Tag Archives: Holocaust in Lithuania

Grigory Tzvi Kritzer’s Speech on the 75th Anniversary of the Malát Massacre



Grigory Tzvi Kritzer, a native of Vilnius, Lithuania, who settled many years ago in Israel, is a well-known Israeli soccer (football) agent. He was the primary organizer of the series of events that culminated in a march by thousands, unveiling of a multilingual monument, and launch of an exhibition, book, and film, in the small town (former shtetl) Malát (Molėtai, northeastern Lithuania) on 29 August 2016. The book and exhibition were the products of the initiative and creative work of regional museum director, Viktorija Kazlienė, in close cooperation with Leon Kaplan who edited and translated the book. 

The day marked the 75th anniversary of the 1941 massacre of the town’s 2,000 Jews, then a majority of its population. This year’s day of memorial events there has drawn wide and varied media comment and coverage

The following is the English text of Tzvi Kritzer’s speech, provided by his office at the request of Defending History. The translation is by Aleksandras Federas.


We decided to walk that road one and a half years ago, and then I imagined that there would be only a few people here… Now, look around, my heart is beating with joy that our relatives and loved ones, who perished here in Molėtai, have not been forgotten.

Thanks to all of you, to those who have come from faraway countries and to those who live here, in Lithuania. I am particularly moved to see here people from all corners of Lithuania. I would like to thank the mayor of Molėtai, Mr. Stasys Žvinis, and all his team for their help and support.

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Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Tzvi-Hirsh Kritzer | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Grigory Tzvi Kritzer’s Speech on the 75th Anniversary of the Malát Massacre

Julius Norwilla to Speak on 12 Vilnius Mass Graves



THIS THURSDAY EVENING 4 AUGUST 2016 IN VILNIUS:

Defending History veteran writer-researcher Julius Norwilla will give an illustrated talk on

“A Dozen Holocaust Mass Graves in the Vilnius Area: What is the Actual State of Respect for the Victims?”

Thursday evening, 4 August, 6 PM (1800) at the Jewish Cultural and Information Center, Mėsinių  3 in Vilnius Old Town. Lecture in English, questions in any language. Admission free. Everyone welcome.

Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Julius Norwilla to Speak on 12 Vilnius Mass Graves

Wiesenthal Center Calls on Kaunas Mayor to End Abuse of “Seventh Fort”; Pressure Builds on Vilnius Mayor’s Jewish Politics



JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel Office today issued a press release (text below), including a quote from its director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, calling on Visvaldas Matijošaitis, the mayor of Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania’s second city, to ban weddings and other celebrations from the now privatized parts of the historic Seventh Fort, where thousands of Kaunas Jews were humiliated, tortured and murdered starting with the first week of the Lithuanian Holocaust in late June 1941.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Efraim Zuroff, Human Rights, Kaunas, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wiesenthal Center Calls on Kaunas Mayor to End Abuse of “Seventh Fort”; Pressure Builds on Vilnius Mayor’s Jewish Politics

Papers in Holocaust and Antisemitism Studies


by Dovid Katz


SEE ALSO: ARTICLES IN THE GUARDIAN (back-ups); JEWISH CHRONICLEJEWISH CURRENTS (back-ups); TABLET (back-ups). More.

SELECTION OF VIDEOGRAPHED INTERVIEWS WITH SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST WEEK OF THE LITHUANIAN & LATVIAN HOLOCAUST

RECENT PUBLICATIONS; ALL PUBLICATIONSBOOKSACADEMIA.EDU.

2009

“On Three Definitions:  Genocide; Holocaust Denial; Holocaust Obfuscation” in Leonidas Donskis (ed.), A Litmus Test Case of Modernity. Examining Modern Sensibilities and the Public Domain in the Baltic States at the Turn of the Century [=Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe 5], Peter Lang: Bern et al 2009, pp. 259-277 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2009SeptDovidKatz3Definitions.pdf]. Archived.

2010

Participation in forum on a paper by Barry Rubin. In: Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 4.3 (2010), pp. 189-193 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2010IsraelJournalofForeignAffairsDovidKatz.pdf]. Archived.

2011

“The Detonation of the Holocaust in 1941: A Tale of Two Books” = review of: Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (Basic Books: New York 2010) and Alexander V. Prusin, The Lands Between: Conflict in the East European Borderlands, 1870-1992, Oxford University Press: Oxford 2010. In: East European Jewish Affairs 41.3 (Dec. 2011), pp. 207-221 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Dovid-Katzs-review-of-Bloodlands-in-EEJA-Dec-2011.pdf]. Archived.

Reply to: Rokas Grajauskas, “Is there a Chance for a Common European Culture of Remembrance?” [in Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review (2010), pp. 110-118]. In: Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review, 7 March 2011, posted on website, initially at: http://lfpr.lt/uploads/File/2010-24/Katz.doc, but not in print version of the journal, and possibly removed at some point from the website. The reply is now available in Defending History at: https://defendinghistory.com/13705/13705. Archived.

Review of: Adam Michnik, In Search of Lost Meaning: The New Eastern Europe, edited by Irena Grudzinska Gross, University of California Press: Berkeley 2011. In: East European Jewish Affairs (2012), pp. 187-191 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Review-of-Michnik-Dovid-Katz-in-EEJA.pdf]. Archived.

2012

Review of: Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Intermarium: The Land between the Black and the Baltic Seas (Transaction: New Brunswick 2012). In: Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 7.2 (2013), pp. 169-175 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Dovid-Katz-review-of-Intermarium-in-Israel-Journal-of-Foreign-Affairs-7-2-2013.pdf]. Archived.

2013

Review of: Arūnas Bubnys, Vilnius Ghetto 1941–1943, Genocide and Resistance Research Center: Vilnius 2013. In: Defending History, 19 November 2013 [https://defendinghistory.com/genocide-center-releases-a-new-graywash-on-the-vilna-ghetto/60925]. Archived.

2014

Review of: Georges Mink and Laure Neumayer, History, Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: Memory GamesPalgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke 2014. In: East European Jewish Affairs 44.1 (2014): 112-115 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Proof-of-Review-of-Minkes-and-Neumayer-Dovid-Katz-2014.pdf]. Archived.

“Freewheeling Deconstruction of Max Weinreich: Sensationalization of the Fragile Field of Yiddish”  [in Yiddish] in Defending History,  22 June 2014, see section on abuse of Yiddish for far-right Holocaust politics in Lithuania in §VII [https://defendinghistory.com/freewheeling-deconstruction-max-weinreich-ongoing-machinations-weakened-field-yiddish#yiddishabusedforfarrightpolitics]. Archived.

2015

“Left- and Right-Wing Politics” (section in chapter 15,  “Yiddishless Yiddish Power vs. Powerless Yiddish”) in Dovid Katz, Yiddish and Power (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke 2015), pp. 295-300 in chapter on pp. 275-304 [https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Extract-from-Dovid-Katzs-Yiddish-and-Power-Palgrave-Macmillan-2015.pdf]. Archived.

2016

“Is Eastern European ‘Double Genocide’ Revisionism Reaching Museums?” in Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust, vol. 30.3: 1–30, 18 Nov. 2016 [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23256249.2016.1242043 / PDF of proof online at: https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Dovid-Katz-2016-Dapim-paper-PROOF-ONLY.pdf]. Archived.

“West is West, East is East: The Specific East European Incarnation of Antisemitism” in ISGAP’s Flashpoint 21, 8 April 2016 [http://isgap.org/flashpoint/west-is-west-east-is-east-the-specific-east-european-incarnation-of-antisemitism/]. Archived.

“Antisemitism in the Twenty-First Century Shtetl” in ISGAP Flashpoint, no. 38, 28 November 2016 [http://isgap.org/flashpoint/antisemitism-in-the-21st-century-shtetl/]. Archived.

2017

“The Extraordinary Recent History of Holocaust Studies in Lithuania” in Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust, vol. 31.3 “Scholars’ Forum: Holocaust Historiography in Eastern Europe (Part II)”, pp. 285-295  (December 2017)[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23256249.2017.1395530?journalCode=rdap20;  PDF of proof at: https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Dovid-Katz-on-Holocaust-Studies-in-Lithuania-PROOF-ONLY-Dec.-2017.pdf]. Archived.

“Free Trade Awry? The Westward Export of Double Genocide” in Danielle Buschinger et al. (eds.), Mélanges offerts à Jeff Richards par ses amis à l’occasion de son 65e anniversaire, Centre d’Etudes Médiévales de la Picardie: Amiens 2017, pp. 413-443 [proof online at: https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Dovid-Katzs-paper-in-Earl-Jeffrey-Richards-festschrift-2017.pdf]. Archived.

2018

“The Baltic Movement to Obfuscate the Holocaust” in Alex J. Kay and David Stahel (eds), Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe: New Debates and Perspectives (Indiana University Press: Bloomington, Indiana), pp. 235-261. PDF of proof at: https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Baltic-Movement-to-Obfuscate-the-Holocaust.compressed.pdf. Archived.

“Primary Holocaust Inversion and Eastern European Antisemitism” in Charles Asher Small (ed), The ISGAP Papers. Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective, vol. iii (ISGAP: New York), pp. 207-218. PDF of proof at: https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/PDF-of-DK-on-Holocaust-Inversion-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf. Archived.

2019

“On Methodology in Historical Yiddish Linguistics” [in Yiddish; see section on the “Holocaust trauma argument” in §II]. PDF at: https://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Dovid-Katz-in-Starck-Festschrift-2019.pdf. Archived.

“On the (Ab)use of Law to Remake the Historical Narrative of World War II” in Mémoires en Jeu / Memories at Stake, no. 9 (Paris), pp. 88 -93. PDF of proof only. Archived.

◊◊

ARTICLES IN:

Algemeiner Journal

Global Independent Analytics

The Guardian

Irish Times

Jewish Chronicle

Jewish Currents

Jewish Review of Books

Tablet

Taylor & Francis

Times of Israel

Initial 2009 articles cited by Vilnius University as grounds for disemployment: In the Jewish Chronicle and Irish Times (followed in 2010 by Guardian article as ‘last straw’)

 

 

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Vilnius City Council “Defers” Decision on Street Honoring Hitler Collaborator


[LAST UPDATE]


I24’s 14 July 2016 report. Background in DH on British-born city council member, Mark Harold Splinter, who proposed the change (his statement in English). Samples from elsewhere in Lithuania. Wider issue in Eastern Europe. Within “Double Genocide” theory. Related 24 July 2016 report by JTA.

FOR MORE BACKGROUND ON KAZYS ŠKIRPA (CENTER) SEE DH ARTICLES BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, EVALDAS BALČIŪNAS, AND MILAN CHERSONSKI; PROF. T. SNYDER’S BLOODLANDS:  “Škirpa used this suffering in his radio broadcasts to spur mobs to murder. Some 2,500 Jews […]” … (p. 192)

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, History, Kazys Škirpa, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Vilnius City Council “Defers” Decision on Street Honoring Hitler Collaborator

Celebrating (!) 75th Anniversary of Start of the Lithuanian Holocaust (23 June 2016)?



VILNIUS—For the tiny and dwindling group of Holocaust survivors in this part of the world, the indelibly cursed day the genocide began was June 23rd 1941, when hordes of young local “nationalists,” some affiliated with the fascist Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) — which had put in writing its intentions for Jewish fellow-citizens beforehand — began to murder, plunder and rape their neighbors in at least forty locations before the first German soldiers even got there, as confirmed by numerous historians and eyewitnesses. Within a few days, most would don white-armbands.

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Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Human Rights, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Celebrating (!) 75th Anniversary of Start of the Lithuanian Holocaust (23 June 2016)?

Vilnius City Council Member Decries Memorials for Nazi Collaborators



VILNIUS—Briton Mark Adam Harold, also known as Mark Splinter, this city’s sole foreign elected City Council member, spoke out in an interview published today in 15min.lt calling for the city to accept the 2015 petition of a group of intellectuals to remove plaques honoring Holocaust collaborator Jonas Noreika. In his reply to a pointed question, he also added that the city-center street named for Nazi collaborator Kazys Škirpa be renamed for Righteous of the Nations (rescuers of civilians targeted for death by the Nazis and their local partners). He also challenged the city’s mayor, implying that there might be an element of cowardice in failure to undertake simple measures that would immeasurably improve the international reputation of Lithuania’s storied capital.

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Kazys Škirpa, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Vilnius City Council Member Decries Memorials for Nazi Collaborators

Lithuanian Philosopher Writes to Archbishop Grušas



CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS  | EVENTS  |  BOLD CITIZENS SPEAK OUT

by Andrius Kulikauskas

Editor’s note: The author provides here his own synopsis (with explanatory comments for Defending History readers) of his Lithuanian essay that appeared in Veidas on 5 May 2016. It is in effect an open letter from a Lithuanian citizen to Archbishop Gintaras Grušas on the occasion of the “Jubilee Year of Mercy” events scheduled this week under the title “National Congress of Mercy.”

Image01

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Posted in Andrius Kulikauskas, Antisemitism & Bias, Christian-Jewish Issues, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Lithuanian Philosopher Writes to Archbishop Grušas

Appeal to Conscience of the “Red-Brown Commission”


[updated]


Appeal to the conscience of the members of the renewed state-financed “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania

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Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, "Red-Brown Commission", 70 Years Declaration, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Germany, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Pinchos Fridberg, Politics of Memory, Prague "Platform", Yad Vashem and Lithuania, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Appeal to Conscience of the “Red-Brown Commission”

Professor Dov Levin’s Findings on the Outbreak of the Lithuanian Holocaust



DOCUMENTS  |  HISTORY

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.

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Posted in Documents, Dov Levin (1925 - 2016), History, Israel, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Professor Dov Levin’s Findings on the Outbreak of the Lithuanian Holocaust

Another Holocaust-Obfuscating PR Bash at “Vilnius Jewish Public Library”



VILNIUS JEWISH PUBLIC LIBRARY | DOUBLE GAMES | RED-BROWN COMMISSION

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 Mūsiškiaithe 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?

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Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Jewish Public Library | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Another Holocaust-Obfuscating PR Bash at “Vilnius Jewish Public Library”

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.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Vilnius Prosecutor Skirts Key Question: Will the List of Alleged Holocaust Perpetrators be Made Public?

Wiesenthal Center Praises Lithuanian Jewish Community Call to Publish List of Local Holocaust Perpetrators



LITHUANIA  |  LITVAK AFFAIRS |  COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED  |  GENOCIDE CENTER

JERUSALEMThe 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).

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wiesenthal Center Praises Lithuanian Jewish Community Call to Publish List of Local Holocaust Perpetrators

An Open Letter to Holocaust Scholars and Educators in the Francophone World



OPINION  |  FRANCE  |  RED-BROWN COMMISSION  |  GENOCIDE CENTER

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?

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Posted in Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Events, France, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on An Open Letter to Holocaust Scholars and Educators in the Francophone World

Lithuanian Shtetl Malát (Molėtai) to be Commemorated in 2016



LITVAK AFFAIRS  |  EVENTS

by Tzvi-Hirsh (Gregory) Kritzer

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.

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Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Malát (Molėtai), News & Views, Tzvi-Hirsh Kritzer | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Lithuanian Shtetl Malát (Molėtai) to be Commemorated in 2016

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

“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.”

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.]

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Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Free Speech & Democracy, History, Human Rights, Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Sweden, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why Would the “Genocide Center” in Vilnius Manipulate History and Glorify Murderers?

Ponár (Paneriai) Memorial: No Rabbi, No Cantor, No Kaddish



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.

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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 , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ponár (Paneriai) Memorial: No Rabbi, No Cantor, No Kaddish

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

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. 

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Jewish Monument in Rokiškis (Rákeshik), Lithuania, Commemorates 3 Synagogues

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

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?


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Posted in Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Evaldas Balčiūnas, History, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, State Glorification of Holocaust Collaborator J. Noreika, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Public Shrines to a Holocaust Collaborator and a “Secret” Petition: A Summer’s Strange Media Circus

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


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

———

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

University of Toronto:

“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


FAIRFIELD, CONN. (30—31 MARCH 2016)

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


PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY (1 APRIL 2016)

Friday, 1 April 2016

LIMMUD FSU at the Sheraton Hotel, 199 Smith Road, Parsippany, New Jersey:

“25 Years on the Road in Eastern Europe: Yiddish, Litvaks, Holocaust Denial and ‘Useful Jewish Idiots’ (UJIs)”


STAMFORD, CONN. (3 APRIL 2016)

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


NEW YORK CITY (4—12 APRIL 2016)

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”

Friday-Sun. 8-10 April 2016

Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills, Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills, 71-25 Main Street, Flushing, Queens, NYC 11367

Scholar in Residence: Topics include: Yiddish; Lithuania; Litvaks and Galitsyáner; The Holocaust (Sunday 8:30 AM); The Future

SCHEDULE HERE.  FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT RABBI MOSES BIRNBAUM (ramab18{A}yahoo.com)

Sunday 10 April 2016 at 8 PM

“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

“Who Are The Litvaks?”

AS PDF

LOS ANGELES (17—20 APRIL 2016)

 

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” 

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


YALE / NEW HAVEN (27 APRIL 2016)

 ◊

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)


EVERYONE WELCOME AT ALL EVENTS

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