Tag Archives: Shimon Alperovich (Simonas Alperavicius)

Autopsy of the Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry. Or: How to Subtly Rewrite History



BOOKS | BOOKS IN THE DEBATELITHUANIA

 

REVIEW ARTICLE

by Roland Binet  (De Panne, Belgium)

Saulius Sužiedėlis, Crisis, War, and the Holocaust in Lithuania. Academic Studies Press (Newton, Massachusetts) in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC). 2025, 626 pp.

Human feelings are now as candles without wick burning from inside.

(from a poem by Avrom Sutzkever, a tribute to Yiddish teacher Yankev Gershtein who perished in the Vilna Ghetto on September 27, 1942 (quote from Rudashevski’s Diary)

Professor emeritus Saulius Sužiedėlis of Millersville University of Pennsylvania begins this major new book by characterizing its long and productive journey. “This study is the result of years of interaction with historians, journalists, and writers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the United States, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Israel. Inspiration and encouragement emerged from discussions among the eleven-member Sub-Commission on Nazi Crimes, part of the Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania” (p. vii). Sužiedėlis’s opus on the Jews in Lithuania and their almost complete disappearance during the war years is a meticulously researched, coherently chronicled and impressively documented opus, tackling many themes, issues and problems with a staggering abundance of facts, figures, quotes, opinions, and anecdotes. Chunks of it read almost like an autopsy report on places and massacres rather than on an individual’s remains. I find it overall to be an exceptional, very well written, and significant contribution.

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Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", Books, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Roland Binet | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Autopsy of the Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry. Or: How to Subtly Rewrite History

Jewish Community of Lithuania Writes to Lithuania’s President After Foreign Minister’s Antisemitic Tirade



[AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION OF THE LITHUANIAN ORIGINAL]

This letter was approved unanimously at a meeting of the board  of directors of the Lithuanian Jewish Community on October 14, 2010, in which 21 board members participated.

To the President of the Republic of Lithuania
Ms. Dalia Grybauskaitė
15 October 2010

Your Excellency,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes to express its great concern concerning the thoughts expressed by the foreign minister of the Republic of Lithuania, A. Ažubalis, which sow discord between Lithuanians and Jews.

Reports have appeared in the mass media that A. Ažubalis said that “Everyone knows very well” by whom this law (Lithuanian dual citizenship) is most needed, and explained that Jews of Lithuanian origin are the main force pushing this law to the forefront. Moreover, the politician hinted that they probably expect to regain property here more easily in this manner.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Human Rights, News & Views, Opinion, Shimon Alperovich (1928 – 2014) | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Jewish Community of Lithuania Writes to Lithuania’s President After Foreign Minister’s Antisemitic Tirade