemed to the few Holocaust survivors left that the marchers given the very center of Kaunas were somehow celebrating the murder of their city’s 30,000 Jews.” 

There were racist and antisemitic placards and fascist symbols. Former Vilnius Genocide Center operative Ričardas Čekutis was on hand with his trademark white power scarf.

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