The recently launched website JosephLevinson.com provides renewed opportunities for acquiring his two major books that are available in English. One, The Shoah in Lithuania, includes documents of the Lithuanian Activist Front detailing their intentions for Jewish citizens, issued before the outbreak of war on 22 June 1941. It is also rich in resources on understanding how, where and why the far right’s “Double Genocide” revisionism arose in the first place. These are just two of the many areas covered by the book.
Tag Archives: Lithuania
New Joseph Levinson Website Has Page on Old Jewish Cemeteries in Lithuania
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Joseph Levinson, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
Tagged Alex Levinson, Joseph Levinson (Vilnius), Lithuania, old Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, The Double Genocide theory
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Giedrius Grabauskas on Freedom of Speech
O P I N I O N
Note: For our readers’ interest, we provide an English translation (by Geoff Vasil) of Giedrius Grabauskas’s article, “Kodel paminama žodžio laisvė?” that appeared on 6 January 2014 in Akcentai.info at: http://www.akcentai.info/271-kodel-paminama-zodzio-laisve.html.
As in all signed articles, the opinions are those of the author.
The final part of the opinion piece, starting here, deals with issues that Defending History focuses in on, including the glorification of Holocaust collaborators, campaigns from high places against those who dissent, and the related implications for human rights and democracy in NATO and the EU.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Collaborators Glorified, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Giedrius Grabauskas-Karoblis, human rights in Lithuania, Lithuania
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Raising Cain on the Resurrection of Abel
O P I N I O N
by Geoff Vasil
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Genesis 3:13
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. Genesis 4:10
Driving east out of Rokiškis, fields give way to forest, and the lake country leads on to strange and wild hills in an abandoned quarter of the country bordering Latvia. The lake country is beautiful, almost alpine in its effect, and spotted with small settlements and villages of varying sizes, some even boasting gas stations and schools.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Arts, Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Rákishok (Rokiškis), Symbology
Tagged Genocide Center in Vilnius, Geoff Vasil, Lithuania, Obeliai
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Film, Video, Radio
Tagged Alicija Zukauskaite, Baltic Holocaust (flms), Christian Carlsen, CNN + Lithuania, Efraim Zuroff, Films and documentaries on the Holocaust, Juergen Hobrecht, Kukliansky + Lithuania, Lina Zigelyte, Lithuania, Marc Radomsky and Danny Ben-Moshe, Monica Lowenberg, Richard Bloom, Robert Mullan (Gitel), Saulius Berzinis
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Vilnius Genocide Center Releases a New Graywash on the Vilna Ghetto
B O O K S / O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
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The unfortunate and wasteful campaign of Holocaust obfuscation waged by certain East European state institutions continues apace. The level of investment continues to strike outsiders as puzzling, given current economic and cultural issues and the younger population’s clear focus on the future and a better life for all in the new and multicultural European Union. Here in Lithuania, the first victims of the government’s (rather Soviet-style) “genocide industry” are the hard-working people of the country who deserve more judicious disbursement of their nation’s resources. The state-sponsored Genocide Center has just released three simultaneous editions (English, Lithuanian and Russian) of a new book on the Vilna Ghetto by historian Arūnas Bubnys, its own “director of the Genocide and Resistance Research Department.”
Dr. Bubnys is also a member of the state-sponsored “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania” (known for short as the “red-brown commission”). He was one of a minority of members of the Commission who refused to sign the (in the opinion of some, inadequate) letter of 14 October 2013 to Dr. Yitzhak Arad.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Books, Double Games, Double Genocide, Dovid Katz, Dr. Arūnas Bubnys and State Holocaust Revisionism in Lithuania, Dr. Rokhl (Rachel) Margolis (1921-2015), EU, Genocide Center (Vilnius), History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Poland, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai)
Tagged Arunas Bubnys, Genocide Center Vilnius, Holocaust Obfuscation, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Lithuania, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Yitzhak Arad
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Three Baltic Governments Sponsor “Round Table” at London U on 5 November: Will Nazi Collaborators be Glorified?
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
It is both right and laudable that University College London, the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and other partners are organizing a “Round Table Discussion: Anti-Soviet Resistance in the Baltic States” in central London, scheduled for 5 November 2013, 2 to 6:30 PM, with free admission for all (free tickets here; Facebook page here).
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Debates on the Postwar "Forest Brothers", Human Rights, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, UCL Manipulated?, United Kingdom
Tagged anti-fascist + London, far right history revisionism London, Latvia Estonia + Holocaust history, Lithuania, SSEES, UCL
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Where You Have to Step on Old Jewish Gravestones to go to Church
C E M E T E R I E S / C H R I S T I A N – J E W I S H R E L A T I O N S
by Dovid Katz
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The following are translated (and edited) excerpts from a longer letter in Yiddish received from a survivor who has asked to remain anonymous, about the Jewish gravestones that form the steps going up to the Reformed Evangelical Church at Pylimo 18 in Vilnius.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Christian-Jewish Issues, Dovid Katz, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Reformed Evangelical Church (Vilnius)
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Christian-Jewish relations, Jewish gravestones as steps to church, Lithuania, Reformed Evangelical Church in Vilnius, Reformed Evangelical Church Lithuania
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Riga
Annual Glorification of Latvia’s Hitler-Serving Waffen SS; International Petition
Opinion: R. BRODSKY; LATVIA’S UK AMBASSADOR; MONICA LOWENBERG
JOËL RUBINFELD’S NEWSLETTER ON EVENTS OF MARCH 16TH
Reports: AP; Delfi; Fox; J. Kaža; Jewish News — JNS.org; Reuters; RIA; RT (video; 2); Times of Israel; Washington Post; YNet; Video of wreath laying; Yahoo. Gallery of images. More media. WWN media list.
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MARINA SOLODKIN’S DEATH AND HER LAST PUBLIC STATEMENT
Posted in Boxes, Riga's Waffen SS Marches
Tagged Lithuania, US foreign policy on new far right in Eastern Europe, US Government + Holocaust Denial
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Red-Brown Commission’s Newest Layer of Obfuscation: Are Names of Members Secret?
The Lithuanian government sponsored “International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes of Lithuania,” known for short as the “Red-Brown Commission” has recently added a new layer of obfuscation and opacity to its activities.
Its website has deleted the names of the “Members of the Commission” thereby rendering it a kind of “secret society.”
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Double Genocide, EU, Free Speech & Democracy, Media Watch, News & Views, Politics of Memory, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged Double Genocide, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Obfuscation, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes of Lithuania, Lithuania, Red-Brown Commission Vilnius, US Embassy in Vilnius
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A Tale of Two Marches? LGBT Equality Releases Statement on Authorities’ Response to Baltic Pride 2013
LGBT Equality (the LGL — Lithuanian Gay League) today issued a statement on its website concerning the progress of the application to the Vilnius municipality to hold the Baltic Pride 2013 March for Equality on Gedimino Boulevard, the capital’s central avenue, on 27 July 2013.
In the meantime, the municipality, though it has requested that the neo-Nazi march planned for the nation’s March 11th independence day be moved from Gedimino Boulevard (where it has regularly been held since 2008 with participation of right-wing members of parliament and with few or no objections from Western embassies), seems not to be pursuing that request with any verve.
VILNIUS YEARS GONE BY:
Video of the first (2008) neo-Nazi march in the city center
Eyewitness account of 2010 Baltic Pride March across the river
Eyewitness account of 2011 Neo-Nazi March in the city center
Eyewitness account of 2012 Neo-Nazi March in the city center
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights
Tagged Baltic Pride March 2013, gay rights issues in Lithuania/Balics, LGBT rights in Vilnius, LGL, Lithuania, Neo-Nazi March Vilnius 2013
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The Disquieting 2010-2012 Record of the American Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania
- April 2010: The Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Efraim Zuroff comments (in the Guardian) on the American ambassador’s assurance that “The United States and Lithuania are partners in the fight against antisemitism and in efforts to address the legacy of the Holocaust” bereft of any mention of the “slight problems,” e.g. state-sanctioned neo-Nazi marches on independence day, attempted prosecution of Holocaust survivors, glorification of Nazi perpetrators, disturbing comments by top officials and a general decline into the acceptability of antisemitism.
- Continue reading
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, News & Views, Politics of Memory, The Great SLS About-Face, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged Ambassador Anne Derse, Efraim Zuroff, Geoff Vasil, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonathan M. Berger, Lithuania, Marc Tracy, Markas Zingeris, United States embassy in Vilnius
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Some Litvak Resources
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Quick Finder
♦ Your Journey to Líte
♦ Remembering Litvaks, Inc.
♦ LitvakSig.org
♦ Litvak World
♦ Judaic Institutions in Vlinius
♦ A Short Cultural History of the Litvaks
♦ Vilna Yiddish Mini-Museum
♦ Virtual Yiddish Mini-Museum of Jewish Life in Interwar Lithuania
♦ Litvak Studies
♦ News Section
♦ Gaon of Vilna’s 300th Birth Anniversary (2020): Some Articles & Papers
♦ Vieninga Lietuva (United Lithuania)
♦ What to See in Jewish Vilnius
♦ Litvak Map
♦ Berl Kagan’s Encyclopedia of Towns in Lithuania
♦ Litvak Videos; Vilna Videos
♦ Place Names (Lithuania)
♦ Alternative Tourism
♦ Exotic Tourism
♦ Dark Tourism
♦ Cemeteries & Mass Graves
♦ Reading Stones
♦ Atlas of Litvish
♦ Yiddish Linguistics;
♦ Holocaust Map
♦ Holocaust Readings
♦ On the Road
♦ Editor’s Litvak Studies page
♦ Editor’s Bible translations into Lithuanian Yiddish
♦ Editor’s website; FB
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Resources
• Who are the Litvaks?
• Litvak Studies (Reading List)
• YouTube
• Litvak Lands (map)
• Litvak Tourism
• Alternative Tourism
• Dark Tourism
• Exotic Tourism (section)
• Holocaust (readings)
• Holocaust (map)
• Place Names
• Lithuanian Jewish Culture (excerpt)
• Virtual Mini Museum of Old Jewish Vilna
• Vilna Book Stamps (excerpt)
• Intro to Sounds of Silence
• Yeshivas (map)
• Language Atlas
• Reading Gravestones
• Mourner’s Kaddish in Lithuanian Ashkenazic
• Three Yiddish Passover Songs (Vilna area)
• More
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Sections
• Exotic Jewish Tourism
• Litvak Affairs
• The “Litvak Industry”
• News
• Opinion
Tagged Baltic Jews, Belarus, Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania and Belarus, Jewish Heritage Tours, Jewish tourism and sites in Lithuania, Kaddish, Kaddish in Ashkenazic Litvak Transliteration, Latvia, Lithuania, Lithuanian Jewish culture, Lithuanian Jewish history, Litvak Jewish culture and history, Litvak logo, Litvak Studies, Litvaks, Litvaks and the Holocaust
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March 11th: A Grand Opportunity for the Lithuanian Human Rights Community — and the People of Vilnius
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
When three of us from the DefendingHistory.com community headed out from Vilnius on February 16th to confront the neo-Nazi march in central Kaunas, we were sure we would be joined by dozens, or more, true lovers of Lithuania — folks who cannot remain silent that perverted political leadership allows today’s neo-Nazis to achieve free reign in the center of a great city in the middle of the nation’s cherished independence day. Folks who cannot let the glorification of stylized swastikas (including the “Lithuanian swastika“), and white armbands (celebrating the LAF Holocaust perpetrators of 1941) go unchallenged in the country with the largest rate of murder of its civilian Jewish population in all Holocaust-era Europe. Folks who want to send at least some modicum of support to today’s minorities. And a message to the world that the neo-Nazis do not represent Lithuanian society.
It was a shock to find in Kaunas on February 16th, that the somewhat quixotic DefendingHistory.com threesome would find itself the only visible anti-Nazi presence during the march and the rally that followed.
Posted in "Vilnius Jewish Public Library", Celebrations of Fascism, Dovid Katz, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, Media Watch, Neo-Nazi & Fascist Marches, News & Views, Opinion, Vilnius
Tagged Antisemitism in Lithuania, Efraim Zuroff, Genocide Research Center, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, LAF (Lithuanian Activist Front), Lithuania, March 11th 2012, Milan Chersonski, neo-fascists in Lithuania, neo-Nazi marches in Vilnius, neo-Nazis in Lithuania, Olga Zabludoff, Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Vilnius Yiddish Institute
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Was the OSCE’s (ODIHR) ‘High Level Meeting on Confronting Antisemitism’ another East European Whitewash?
The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) today released its report on the ‘OSCE High Level Meeting on Confronting Antisemitism in Public Discourse’ that was held in Prague on 23 and 24 March 2011 under the auspices of its ODIHR department (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights). The full report is available here (alternate link here).
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Antisemitism & Bias, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, News & Views, The OSCE, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged Antisemitism in Eastern Europe, Confronting Antisemitism, Lithuania, Lithuanian Jewish policy, ODIHR, ODIHR antisemitism, OSCE antisemitism, OSCE High Level Meeting, OSCE ODIHR, Sarunas Liekis, Vilnius Yiddish Institute
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Revolving Posters at Ponár
Ponár (Polish Ponary, Lithuanian Paneriai) is the mass murder site outside Vilnius where around a hundred thousand civilians were murdered by the Nazi regime. Some 70,000 of them were the Jews of Vilna and its region.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Double Games, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Ponár (Ponary, Paneriai)
Tagged Double Games in Holocaust Politics, Lithuania, Paneriai, Ponar, Ponary)
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