Joseph Levinson, 98,
Dies in Vilnius
JOSEPH LEVINSON (1917-2015)
Tag Archives: Holocaust in Lithuania
Joseph Levinson (1917-2015)
Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Joseph Levinson, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Obituaries
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, Joseph Levinson
Comments Off on Joseph Levinson (1917-2015)
Correspondence with Kaunas Mayor’s Office to 13 February 2015
D O C U M E N T S
Below, (1) the text of DH’s letter to the mayor of Kaunas on 3 February, (2) the response received from his office on 11 February, (3) our response of the same date, and (4) the response from the mayor’s office received on 13 February and (5) our response of the same date. The correspondence relates to the annual neo-Nazi march planned for 16 February 2015 in central Kaunas. See also section on previous marches, and our 3 February 2015 correspondence with the Kaunas police. Note that a banner featuring a major Kaunas Holocaust collaborator, the Nazi puppet prime minister Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis (reburied with full honors as a hero in Kaunas, in 2012), is depicted in a 2014 photograph used by the march’s organizers to advertise the 2015 event.
Posted in Celebrations of Fascism, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania
Tagged Holocaust in Lithuania, Kaunas, Mayor Andrius Kupcinskas, neo-Nazi marches in Lithuania
Comments Off on Correspondence with Kaunas Mayor’s Office to 13 February 2015
Wiesenthal Center’s Efraim Zuroff Writes to Mayor of Kaunas on Neo-Nazi March
JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office here today released the text of a letter sent by director Dr. Efraim Zuroff to the mayor of Kaunas, Lithuania, Andrius Kupčinskas, concerning the neo-Nazi march scheduled for February 16th. See also Defending History’s correspondence with the mayor’s office and our background summary.
SEE EXTENDED COVERAGE ON PAGE 1
The text of the letter is as follows:
◊
February 12, 2015
Meras Andrius Kupčinskas
Laisves al. 96 201 kab.
Kaunas
LITHUANIA
◊
Dear Mayor Kupčinskas,
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, Efraim Zuroff, EU, Events, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Andrius Kupcinskas, Efraim Zuroff, February 16th in Kaunas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, mayor of Kaunas, neo-Nazis in Lithuania, Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel Office
Comments Off on Wiesenthal Center’s Efraim Zuroff Writes to Mayor of Kaunas on Neo-Nazi March
Correspondence with Kaunas Mayor’s Office to 11 February 2015
D O C U M E N T S
Below, (1) the text of DH’s letter to the mayor of Kaunas, (2) the response received today from his office, and (3) our further response, in connection with the annual neo-Nazi march planned for 16 February 2015 in central Kaunas. See also section on previous marches, and our 3 February 2014 correspondence with the Kaunas police. Note that a banner featuring a major Kaunas Holocaust collaborator, the Nazi puppet prime minister Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis (reburied with full honors as a hero in Kaunas, in 2012), is depicted in a 2014 photograph used by the march’s organizers to advertise the 2015 event.
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Documents, EU, Events, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Swastikas in Lithuania
Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Holocaust in Lithuania, Kaunas neo-Nazi march 2015
Comments Off on Correspondence with Kaunas Mayor’s Office to 11 February 2015
Последняя книга поэта А.Босаса
МНЕНИЕ
Милан Херсонский
◊
Вянваре прошлого, 2014-го года из печати вышла новая книга стихов литовского поэта, публициста, члена Международной ассоциации «Литва без нацизма» Александраса Босаса под названием «IŠ TEN SUGRĮŽTANTIEMS. Apie ŠOA RIMTAI IR SU IRONIJA» («ТЕМ, КТО ВОЗВРАЩАЕТСЯ ОТТУДА. О ШОА СЕРЬЁЗНО И С ИРОНИЕЙ». 
Далее «Тем, кто возвращается оттуда» – М.Х.). А.Босас стал первым в истории литовской литературы поэтом, который не только обратился к самой болезненной и негласно табуированной теме в истории Литвы – к теме Шоа, – но и посвятил ей не одно и не несколько стихотворений, а всю третью, к сожалению, последнюю книгу. В ней поэт не шопотом и не намёками, а «во весь голос» открыто и откровенно заявил о своём отношении к трагедии Шоа и так называемого «окончательного решения еврейского вопроса».
В годы нацистской оккупации германские нацисты при активной добровольной помощи весьма значительного количества организованных и вооружённых местных гражданских лиц, вступивших в военизированные подразделения полиции, уничтожили почти всю еврейскую общину, которая до Второй мировой войны была самой знаменитой и высокоразвитой общиной всемирной еврейской диаспоры в первой половине ХХ века. Евреи представляли в Литве самое многочисленное национальное меньшинство населения. Еврейская община жила в мире и согласии с местным литовским, польским, русским населением, с другими национальными группами.
Posted in In Russian, Lithuania, Milan Chersonski (1937-2021)
Tagged Aleksandras Bosas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Milan Chersonski, Александрас Босас, Милан Херсонский
Comments Off on Последняя книга поэта А.Босаса
How Did Lithuanians Wrong Litvaks?
O P I N I O N / H I S T O R Y
by Andrius Kulikauskas
◊
Iwill speak about painful things, and so I understand if some of you won’t want to listen and will step out.
It is most important that we empathize with the victims of the Holocaust, and yet we must also empathize with the perpetrators if we wish to understand what happened and who was responsible for what. Litvaks outside of Lithuania feel hurt that Lithuanians shirk responsibility for the Holocaust.
I won’t be indifferent. I am a deliberate Lithuanian. I was born in the diaspora. I chose to be Lithuanian. Is the Lithuanian worldview harmful? I must investigate.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Andrius Kulikauskas, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, History, Legacy of 23 June 1941, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Andrius Kulikauskas, Holocaust in Lithuania
Comments Off on How Did Lithuanians Wrong Litvaks?
Wiesenthal Center Blasts Vilnius Genocide Center’s Involvement in Jewish Community’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement expressing dismay that Vilnius’s state-sponsored Genocide Center (full name: Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania) was included in the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s annual program marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. The third of three events was dedicated entirely to a book produced by the Center. The only announced speaker for the event, the book’s author, is known for rejecting known elements of the historic narrative of the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, for his support for monuments for pro-Hitler forces, and for participation in far-right pro-fascist journals.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Efraim Zuroff, Faina Kukliansky, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Lithuania, Shimon Alperovich, Simon Wiesenthal Center + Lithuania
Comments Off on Wiesenthal Center Blasts Vilnius Genocide Center’s Involvement in Jewish Community’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
The Two Full Stahlecker Reports: Holocaust Atrocities in the Baltics
D O C U M E N T S
by Rafael Katz
◊
The Stahlecker Reports offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of what was the onset the Final Solution: the Baltic invasion within Operation Barbarossa. Naturally, Most wartime documents deal with the effect and aftermath of the war. In the sea of war documents, the Stahlecker Reports are pivotal, in that in that they shed some light on the backdrop and the motives behind the war’s operations.
Posted in Documents, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Rafael Katz, Raphael Katz
Tagged Einsatzgruppen, Franz Walter Stahlecker, Holocaust in Lithuania, Rafael Katz, Reinhard Heydrich, Stahlecker Reports (full text)
Comments Off on The Two Full Stahlecker Reports: Holocaust Atrocities in the Baltics
Austrian Volunteer Reflects on Year in Lithuania, Calls for City-Center Holocaust Museum in the Capital
O P I N I O N
by Sebastian Hager
◊
Iwas proud to serve as Austria’s remembrance volunteer (Gedenkdiener) in 2013-2014. Based in Vilnius in the Green House, the country’s only serious Holocaust exhibit, I was able to travel extensively and meet Lithuanian citizens from a wide variety of backgrounds. Despite all the hype, the Jewish heritage is not really in the best of shape. There is a lot of ignorance combined with an ethnocentric nationalist worldview.
Posted in Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Museums, News & Views, Opinion, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai)
Tagged Green House (Vilnius), Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust museum in Vilnius, Sebastian Hager
Comments Off on Austrian Volunteer Reflects on Year in Lithuania, Calls for City-Center Holocaust Museum in the Capital
The Holocaust Memoir That Doesn’t Fade Out at the Moment of Liberation
B O O K S
by Ira Gold
◊
Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kilot and Helen Mitsios. Urim Publications: Jerusalem 2011, 288 pp. Amazon.com. Kindle.
◊
In Waltzing with the Enemy: A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust by Rasia Kliot and Helen Mitsios, the authors write a dual memoir of survival and healing. The mother, Rasia, was born into upper class comfort in Vilna (today Vilnius, Lithuania). Her daughter, Helen Mitsios, was born in Montreal, Canada. The dual structure – the first half is titled “Rasia’s Story” and the second half is labeled “Helen’s Story” – works very well.
Posted in Books, Ira Gold, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged "Waltzing with the Enemy", books on the Holocaust, Helen Mitsios, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust memoirs, Ira Gold (Touro College), Rasia Kilot
Comments Off on The Holocaust Memoir That Doesn’t Fade Out at the Moment of Liberation
Peter Jukes Tweets on Documentary that Glorifies Alleged Nazi Collaborator
O P I N I O N
LONDON—British author Peter Jukes, best known for his screenplays, literary criticism and political journalism, tweeted last week on the release in the United States of a new documentary film that heroizes certain postwar anti-Soviet “forest brothers” in Lithuania. The film, “The Invisible Front,” that premiered in Greenwich Village’s prestigious Cinema Village theater on 7 November, fails to even mention the view that various of the specific figures it glorifies for their post 1944 activities were in fact alleged recycled Nazi collaborators of 1941. That was the year when, in the days following the Nazi invasion launched on 22 June, the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) started butchering local civilian Jews, often elderly rabbis or young women, before the first German forces had arrived. Premeditation becomes evident from perusal of the LAF’s prewar leaflets.
Posted in Arts, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on Juozas Lukša, Film, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Peter Jukes, Politics of Memory
Tagged Belarusian Humanities University, Cinema Village theater (NY), Darius Udrys, European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius, Forest Brothers Lithuania, Holocaust collaborators in Forest Brothers, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Öhman, Juozas Luksa, Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), New York Times + Holocaust, Peter Jukes, The Invisible Front, Vincas Sruoginis
Comments Off on Peter Jukes Tweets on Documentary that Glorifies Alleged Nazi Collaborator
Member of Lithuania’s Jewish Community Speaks Out on Neo-Nazi Parades, and Govt. Flowers at Monument to Hitler’s Soldiers
O P I N I O N
by Jacob Piliansky
◊
Iam proud to be a Litvak, and I am proud to be a citizen of independent and democratic Lithuania. I very much enjoy walking in our city’s delightful Vingis Park, as well as downtown in the beautiful city center area.
However, I feel suddenly both sad and shocked, when I see neo-Nazi parades with swastikas and other fascist symbols along Gedimino Boulevard on our independence day repeating the yelled chants of “Lithuania for [ethnic] Lithuanians.”
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Collaborators Glorified, Jacob Piliansky, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion, Symbology, Vilnius
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Bagel Shop (Lithuania), Beigelių krautuvėlė (Vilnius), Glorification of Nazi Collaborators, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jacob Piliansky, neo-Nazi marches, Vingis Park monument
Comments Off on Member of Lithuania’s Jewish Community Speaks Out on Neo-Nazi Parades, and Govt. Flowers at Monument to Hitler’s Soldiers
An Open Letter to Inna Rogatchi
O P I N I O N
◊
Dear Dr. Rogatchi,
Warm congratulations on your excellent film, The Lessons of Survival. Conversations with Simon Wiesenthal. We encourage all our readers to see the film, and those who live in or near Vilnius to attend the screening this Tuesday 28 October 2014 at 5 PM at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library, followed by a distinguished panel discussion.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Film, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius Jewish Public Library
Tagged Darius Degutis, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Eastern Europe, Holocaust in Lithuania, Inna Rogatchi, Israeli Embassy in Tel Aviv, Simon Wiesenthal, Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Wyman Brent
Comments Off on An Open Letter to Inna Rogatchi
Annual Memorial for the Jews of Svintsyán (Švenčionys): Small but Well Done
by Defending History Staff
Svintsyán [Švenčionys] — Some fifty people gathered in the forest at midday today at the mass grave at Poligón, outside Švenčioneliai (Yiddish: Svintsyánke), in northeastern Lithuania, where around 8,000 Jews were murdered on 7 and 8 October 1941 after more than a week of barbaric incarceration and humiliation. The number includes nearly all the Jews of the county-seat town Švenčionys (Svintsyán) as well as the Jewish citizens of a number of towns and villages in the region, including (Yiddish names first in the following list, followed by current Lithuanian or Belarusian names): Dugelíshik (Naujasis Daugėliškis), Duksht (Dūkštas), Haydútsetshik (Adutiškis), Ignalíne (Ignalina), Koltnyán (Kaltanėnai), Kaméleshik (Kimelishki, Belarus), Labonár (Labanoras), Lingmyán (Linkmenys), Líntep (Lyntupy, Belarus), Maligán (Mielagėnai), Podbródzh (Pabradė), Saldúteshik (Saldutiškis), Salemánke (Salamianka), Stayátseshik (Stajotiškės), Svintsyánke (or Nay-Svintsyán — Švenčionėliai), and Tseykín (Ceikiniai).
Misha (Meyshke) Shapiro (at left), head of a region’s tiny remnant Jewish community, chairs the annual commemoration in the forest at a mass grave where 8,000 Jews were killed in two days in October of 1941.
Posted in Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Events, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Svintsyán (Švenčionys), Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Darius Velicka, Emanuelis Zingeris, Holocaust in Lithuania, Svencionys, Svintsyan
Comments Off on Annual Memorial for the Jews of Svintsyán (Švenčionys): Small but Well Done
Revisionism and Resurrection
B O O K S
by Peter Jukes
The following review of Laima Vince’s Journeys through the Backwaters of the Heart originally appeared in Aspen Review (Dec. 2013). The review is now republished here by permission of Peter Jukes, whose latest book is The Fall of the House of Murdoch.
Ms. Vince’s Journeys was also reviewed in Defending History by Geoff Vasil.
◊
While filming a re-enactment of a battle between Lithuanian nationalists and their Soviet- backed NKVD persecutors, Jonas Kadzionis (a survivor of the “Forest Brothers” partisans) warned the author Laima Vince: “Don’t get lost in the forest, and don’t lose your conscience.”
Unfortunately, in her book Journeys through the Backwaters of the Heart Vince has managed to do both.
Posted in Books, Collaborators Glorified, Debates on Juozas Lukša, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Peter Jukes, Politics of Memory
Tagged "Journeys Through the Backwaters of the Heart", Holocaust in Lithuania, Juozas Luksa, Laima Vince, Peter Jukes
Comments Off on Revisionism and Resurrection
Hungary Rewrites History
O P I N I O N
by Danny Ben-Moshe
This comment, republished here with the author’s permission, first appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 22 February 2014.
My 2012 documentary film Rewriting History tracked the emergence of “Double Genocide” and the rewriting of the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania.
The film warned that what was occurring in Lithuania was a harbinger of something that could become more widespread and ultimately mainstream in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately recent events in Hungary bear this out.
Posted in 70 Years Declaration, Collaborators Glorified, Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Film, Hungary, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Danny Ben-Moshe, Double Genocide (Hungary), Double Genocide + Lithuania, Genocide Museum Vilnius, Green House (Vilnius), Holocaust in Hungary, Holocaust in Lithuania, Rewriting History (film), Seventy Years Declaration
Comments Off on Hungary Rewrites History
Lithuanian-Jewish Affairs: Three Events
(Reposted from today’s Jerusalem Post)
O P I N I O N
by Efraim Zuroff
Three events took place this weekend which reflect the ambiguities of contemporary Jewish life in the Baltics and particularly in Lithuania, the largest of the three new democracies. In reverse order, on Sunday, ultra-nationalist groups staged an Independence Day march, which included anti-Semitic themes, in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania’s interwar capital and the country’s second largest city.Continue reading
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Efraim Zuroff, EU, Events, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Kaunas, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust Revisionism, Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, LAF (Lithuanian Activist Front), Lithuanian Embassy in London
Comments Off on Lithuanian-Jewish Affairs: Three Events
Efraim Zuroff on Tablet Magazine’s Co-Sponsorship of Lithuanian Government’s Yivo Event, and a Suggestion for Yivo’s Audience
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust historian, Nazi-hunter, and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, has posted the following comment on the website of Tablet magazine, as one of the comments to a new book review. The comment also appears separately on Facebook.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Efraim Zuroff, Events, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, United States
Tagged Double Genocide, Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust in Lithuania, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Yivo + Holocaust, Yivo Lithuania
Comments Off on Efraim Zuroff on Tablet Magazine’s Co-Sponsorship of Lithuanian Government’s Yivo Event, and a Suggestion for Yivo’s Audience
Swedish Film Director Speaks Out on the Lithuanian Holocaust, Sort of, a Little Bit
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
Jonas Öhman is a Swede who has been coming to Lithuania and living here on and off from almost the beginning of modern independence in the 1990-1991 period. During that time he has produced a number of films, only one of which appears to his credit on the internet film database imdb.com, but all of which deal more or less with a mythologized version of the history of Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisans.
Posted in Arts, Film, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Sweden
Tagged Double Genocide, Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Öhman
Comments Off on Swedish Film Director Speaks Out on the Lithuanian Holocaust, Sort of, a Little Bit
Kaunas, Vilnius, Riga: Planned 2014 Neo-Nazi Marches (Summary Coverage to 26 Jan. 2014)
Kaunas, February 16th; Vilnius, March 11th; Riga, March 16th:
Will Lithuania’s President and Prime Minister Speak Out to Stop City-Centers on Independence Days Being Gifted to Neo-Nazis Again to Glorify the Holocaust’s Local Collaborators?
Last year, the president, prime minister and mayor failed to rise to the occasion of the neo-Nazi marches
Zabludoff’s Petition Nears the 3,000 Mark
First Stop — Kaunas on February 16th
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Celebrations of Fascism, Collaborators Glorified, EU, Events, Human Rights, Kaunas, Latvia, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Riga's Waffen SS Marches, Vilnius
Tagged Ambrazevicius Brazaitis, Antisemitism in Lithuania, February 16th neo-Nazi march, Holocaust in Lithuania, Neo-Nazi marches in Vilnius and Kaunas
Comments Off on Kaunas, Vilnius, Riga: Planned 2014 Neo-Nazi Marches (Summary Coverage to 26 Jan. 2014)