[updated]
Tag Archives: Holocaust in Lithuania
Appeal to Conscience of the “Red-Brown Commission”
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", 70 Years Declaration, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Double Genocide, Germany, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform", Yad Vashem and Lithuania, Yiddish Affairs, Yivo Manipulated?
Tagged Historical Commission (Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust studies manipulated?, International Commision for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Lithuania, Pinchos Fridberg, Yitzhak Arad
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Professor Dov Levin’s Findings on the Outbreak of the Lithuanian Holocaust
DOCUMENTS | HISTORY
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The following is the first column of page 898 of Professor Dov Levin’s entry, “Lithuania,” in volume 3 of Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Israel Gutman, editor-in-chief; published by Macmillan, New York, and Collier Macmillan, London, 1990, in cooperation with Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem). Further reading on the subject. Eyewitness testimonies.
Posted in Documents, Dov Levin (1925 - 2016), History, Israel, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), Professor Dov Levin, Start of the Lithuanian Holocaust
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Another Holocaust-Obfuscating PR Bash at “Vilnius Jewish Public Library”
VILNIUS JEWISH PUBLIC LIBRARY | DOUBLE GAMES | RED-BROWN COMMISSION
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VILNIUS—Yet again, the “Vilnius Jewish Public Library,” housed in exquisite city-center premises in a courtyard off the capital’s central Gedimino Boulevard, has been the base for a Holocaust-obfuscating event featuring stars of the state’s “Red-Brown Commission” who are dispatched far and wide to deny the existence of the state-sponsored “Double Genocide” campaign, to mitigate the campaign against Holocaust survivors, the efforts to glorify local collaborators, and to obscure entirely the Second Opinion expressed in the Seventy Years Declaration. Incredibly, the roster of invited speakers did not include Ms. Rūta Vanagaitė, author of Mūsiškiai, the new best-selling book on the Holocaust that has in effect revolutionized the country’s coming to terms with its Holocaust-era past. What is the “Jewish” Library afraid of?
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", "Vilnius Jewish Public Library", Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Double Genocide, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation, Musiskai, Prof. Saulius Suziedelis, Ruta Vanagaite, Seventy Years Declaration, Vilnius Jewish Public Library
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Vilnius Prosecutor Skirts Key Question: Will the List of Alleged Holocaust Perpetrators be Made Public?
LITHUANIA | POLITICS OF MEMORY | GENOCIDE CENTER | OPINION
by Dovid Katz
VILNIUS—An array of local observers, speaking as usual off the record here, declared themselves “in shock” over the official response to the Jewish Community released by Prosecutor General Rimvydas Valentukevičius yesterday, dealing with widespread requests that the state’s Genocide Center — with which his Prosecutor General’s office has closely cooperated on Holocaust issues for many years — release the list of around two thousand names of alleged Holocaust murderers that it recently announced it had compiled, drawing international press attention. Over the years, the Center has been critiqued by the Wiesenthal Center and by various authors in Defending History for its alleged history-distorting antics; Evaldas Balčiūnas and Andrius Kulikauskas are among the boldest challengers of the Center’s moral integrity. (See also DH’s page on the Genocide Center, and on the museum which it directs in central Vilnius.)
The Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel has long maintained an estimate of 23,000 local perpetrators involved in the killing. Thousands were listed on the Association’s website until June 2009 when the Israeli Foreign Ministry, under pressure from Lithuanian counterparts, itself harshly pressured the Association’s then chairperson to remove the list from its website. But it continues to circulate widely both on the internet and its fuller form is preserved in Joseph Melamed’s 1999 book, Crime and Punishment (Tel Aviv 1999), where the lists of alleged killers are organized by region and town.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Genocide Center (Vilnius), History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide industry, Efraim Zuroff, Evaldas Balciunas, Fania Brancovskaja, Fania Brantsovsky, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation, Joseph Melamed, Rachel Margolis, Rewriting History (film), Rimvydas Valentukevicius, Shimon Alperovich, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Simonas Alperavicius, Tuvia Jafet, war crimes in Lithuania, Yitzhak Arad
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Wiesenthal Center Praises Lithuanian Jewish Community Call to Publish List of Local Holocaust Perpetrators
LITHUANIA | LITVAK AFFAIRS | COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED | GENOCIDE CENTER
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JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the call issued late last week in Vilnius by the Lithuanian Jewish community to the official state Genocide and Resistance Research Center to publish its list of 2,055 Lithuanians whom it alleges participated in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who also is responsible for Eastern European Affairs, the Center noted the importance of the call by community president Faina Kukliansky to finally reveal the names on the list which was originally compiled in 2012, but has hitherto never been made public. Of particular importance was the community’s call upon the Genocide Center to verify whether any of the persons on the list were still alive, how many of them had been granted rehabilitations and whether any of these persons had received decorations from the Lithuanian government (for their anti-Soviet activities).
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, Genocide Center (Vilnius), Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Ruta Vanagaite, Simon Wiesenthal Center
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An Open Letter to Holocaust Scholars and Educators in the Francophone World
OPINION | FRANCE | RED-BROWN COMMISSION | GENOCIDE CENTER
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Dear Colleagues:
Re: Conference on the Lithuanian Holocaust scheduled for this week in Vilnius
The newest Lithuanian “Double Genocide Industry” outreach to the French speaking academic world of Holocaust and World War II studies, this week’s conference in Vilnius, combines a number of truly outstanding scholars and papers with a political agenda of finding Francophone legitimization for Baltic Holocaust revisionism. The French component includes outstanding personalities from Mémorial de la Shoah, from Institut d’Histoire du Temps présent, and from the French Embassy in Lithuania. The strategy has recently evolved following a protracted collapse of US/UK/Israeli confidence in both the “Red-Brown Commission” (page) and the “Genocide Center” (page), both of which have been extensively exposed in recent months. Participants from Lithuania include one of the Double Genocide movement’s main “attack dogs” who makes fine hay of smearing local Lithuanian truth tellers as stooges of Moscow or useful idiots, especially when attempting to discredit honest multi-sided conferences (e.g. last April’s Vilnius conference).
Will the European Commission and the Claims Conference ever see the light on how their generosity is abused by Baltic nationalist Holocaust revisionism?
Posted in Double Genocide, EU, Events, France, Genocide Center (Vilnius), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Claims Conference, Conference on Jewish Material Claims, European Commission + Holocaust, French Embassy in Vilnius, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Studies in France, Institut d’Histoire du Temps présent, International Comission for the Evaluation, Mémorial de la Shoah, Red-Brown Commission
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Lithuanian Shtetl Malát (Molėtai) to be Commemorated in 2016
LITVAK AFFAIRS | EVENTS
by Tzvi-Hirsh (Gregory) Kritzer
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Iam making a documentary film about the Jewish history and legacy of Malát (now Molėtai), a small shtetl in Lithuania. The film will endeavor to cover the history, life and culture of the Maláter, the Jews of Malát, and also the genocide of the entire community carried out by the Nazis and their local collaborators. My father’s family was killed there together with about 1000 Malát Jews.
Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Tzvi-Hirsh Kritzer
Tagged Gregory Kritzer, Holocaust in Lithuania, Malat (Lithuania), Malater Benevolent Association, Moletai (Lithuania), Tzvi Kritzer
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Why Would the “Genocide Center” in Vilnius Manipulate History and Glorify Murderers?
O P I N I O N / C O L L A B O R A T O R S G L O R I F I E D / G E N O C I D E C E N T E R
by Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė
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“I am a former Lithuanian soldier myself and have a personal remark to make. Nobody will ever force me to wear the uniform of another country’s armed forces, because I am a Lithuanian patriot. I will not wear the uniform of Russia or of Mozambique.”
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Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė
One of the main Lithuanian dailies Lietuvos žinios (Lithuanian News) reported in an article on 24 November 2015 that the council of the celebrated Sajūdis organization (famed for its role in resisting the USSR and helping to achieve Lithuanian independence), had now, in 2015, decided to apply to prosecutors to take legal action over an article that had appeared in the 13 October 2015 edition of Laisvas laikraštis (Free Newspaper).
Sajūdis “decided” that the author had violated the law because he mentioned that Lithuanian postwar militants Vytautas Žemaitis, Jonas Noreika (Vėtra), Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas and others might have been personally involved in Holocaust atrocities. [Editor’s note: See articles by Evaldas Balčiūnas on the alleged Holocaust involvement of Žemaitis, Noreika, and Baltūsis -Žvejas.]
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Free Speech & Democracy, Genocide Center (Vilnius), History, Human Rights, Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Sweden
Tagged Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas, Birute Burauskaite, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Obfuscation, Jonas Noreika, Jonas Öhman, Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė, Vytautas Žemaitis
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Ponár (Paneriai) Memorial: No Rabbi, No Cantor, No Kaddish
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Ponár (Paneriai) Commemoration on Lithuania’s Annual Holocaust Day is Dejudaicized Even More in “Nationalist Takeover of Litvak Heritage”: No Rabbi, No Cantor, No Kaddish
But ethnic Lithuanian costume and song are featured at the mass grave of Vilna Jewry. Honor guard with bayoneted rifles was a questionable touch.
Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai)
Tagged Amir Maimon, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, Holocaust in Lithuania, Israeli Embassy in Vilnius, Mickey Kantor, Paneriai, Ponar, Rachel Margolis, Vilna Ghetto
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New Jewish Monument in Rokiškis (Rákeshik), Lithuania, Commemorates 3 Synagogues
E V E N T S / O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
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For many years, international visitors to Rokiškis (in Yiddish: Rákishok, or less formally: Rákeshik), in northeastern Lithuania, have remarked that the town’s central area seemed to preserve little (or no) trace or commemoration of its erstwhile Jewish population, though a large monument now graces the entrance to the old Jewish cemetery outside town. Before the Holocaust, this town was home to around 3,500 Jews (some 40% of the total population, and the overwhelming majority in its central area). Luckily, a short film of pre-Holocaust Jewish Rákishok survives (from 1937), and is available on Youtube. Thanks to Polish film maker Tomek Wisniewski for circulating the link in recent days.
Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Dovid Katz, Events, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Rákishok (Rokiškis), Swastikas in Lithuania, Symbology
Tagged Antanas Vagonis, Aurimas Širvys, Berl Kagan, Dovid Katz, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jewish Lithuanian towns, Jewish Rokiskis, Julius Norwilla, Lithuanian-Jewish relations, Litvak issues, Litvak SIG, Meilach Balczuk-Felin, Philip Shapiro / Jewish Gen / Litvak, Rakeshik, Rakishok, Rokiskis + Jews, Rokiškis Regional Museum
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Public Shrines to a Holocaust Collaborator and a “Secret” Petition: A Summer’s Strange Media Circus
O P I N I O N / C O L L A B O R A T O R S G L O R I F I E D
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
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In the midst of this past summer’s heatwave here in Lithuania, Delfi.lt, one of the most popular news portals in the land, exploded with discussions on commemorations and memorials for Nazi collaborators in our country. Rimvydas Valatka, a columnist for the portal and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, started it all with his article of 26 July. The “current events background” was the recent removal of the controversial Soviet-era statues of soldiers on Vilnius’s Green Bridge. Valatka, a veteran of Lithuanian journalism with the rarefied street-cred of a Declaration of Independence signatory, appealed for removal of the memorial plaque for Nazi collaborator Jonas Noreika (“Generolas Vėtra”) from a central Vilnius library building, and wrote about a petition for its removal signed by a group of intellectuals and public figures, and addressed to the mayor of Vilnius as well as to the director of the relevant library (Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences), where the plaque hangs prominently in the heart of Lithuania’s capital.
The stone honoring Holocaust collaborator Jonas Noreika tops the lot on the facade of the Genocide Museum on Gedimino Boulevard in the Lithuanian capital, a stone’s throw from the nation’s parliament. When are we going to stop glorifying those who helped annihilate Lithuanian Jewry during the Holocaust? When is this going to come down?
Posted in Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Genocide Center (Vilnius), History, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, State Glorification of Holocaust Collaborator J. Noreika
Tagged Evaldas Balciunas, Holocaust collaborators Glorified, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Noreika (Generolas Vetra)
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Dovid Katz: Spring 2016 North American Lectures
SCHEDULE:
Toronto (20-22 March 2016); Fairfield, Conn. (30 March – 2 April); Limmud / Parsippany, New Jersey (1 April); Stamford, Conn. (2-3 April); New York City (4-12 April); Teaneck, NJ (10 April); UCLA / Los Angeles (17-20 April); Yale / New Haven (27 April)
SEE ALSO: LISTING OF AVAILABLE TOPICS; CV; BOOKS; WEBSITE
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TORONTO (20—22 MARCH 2016)
TORONTO EVENTS ARE HOSTED BY
UJA FEDERATION’S COMMITTEE FOR YIDDISH, THE TORONTO WORKMEN’S CIRCLE
AND
THE ANNE TANENBAUM CENTRE FOR JEWISH STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
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Sunday, 20 March 2016, 10:30 AM — 1:30 PM:
“Let’s Read Sholem Aleichem (on his 100th yórtsayt)”
At Toronto Workmen’s Circle, 471 Lawrence Ave West. RSVP to reserve space (25 participant limit): Ed Segalowitz: +1 416-631-5702 | esegalowitz{A}ujafed.org
Sunday, 20 March 2016, at 2 PM:
“Yiddish Literature as a Force for (Attempted) iberkérenishn
THE SIMCHA SIMCHOVITCH ANNUAL LECTURE
[delivered in Yiddish]
At Toronto Workmen’s Circle, 471 Lawrence Ave West
ADDITIONAL EVENT UNDER SEPARATE AUSPICES (UJA FEDERATION COMMITTEE FOR YIDDISH):
“Holocaust Revisionism, Antisemitism and Geopolitics in Eastern Europe”
Sunday 20 March 2016 at 7:30 PM at Sherman Campus, 4600 Bathurst St, Toronto. Details here.
Monday, 21 March 2016, at 4 PM
“600 Years of Conflicts About Yiddish”
At the Jackman Humanities Building, University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street, Room 100
Waks Family Fund in Yiddish and Jewish East European History and Culture
Tuesday, 22 March 2016, at 1 PM
York University Graduate Studies Seminar:
“Litvaks and Galitsyáner”
At the Centre for Jewish Studies, 7th floor seminar room, Kaneff Tower at York
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FAIRFIELD, CONN. (30—31 MARCH 2016)
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Wednesday, 30 March 2016
Fairfield University (Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies)
Fairfield University, Quick Center for the Arts, Kelley Theater, at 7:30 PM
“Exotic Exploits and Contentious Chapters in Modern Yiddish Literature”
Inaugural Diane Feigenson Lecture in Jewish Literature
Thursday, 31 March 2016
Fairfield University (Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies):
“The East European ‘Double Genocide’ Movement: Implications for Memory of the Holocaust”
Lunch-time Power Point Presentation and Discussion
Saturday, 2 April 2016
Congregation Ahavath Achim, Fairfield, Connecticut:
“The New (and Cunning) Holocaust Denial Coming Out of Eastern Europe”
After-Kiddush Sabbath Talk in the Synagogue Hall
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PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY (1 APRIL 2016)
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Friday, 1 April 2016
LIMMUD FSU at the Sheraton Hotel, 199 Smith Road, Parsippany, New Jersey:
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STAMFORD, CONN. (3 APRIL 2016)
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Sunday, 3 April 2016 at 8 PM
Congregation Agudath Sholom (Stamford, Connecticut):
“The Old Hebrew-Yiddish Conflict and its Ongoing Legacies”
In Memory of Louis and Edith Scheinberg
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NEW YORK CITY (4—12 APRIL 2016)
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Tuesday, 5 April 2016, at 6 PM
Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) at 165 East 56th Street, NYC, at 6 PM:
“The Special Case of Baltic-Ukrainian Holocaust Inversion”
Thursday, 7 April 2016, at 12:30 lunchtime
Baruch College, City University of New York (55 Lexington Avenue [Room 11-150], between 24th and 25th Street):
“Yiddish, The ‘Jew-Business’, Holocaust Politics, ‘Useful Jewish Idiots’: The Eerie Terrain of Jewish Lithuania”
SCHEDULE HERE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT RABBI MOSES BIRNBAUM (ramab18{A}yahoo.com)
“Six Centuries of Conflicts About Yiddish”
at Congregation Rinat Yisrael, 389 West Englewood Ave, Teaneck, NJ 07666
Monday 11 April 2016 at 6:30 PM
42nd Street Mid Manhattan Library in New York City
and the Dorot Jewish Division, 455 Fifth Avenue NYC
AS PDF
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LOS ANGELES (17—20 APRIL 2016)
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Sunday, 17 April 2016 at 4 PM
UCLA Royce Hall, Room 314:
“Yiddish and Power (1016 to 2016): The Social, Intellectual and Political Empowering of the Masses by One of the World’s Most Exotic Languages”
Monday, 18 April 2016 at 4 PM
UCLA Royce Hall, Room 306:
“Fate of Yiddish in the Lands of the Soviet Empire”
Tuesday, 19 April 2016 (time to be announced)
At the California Yiddish Institute:
“Intensive Mini-Course in Intermediate Yiddish”
Wednesday, 20 April 2016 at 4 PM
UCLA Royce Hall, Room 334C:
“Methodologies for Cultural Reconstruction of Minorities in Eastern Europe: The Case of Yiddish”
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The above four events in Los Angeles are sponsored by the UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies, and cosponsored by the UCLA Department of Germanic Languages, the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and the California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language
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YALE / NEW HAVEN (27 APRIL 2016)
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Wednesday, 27 April 2016 at Midday
Zucker Room at the Slifka Center:
“What is Classic Secular Yiddishism? Its Relevance Today”
[delivered in Yiddish]
THE SID RESNICK MEMORIAL LECTURE (part I)
Wednesday, 27 April 2016 at 4:30 PM
Zucker Room at the Slifka Center:
“The Dialects of Yiddish: More than Just Dialects”
[delivered in English]
THE SID RESNICK MEMORIAL LECTURE (part II)
BOTH EVENTS HOSTED BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY JUDAIC STUDIES PROGRAM
AND THE
YALE-NEW HAVEN YIDDISH READING CIRCLE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT PROFESSOR VICTOR BERS (victor.bers{A}yale.edu)
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EVERYONE WELCOME AT ALL EVENTS
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Tagged Dovid Katz, Dovid Katz + Holocaust Studies, Holocaust in Lithuania, Yiddish dialectology, Yiddish linguistics
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What It Is to Defend Your Own History
O P I N I O N / C O L L A B O R A T O R S G L O R I F I E D
by Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė
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Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė
One can hear various stories about history here in Lithuania. The main narrative is about Bad Communists and Good Nazis. Yes, it is true. Especially very recently, after the civil (or whatever kind of) war broke out in Ukraine, the Nazis and those who justify and glorify them, both in Ukraine and Lithuania, have found new strength. Under the banner of “Ukraine Fights For All Of Us,” some have decided to bring back such “heroes” as the killer Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas.
For my part, I would like to defend our Tauras district (in the Kaunas region) from the legacy of this genre of “hero.” For his history was not only one of guerilla warfare against Soviet forces but about what he was doing in 1941 when the wholesale slaughter of our Jewish population was underway. This has a lot to do with Lithuania, who we are as proud Lithuanians whose history, like every other people on this earth, has its high and its low moments.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, History, Human Rights, Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas, glorification of Holocaust collaborators, Holocaust in Lithuania, Kaunas + Holocaust, Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė, street names in Lithuania
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Wiesenthal Center Praises Vytautas Bruveris’s Call for Investigating Scope of Local Holocaust Participation
TAURAGĖ (TÁVRIK), LITHUANIA—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised an op-ed in the popular Lithuanian news portal Lrytas.lt by prominent journalist Vytautas Bruveris calling upon the government to finally undertake a comprehensive investigation of the scope of Lithuanian complicity in Holocaust crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who is currently in Lithuania on a research expedition, the Center expressed its appreciation and support for the content of the article and expressed the hope that the government would indeed implement the ideas raised by Bruveris.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Efraim Zuroff, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Lithuania, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Taurage (Tavrik)
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Protocol of 26 August 2009 Meeting in Vilnius on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in today’s Šnipiškės)
DOCUMENTS | VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT
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Related: The 2015 saga. Paper Trail. DH section. Other descriptions of the same 2009 agreement. The U.S. ambassador’s dispatch mentioning the rabbis’ payment for supervising “beautification” of the grounds. Embassy’s dispatch on the secrecy of the document. What were they actually paid? What were the same rabbis promised in 2015? In the past, the slightest digging in the area revealed human remains throughout.
The Question: Does the agreement (which a US State Department cable, published by Wikipedia, makes clear was supposed to remain secret) really permit a twenty-five million dollar convention center in the heart of the old cemetery (and millions in subsequent development) where people will cheer, revel, drink in bars, use toilets and parking areas on top of and surrounded by tens of thousands of Jewish graves paid for by grieving Vilnius families over a period of more than five hundred years? Comment in 2015 by (inter alia) the chief rabbi of Lithuania, resident rabbinical Vilna Gaon scholar in Lithuania, a Christian leader, a Vilnius Holocaust survivor, Gaon of Vilna’s descendants in Israel at Tel Aviv’s Vilna Gaon Synagogue, and the Central Rabbinical Council of the United States and Canada.
Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Documents, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok)
Tagged Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, CPJCE (Jewish cemeteries), Holocaust in Lithuania, Jewish cemetery at Piramont, Jewish cemetery in Snipiskes, Lithuanian-Jewish relations, Rabbi Gluck (CPJCE), Vilnius Jewish cemetery
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What’s The Story With the Mass Grave Uncovered near Šiauliai (Shavl)?
O P I N I O N
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
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Last week, there was a flurry of reports in the Lithuanian media about human skeletons and personal effects turning up during routine roadworks at Pročiūnai in the region of Šiauliai (in Jewish history: Shavl). Reports and gory pictures appeared among other places in 15min.lt; Etaplius.lt; Skrastas.lt and Snaujienos.lt. I myself, a concerned resident of Šiauliai, commented on the subject on my own blog (here and here). Various articles published contained theorizations about the buried here being victims of Soviet crimes or even equally of Nazi and Soviet crimes.
Monday 13 July. It is probably correct to say that the international scandal was set alight when the “routine” BNS (Baltic News Service) report appeared in English in the Lithuania Tribune (amalgamated with English Delfi). The archaeologist placed in charge by the local government of the investigation of the human remains, Audronė Šapaitė, is quoted in the article as presenting the following certain conclusions. Excerpts follow:
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Chief Rabbi Chaim Burshtein (Lithuania), CPJCE (Committee for Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe), Evaldas Balciunas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust mass grave Siauliai (Shavl), Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania
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Asra Kadisha Faults Lithuanian Authorities for Forming “Heritage Commission” to Preserve Cemeteries While “Doing the Opposite on the Ground”
NEW YORK—Rabbi Lazar Stern, New York area chairman of the international religious Asra Kadisha organization that calls for preservation of threatened Jewish cemeteries, issued a statement today concerning the latest prima facie instance of desecration of the final resting place of dead Jewish citizens of Lithuania. This time the fracas concerns a Holocaust-era mass grave site in Šiauliai (Shavl), in northwestern Lithuania. Published in a number of media outlets, including Baltic News Service (BNS), News.lt, Gnome.es, the Asra Kadisha statement calls for an immediate halt to the ongoing excavations. These works rapidly resulted in lurid pictures of human remains and personal possessions (including shoes) with which these people were murdered, being splashed over a number of Lithuanian online publications, including 15min.lt; Etaplius.lt; Skrastas.lt; Snaujienos.lt. Asra Kadisha is Aramaic for “Holy Place” and refers here to the sanctity of human burial grounds.
UPDATE OF 16 JULY:
Protests lead to Rapid U-Turn by Authorities
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Christian-Jewish Issues, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok)
Tagged Asra Kadisha, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Jewish cemetery Snipiskes / Snipisek / Shnipishok / Piramont, mass grave in Siauliai (Shavl), Rabbi Chaim Burshtein
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Lithuania’s Chief Rabbi Pleads for Preservation of Holocaust-Era Mass Grave in Šiauliai
Rabbi Chaim Burshtein
VILNIUS—Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, chief rabbi of Lithuania (and of Vilnius) today issued a heartfelt appeal to both national government authorities, and to the municipal leadership of Šiauliai (known in Jewish history as Shavl), to call an immediate halt to the excavation of hundreds of victims’ remains from a Holocaust-era mass grave site uncovered during a highway construction project.
The discovery was widely reported in the Lithuanian and regional media, including the English-language Lithuania Tribune (English Delfi.lt). Various Lithuanian media outlets have reveled in publishing photos of skulls, bones and other remains from the mass grave being dismantled, sometimes including shoes and clothing (among others: 15min.lt; Etaplius.lt; Skrastas.lt; Snaujienos.lt).
The BNS (Baltic News Service) report quotes the official responsible archaeologist, Audronė Šapaitė on the decision reached (apparently without consultation with Jewish religious authorities): “It’s been decided to excavate the remains, do anthropological tests and then rebury them and also mark this place.”
UPDATE OF 16 JULY:
Protest leads to Rapid U-Turn by Authorities
Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Chaim Burshtein, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust in Siauliai (Shavl), Mass graves in Lithuania, Rabbi Chaim Burshtein
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Dancing on Jewish Graves in Vilna
O P I N I O N
by Pinchos Fridberg
Editor’s note: Reprint from The Times of Israel, where this article, with several photographs, appeared on 25 June 2016.
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I am a Holocaust survivor. I was born here in Vilnius (Yiddish: Vílne), today’s capital of Lithuania, known forever as the “Jerusalem of Lithuania” for its vibrant Jewish culture, religious and secular, for hundreds of years. Today our post-Holocaust Jewish community is a tiny remnant, just a few thousand people, but we are vibrant, and, as always, a community of many opinions. Once again, a question has arisen that calls for robust discourse.
Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Jeish cemeteries in Eastern Europe, Pinchos Fridberg, Vilnius Jewish cemetery at Piramont (Snipiskes)
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The June 2015 Memorial for the Lietūkis Garage Massacre in Kaunas, Lithuania
O P I N I O N / E Y E W I T N E S S A C C O U N T
by Julius Norwilla
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To mark the 74th anniversary of one of the iconic events of the Lithuanian Holocaust, the infamous Lietūkis Garage Massacre of 27 June 1941, the Kaunas Jewish Community organized its annual memorial event at the site, last Friday, 26 June 2015. The massacre, carried out by local Lithuanian “patriots” wearing the white armbands of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), butchered dozens of Jewish passers-by at a garage on Kaunas’s Vytautas Avenue, using a variety of execution methods, including clubbing to death with crowbars, and particularly, forcing water from high-pressure hoses into bodily orifices of the victims until they burst. A growing crowd, including women holding up their young children to get the best views, cheered them on.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, History, Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Aleksandras Bosas, Amir Maimon, Embassy of Israel in Lithuania, Holocaust in Lithuania, Julius Norwilla, Lietukis Garage, Lithuanian Activist Front
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