Discontinuation of the contract of Lithuania’s last Jewish professor — Dovid Katz, founding Yiddish professor at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute and editor of this website — for having mounted a defense of the defamed Holocaust Survivors, and building (via the Vilnius diplomatic community, op-eds in mainstream publications, and this site) international opposition to the ‘Double Genocide’ movement in Europe, and in Lithuania.
Lithuania’s Last Jewish Professor has Contract Terminated, after Mounting Defense for Holocaust Survivors accused of ‘War Crimes’
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Bloomington-Borns Program Manipulated?, Human Rights, News & Views, Norway, Richard Maullin, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged AHEYM, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Dan Opatoshu, Dov-Ber Kerler, Judaicvilnius.com, Richard Maullin, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Vilnius Yiddish Summer Program, VYI
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Pig’s Head, with Hat and Earlocks, Placed at Kaunas Synagogue Door During Sabbath Service
A pig’s head, adorned with a black hat and makeshift hasidic style earlocks, was placed on the pavement right outside the door, within the courtyard of the main synagogue in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city, during Sabbath morning services. This caused profound grief to the very small congregation of survivors who pray at the city’s Choral Synagogue, the only prewar Jewish prayerhouse in town that still functions. The service was interrupted as police arrived to investigate. The Lithuanian Jewish Community described it as a neo-Nazi antisemitic attack. The police however told BNS that the incident ‘is still qualified as a disturbance of the public peace’. Moreover, the commander of the Central Police Commissariat Gintautas Dirmeikis told BNS that ‘There are no suspects so far’. Photo by Laimutis Brundza / Kauno diena.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Human Rights, News & Views, Symbology
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Mindaugas Peleckis interviews Dovid Katz
- O P I N I O N
- Questions from Mindaugas Peleckis and answers from Dovid Katz (Text of documents sent by email on 21 August 2010).
- [Update: This interview resulted in the article published in Čikagos aidas on 16 Dec 2010. The unabridged text was posted on this page on 23 Dec 2010, by agreement of the interviewer and the interviewee.]
1. I would like to talk to you about Jewish-Lithuanian relationships. You’ve published the wonderful book ‘Lithuanian Jewish Culture’, which sheds light on many things concerning Jewish life in Lithuania and around it. What do you think about when Lithuanians became, so to say, antisemitic? In the 19th and 20th centuries? Or earlier?
Posted in Dovid Katz, Free Speech & Democracy, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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Letter to the Editor (Response to Clifford J. Levy’s report)
Letter to the Editor of the New York Times [not published; subsequently entered into the record on HITB for the date of submission]:
Human Rights — and Holocaust Obfuscation — in the Baltic States
To The Editor:
Clifford J. Levy’s fine report (Aug 16 [print edition]) on the humiliations suffered by native-born Estonians whose mother tongue is Russian is particularly important because Estonia is a member of NATO and the European Union, and its human rights policies are therefore automatically a matter for the collective conscience of these alliances and their individual members.
There is just one painful point on which the report accepts uncritically an Estonian (and generally a Baltic) ‘Excuse for Genocide’ that is verily inexcusable. “Before Estonia was seized by the Soviets in 1940, its population was largely ethnic Estonian; resentment was strong enough that many sided with the Germans when Hitler invaded in 1941.”
Actually, the demographic-balance threatening influx of Russian speakers from other Soviet republics came after World War II. But in any case, the idea that the Soviet occupation somehow justifies (or even explains) the Estonian Hitlerists’ (and Lithuanian and Latvian fascists’) gleeful mass murder of the women, children and men of their Jewish minority (making way, in the Baltics, for the highest percentages of Jews slaughtered in all of Holocaust-era Europe) is sheer nonsense. It is one of many ruses underway in the eastern reaches of the European Union to sanitize and obfuscate the Holocaust. Journalists must be sensitized to its box of semantic tricks.
Dovid Katz
Posted in Dovid Katz, Latvia, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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The Green House
Pamėnkalnio 12, Vilnius
Note: See also our report on the October 2010 re-opening of the Green House following extensive renovations. Black and white photos below are ©Richard Schofield.
Rachel Kostanian, the courageous director, valiantly keeps alive one of the rare local bastions of public integrity on the Holocaust in Lithuania, having constantly to fend off obstacles. Read Esther Goldberg Gilbert’s portrait in the special Jewish New Year’s supplement on great Jewish women of the ages in the Canadian Jewish News (8 Sept 2010). A follow-up article on Rachel Kostanian’s epic struggle for truth in Holocaust history appeared a month later (7 Oct 2010).
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Exotic Jewish Tourism, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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The Last Jewish Fort in the Forests of Lithuania: Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky Calls for its Preservation
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by Dovid Katz
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Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, born in 1922, who lost her entire family in the Holocaust, escaped the Vilna Ghetto several moments before it was encircled by police preparing for its final liquidation on 23 September 1943. Together with Dobke Develtov [update: who passed away in 2012 in Los Angeles], she made it to this underground anti-Nazi partisan fort that was home to fighters aligned with the Soviet partisans. The precise number of inhabitants varied with newcomers and deaths in battle. Fania remembers at one time 99 of 101 were Jewish Vilna Ghetto escapees, at another 101 of 107. An underground bunker like this was home until the fall of Nazi rule in July 1944.
Along with other Holocaust Survivors who resisted — including Yitzhak Arad and Rachel Margolis — Ms Brantsovsky, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, has in recent years been the object of a campaign of defamation and harassment in Lithuania.
The antisemitic press has targeted her (January 2008). Armed police came to search for her (May 2008). Prosecutors told the press she could not be found (May 2008). The editor of Lithuania’s main news portal called for her to be tried (May 2009). The mainstream media, citing ruling-party members of Lithuania’s parliament, branded her a war criminal (Oct 2009). And one of the country’s leading associations for human rights (!) demanded that she and other Jewish partisan veterans be ‘sentenced’ for committing ‘a massive slaughter’ (Dec. 2010).
All in the absence of any charge or iota of evidence.
“I dream that good people from all over the world will not forget the Holocaust in Lithuania or our struggle to stay alive and to fight the Nazis and their collaborators, that for generations to come they will make their way here to look and see where we, a hundred Vilna Ghetto survivors who lost our entire families, lived, loved, fought, and dreamt of a better tomorrow.” — Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (Fania Brancovskaja): 1922-2024, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Remnants of Europe's Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Partisan Fort
Tagged Fania Brancovkaja, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, Jewish partisan fort in Lithuania
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Venclova & Others Speak Out
Lithuanian poet, scholar and humanist Tomas Venclova (Yale University) publishes a major new essay. English here, excerpt here.
MEP Leonidas Donskis asks: ‘What Happened to Us?’
Posted in News & Views, Politics of Memory, Tomas Venclova
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7 Simple Solutions
Seven constructive solutions proposed to transform Lithuanian-Jewish relations and restore an atmosphere of civil-society democratic debate. Here. Also, draft text suggested as starting point for replacement of the Prague Declaration. Plus: Draft Reading List on the Lithuanian Holocaust.
Posted in Human Rights, News & Views
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Swastika Sanitization
In May 2010 a Lithuanian court legalized public displays of swastikas, with nearly no reaction from foreign embassies or human rights groups. Reports here and here. Jewish community’s reaction here. See also the page on Antisemitism. On the term swasticals, see our report for 8 May 2010.
REPRESENTATIVE SELECTION
11 March 2008
Gedimino Boulevard, Vilnius. This is the ‘Lithuanian swastika’ with the added lines meant to evoke the ‘Columns of Gediminas‘. Details and video of the parade here.
16 February 2010
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Christian-Jewish Issues, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania, Symbology
Tagged swastica sanitization, swastikas in Eastern Europe, swastikas in Lithuania
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Green House Shuts for Repairs at Height of Tourist Season
Vilnius’s one Holocaust museum, The Green House, shut down for renovations at the start of August 2010, at the height of the tourist season. Tourists are now limited to the Holocaust-obfuscating Genocide Museum, the Genocide Center, and Gruto Parkas. The Holocaust Studies community internationally is moreover profoundly disturbed by persistent efforts to undermine Rachel Kostanian, the Green House’s esteemed director of twenty years’ standing, and the efforts to replace her with a ‘compliant’ nationalist operative. Full story here
Posted in Museums, News & Views, Rachel Kostanian
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The Genocide Museum
‘The Museum of Genocide Victims’
Gedimino Boulevard 42, Vilnius
A summer 2010 visit to a major Baltic tourist attraction.
by Dovid Katz
Images by Richard Schofield (© R. Schofield)
THE QUESTION: Can you imagine a Museum of Genocide Victims — in the capital of a country with the highest proportion in Europe of Holocaust genocide of its Jewish population — that does not mention the word Holocaust or the name of the nearby infamous mass-killing site, where 100,000 civilians were murdered? That avoids any reference to the actual genocide that occurred in the country? That includes antisemitic exhibits with no commentary? That is state-sponsored in the capital of a European Union member state?
Posted in EU, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, Museums, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
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Last Jewish Fort is Vanishing
A leading news portal attacks visiting Israeli soldiers for a planned visit to the Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Fort, where around 100 Jewish escapees from the Vilna Ghetto found refuge in 1943 and 1944. The fort’s remnants are rapidly disappearing. Campaign mounted for its preservation.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Lithuania, News & Views
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Litvak Leader Prof. Mikhail Iossel Gives Major Radio Interview
Professor Mikhail Iossel, founding director of the Litvak Studies Institute (LSI), has given a major radio interview on salient Litvak issues to RCI — Radio Canada International. The sound track of the interview is available here. For more information, see coverage on the LSI site.
Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Mikhail Iossel, The Great SLS About-Face
Tagged Litvak Studies Institute, Mikhail Iossel, Mikhail Iossel + Vilnius, SLS (Summer Literary Seminars)
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Litvak Studies Institute Protests “Fake Litvak” Game by Politicians; Director Mikhail Iossel Issues Statement
Professor Mikhail Iossel, director of Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) and the newly established Litvak Studies Institute (LSI) released this statement today on the LSI website [archived copy].
Litvak Studies Institute Protests Lithuanian Government’s “Fake Litvak” Forum, Calls on State to Halt PR Gimmickry and Reverse Anti-Jewish Policies
Posted in Press — 20 July 2010
For the dwindling number of aged Litvak survivors who grew up in the East European Jewish civilization decimated by the Holocaust, the anti-Jewish and Holocaust-distorting policies of the Lithuanian government in recent years are deeply painful.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Antisemitism & Bias, Double Games, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Mikhail Iossel, News & Views, The Great SLS About-Face, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?
Tagged Andrius Kubilius, Deividas Matulionis, Dovid Katz, Fake Litvak Forum, Holocaust in the Baltics, Jewish partisans in Lithuania, Lithuanian-Jewish relations, Litvak Studies Institute (LSI), Mikhail Iossel, Mikhail Iossel + Vilnius, Summer Literary Seminars (SLS Lithuania)
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Government Launches ‘Fake Litvak’ PR Campaign
In the summer of 2010, Holocaust Survivors protested the government’s new ‘Imposter Litvak’ PR campaign as the PM’s aide boasted of $$ from ‘rich Litvaks’. ALJ, SWC and LSI issue statements, noting continuing Holocaust distortion and the travesty of attempted national identity theft perpetrated against a tiny remnant minority. An anguished Survivor speaks of his pain. UPDATE: Sources close to the Lithuanian Consulate in NY are circulating this proposal, with its list of links representing government PR positions only. Unconfirmed reports claim involvement of a recipient of an award from the Consulate. This website’s proposals for serious measures to resolve the current issues.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Human Rights, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, News & Views, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?
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I’m Suffocating
O P I N I O N
by Tomas Venclova
This authorized translation of the Lithuania original which appeared today in Bernardinai.lt was prepared by Geoff Vasil for Defending History and appears here with the author’s approval.
The section of the essay on current Lithuanian Jewish issues starts here.
Tomas Venclova
423 years before Christ’s birth, Aristophanes’ comedy The Clouds was performed in Athens during the festival at the Great Dionysia. It only won third place, Cratinus’ comedy The Bottle (about the dramatist’s own battle with alcohol) taking first place, and Ameipsias’ play, about which we know almost nothing, placing second. These other comedies haven’t survived, but we are still reading The Clouds today. In terms of literature, this is probably Aristophanes’ greatest work, with a superb poetic chorus—and it’s undeniably funny.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Croatia, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Tomas Venclova
Tagged Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Lithuanian Provisional Government of 1941, Tomas Venclova
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The Green House
Pamėnkalnio 12, Vilnius
Update of Oct. 2010: See also our report on the October 2010 re-opening of the Green House following extensive renovations. Black and white photos below are©Richard Schofield.
Rachel Kostanian, the courageous director, valiantly keeps alive one of the rare local bastions of public integrity on the Holocaust in Lithuania, having constantly to fend off obstacles. Read Esther Goldberg’s portrait in the special Jewish New Year’s supplement on great Jewish women of the ages in the Canadian Jewish News (8 Sept 2010). A follow-up article on Rachel Kostanian’s epic struggle for truth in Holocaust history appeared a month later (7 Oct 2010).
Posted in Arts, EU, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Rachel Kostanian
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Estonian President Obfuscates Holocaust; Marchers Honor SS
The Estonian president obfuscates the Holocaust during his Jerusalem visit by recombinating perpetrators and victims as ‘partners’. Here; 2.
Also: ADL’s Abe Foxman protests July 31 march in Estonia honoring Nazi SS. Here + JTA report.
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Estonia, EU, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Latvian Fascists Honor Hitler’s Invasion of their Country
A Latvian court approved & police nixed a Riga March celebrating Hitler’s 1941 Invasion. Still, the June 2010 event went ahead with a wreath-laying at Riga’s Liberty Monument to celebrate the Nazi army’s arrival and warm welcome. Here, 2, 3, 4.
Also: Far-right racist parties team up. Here.
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Human Rights, Latvia, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Riga's Waffen SS Marches
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Red-Brown Bill with Two Years of Jailtime for Disagreeing with Government’s Position is Signed into Law
A new law in effect criminalizing anti Double Genocide opinions has been passed by the Lithuanian parliament and signed into law by the president. Full text of the law. In English translation. The move followed adoption of a similar statute by Hungary’s new right-wing government.
See also:
DEMOCRACY & FREE SPEECH SECTION
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UPDATES (TO SEPT. 2011):
The Jewish community’s 2010 response to the new law
Professor Leonidas Donskis’s response to the 2008 proposals
Comments by Dovid Katz in 2009 and 2011
The new law criminalizes debate on the Holocaust and World War II, imposing punishments that include prison sentences of up to two years for those who would argue that Soviet crimes in Lithuania did not constitute genocide (hence: upon those who would challenge the notion that ‘Soviet and Nazi crimes are equal’). The opposing view (e.g. of this website) holds that Soviet crimes in Lithuania were horrendous but did not constitute genocide (following Donskis 2009, Katz 2009 etc; see page on Soviet crimes and draft response to the Prague Declaration).
Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Hungary, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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