In a statement published today on its website, the Society for the Promotion of the European Human Rights Model Abroad takes note of the antisemitic foundations of the new ‘Double Genocide’ movement in Eastern Europe, and particularly in the Baltic states. It also takes the Lithuanian government to task for the 2010 law that effectively threatens imprisonment for those who reject ‘Double Genocide’.

The statement, signed by Didier E. Bertin, is titled ‘The Eastern members of the European Union: A long way from the European Union’s criteria in the field of Democracy, Freedom, Education. The fight against revisionist memory work regarding antisemitism and life under Communism’.

Excerpts from the statement:

“It must be noted that in Eastern countries and in particular in the Baltic countries, the traditional antisemitism is amplified by an association of Judaism with Communism and then Jews are doubly hated for themselves and for their assumed association with Communism. […]

“Lithuania is in a particular bad position since it ranks first by the percentage of extermination of Jews during WW2, with 96% achieved by the Nazis and sometimes by the local population such as in Kaunas where civilians slaughtered Jews in 1941 with the same tools and same efficiency which were later utilized and achieved in Rwanda (See attached pictures). In the same City of Kaunas  antisemitic acts were perpetrated in summer 2010 despite the quasi absence of Jews. […]

“In addition we may rationally fear that travelling to Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Czech Republic may become difficult as a result of the legal risk incurred. This legal risk includes lawsuits as criminals against visitors, who might not be used, as free European citizens, to limit their right of expression, and who do not share the views of these countries regarding the equivalence between Holocaust and the crimes of Communist regimes or on the magnitude of Communist crimes.”