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1,800,000 hits by September 2010 (see Stats)
Latest comment:
Dovid Katz / UK Parliamentary Committee against Antisemitism
Efraim Zuroff / The Jerusalem Post
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Joseph Levinson, 92, Holocaust Historian, Honored in London; But Q & A session is manipulated by translator
1 Sept 2010. Joseph Levinson of Vilnius, born in 1917 — an anti-Nazi war veteran, founding figure of Vilnius’s ‘Green House’, historian of the Lithuanian Holocaust, and author of The Book of Sorrow and The Shoah in Lithuania — was honored in London's Central Synagogue at a splendid event on Wednesday evening 1 September 2010. Details here.
Chaired by the synagogue’s Rabbi Barry Marcus, a scion of luminous Lithuanian rabbis, himself born in South Africa, it included speeches by Iain Duncan Smith (‘IDS’), Britain’s Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and the Israeli ambassador to the UK, HE Ron Prosor. The Central Synagogue’s hall was packed.
Left to right: Rabbi Barry Marcus, Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor, Vilnius Holocaust historian Joseph Levinson and UK secretary of state for work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith. Photo by John R. Rifkin, courtesy of Rabbi Barry Marcus & Central Synagogue.
HITB, which sent its reporter to the event, is sorry to have to report that the final portion of the evening, comprising Mr Levinson’s replies to questions from the audience, was visibly manipulated by the Lithuanian translator. Instead of being able to speak freely in Yiddish and be translated by a neutral interpreter, Levinson did his best to navigate the Lithuanian language ‘reformulations’ of the questions with which he was presented. His own replies were again filtered through the prism of Lithuanian government PR. Whether on the Holocaust per se, on today’s Holocaust education in Lithuania, or current antisemitism in the country, the two-layered ‘filtering’ resulted in Levinson’s views being suppressed, censored or distorted. Many in the audience, including a proud contingent of London’s Holocaust Survivors, called for the guest of honor to speak in his native Yiddish. When the awkwardly manipulated Q & A session ended, Mr Levinson blessed the crowd in Yiddish, to a huge ovation.
Joseph Levinson’s Book of Sorrow provides locations and photographs of over 200 mass graves where nearly all of the Lithuanian Jewish population were murdered and lie buried throughout the country. His Shoah in Lithuania was the first work to provide in full the text of the genocidal leaflets of the L.A.F. (Lithuanian Activist Front) nationalists, calling for murder of Jewish citizens even before the Nazis arrived. The London audience was not even apprised of this, Mr Levinson’s best known achievement, which is highly controversial in Lithuania, where the murderers are sometimes regarded as heroic ‘anti-Soviet partisans’ (see e.g. Brandisauskas’s critique of A. Liekis’s glorification of the murderers, here; also the panels glorifying the L.A.F. in the Genocide Museum). The London audience was left with the translator’s narrative of a Lithuania that excels today in Holocaust education and commemoration. She answered a number of questions herself, without bothering to refer to the speaker.
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Contemporary Legacies
of the Holocaust
in Eastern Europe
Mission. 7 Solutions. Antisemitism. Blaming the Victims.
Bold Citizens. Free Speech. Litvak Studies. Editor's Page.
Updated:
Opposition to the Prague Declaration
Yehuda Bauer on ‘Double Genocide’ (2010)
Leonidas Donskis on ‘Inflation of Genocide’ (2009)
Clemens Heni on the Prague Declaration (2009)
Efraim Zuroff on Holocaust Memory (2010)
7 Simple Solutions
22 August 2010. Seven constructive solutions proposed to transform Lithuanian-Jewish relations and restore an atmosphere of civil-society democratic debate. Here. Also, draft text suggested as starting point for replacement of the Prague Declaration. Plus: Draft Reading List on the Lithuanian Holocaust.
Venclova & Others Speak Out
20 August 2010. Lithuanian poet, scholar and humanist Tomas Venclova (Yale University) publishes a major new essay. English here, excerpt here. MEP Leonidas Donskis asks: ‘What Happened to Us?’ Milan Chersonski, editor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s newspaper asks: ‘Where are the Ultranationalists Heading?’ (in English; in Lithuanian; in Russian; in Yiddish). Many bold Lithuanian citizens of various backgrounds have spoken out courageously.
Deputy Foreign Minister heads ‘Fake Litvak’ working group
19 August 2010. An opposition party member of the Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) has leaked this memo (English translation here), dated 20 July 2010, which purports to be a circular letter from the deputy foreign minister, Sarunas Adomavicius, to the working group (names are blocked out) of the ‘Fake Litvak’ Forum (the official name is the ‘Litvak Heritage Forum’). As soon as the Forum was announced last month, there were protests from Holocaust Survivors of the ALJ, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Litvak Studies Institute and this website (see below at 25 July 2010). The Forum is viewed as a ploy to hijack Litvak identity and put it to use for government PR purposes. On the day it was announced, 15 July 2010, the prime minister’s chancellor boasted of ‘rich Litvaks’ having been found to finance it. There is particular fear that it is to serve as cover to deflect attention from the ongoing antisemitic campaign in the country, including exhibits at major state-financed museums and theme parks, the recent legalization of public swastikas, the failure to close the widely condemned war-crimes investigations against Holocaust Survivors and to apologize to them, and the declining standards of democracy and tolerance for debate on these issues. Ultimately, it is considered by some to be yet another ploy to obfuscate the Lithuanian Holocaust itself by means of a fetish-like abuse of the very word Litvak, which is a proper ethnonym that cannot be bought into by a foreign ministry (which should not be in the business of hijacking the identity of weak ethnic minorities). If the document is genuine, there is now a further cause for astonishment: that the 'Imposter Litvak' campaign is considered so important to national security that it is being headed by a deputy foreign minister. This website calls on all members of this Litvak Forum to identify themselves publicly. Those who are of Litvak heritage or who have spoken up boldly for Litvak causes have nothing to fear from publication of the list of members. A tragically annihilated people, of which a tiny remnant remains, should not have their national identity looted by politicians who do not even reveal their names to the public, and who do not stand up or speak up for genuine Litvak causes (e.g. the seven outstanding areas causing difficulties in Lithuanian-Jewish relations, all of which could be solved in very short order if the good will and the political will were there).
Green House Shuts for Repairs at Height of Tourist Season
2 August 2010. Vilnius’s one Holocaust museum, The Green House, shut down for renovations at the start of August 2010, at the height of the tourist season. Tourists are now limited to the Holocaust-obfuscating Genocide Museum, the Genocide Center, and Gruto Parkas. The Holocaust Studies community internationally is moreover profoundly disturbed by persistent efforts to undermine Rachel Kostanian, the Green House's esteemed director of twenty years' standing, and the efforts to replace her with a ‘compliant’ nationalist operative. Full story here.
28 Months of Hell for Survivors
1 August 2010. August 2010 marks the 28th month since police came looking for Dr Rachel Margolis (born 1921; at right) and Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (born 1922) in a kangaroo ‘war crimes investigation’ that has still not been closed. The two women, heroic veterans of the Jewish partisans’ resistance against the Nazis, have neither been charged nor cleared (though repeatedly defamed in mainstream media), in a macabre campaign of antisemitic prosecutors to generate a bogus paper trail to defame the anti-Nazi resistance. Dr Margolis feels unable to return to her native Vilnius. In Sept. 2008, part of the shambolic case against Dr Yitzhak Arad (born 1926) was dropped, as prosecutors went on to attack his book, citing an anonymous ‘expert historian’. There has still not been a word of public criticism of the prosecutors’ anti-Jewish campaign from the ‘Red-Brown Commission’ which Dr Arad had been persuaded to join in the late 1990s. The Commission is an active supporter of the 2008 Prague Declaration, that would write the Holocaust out of European history, replacing it with the ultranationalists’ ‘Double Genocide’ model.
Government Launches ‘Fake Litvak’ PR Campaign
25 July 2010. Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors protested the government’s new ‘Imposter Litvak’ PR campaign as the PM’s aide boasted of $$ from ‘rich Litvaks’ in a 15 July communique. ALJ, SWC and LSI all issued statements, noting continuing Holocaust distortion and the travesty of attempted national identity theft perpetrated against a tiny remnant minority. An anguished Survivor speaks of his pain. UPDATE: Sources close to the Lithuanian Consulate in NY are circulating this proposal, with its list of links representing government PR positions only. Unconfirmed reports claim involvement of a recipient of an award from the Consulate. This website’s proposals for serious measures to resolve the current issues.
Last Jewish Fort is Vanishing
23 July 2010. A leading news portal attacks visiting Israeli soldiers for a planned visit to the Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Fort, where around 100 Jewish escapees from the Vilna Ghetto found refuge in 1943 and 1944. The fort's remnants are rapidly disappearing. Campaign mounted for its preservation.
Estonian President Obfuscates Holocaust; Marchers Honor SS
21 July 2010. The Estonian president obfuscates the Holocaust during his Jerusalem visit by recombinating perpetrators and victims as ‘partners’. Here; 2. Also: ADL’s Abe Foxman protests July 31 march in Estonia honoring Nazi SS. Here + JTA report. Video & RT report of the event. NCSJ.
Jail Time for Expressing the View that the
Holocaust was Unique
10 July 2010. On 29 June 2010, the Lithuanian Parliament criminalized the view that Soviet crimes in Lithuania do not rise to Genocide, in effect making belief in red-brown equivalence a matter of law. The moved followed adoption of a similar statute by Hungary's new right-wing government. The Lithuanian law’s framers explained earlier that establishing red-brown equality was the motive. Punishment maxes out at 2 Years in jail (original draft law was for 3 years). There is a new widespread reluctance to speak up freely in eastern EU democracies, even if nobody is charged or punished. Work of serious historians is crippled as dissenters lose their jobs.
Latvian Fascists Honor Hitler’s Invasion of their Country
5 July 2010. A Latvian court approved & police nixed a Riga March celebrating Hitler’s 1941 Invasion. Still, the 1 July 2010 event went ahead with a wreath-laying at Riga's Liberty Monument to celebrate the Nazi army's arrival and warm welcome. Here, 2, 3. Also: Far-right racist parties team up. Here.
Court Permits Public Swastikas
19 May 2010. A Lithuanian court today permitted public swastikas, as Nazi symbols continue to proliferate. Back in June 2008, Nazi and Soviet symbols were equally criminalized. Now, with the swastika newly legalized and legitimized, the de-facto result is: only Soviet symbols are banned. What is curious is that nobody uses them other than very aged anti-Nazi war veterans who once a year on May 9th celebrate the victory over Hitler (a use ‘kindly exempted’ from criminalization).
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Exposed:
♦ The ‘Genocide Museum’ that won’t mention the word Holocaust. Here. The ‘Genocide Center’ behind it. Here.
♦ The Fun Park that promotes distortion of history, antisemitism and Holocaust Obfuscation. Here.
♦ ‘Center for the Studies and History of East European Jews’ omits the Holocaust from its happy-go-lucky image strip. PR text converts the Holocaust to: ‘the loss of the complicated last century’. Here.
♦ The plot to sink restitution into ‘Disneyland Fragments’. Here. See also Here (→ 29 March 2010).
♦ First time in English: When V. Brandišauskas exposed the antisemitic foundations of the Double Genocide industry. Here. A. Liekis’s glorification of the L.A.F. butchers of Lithuanian Jewry was the prelude to ‘part 2’: antisemitic ‘researches’ into Holocaust Survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance in the forests. Watch this space.
♦ Lithuania's last Jewish professor dismissed, after 11 years (as anticipated), for mounting a defense for embattled Holocaust Survivors. Government's 'Jewish window dressing unit' enlists Indiana University's Borns Jewish Studies program to legitimize local efforts to teflon over antisemitism, Double Genocide, Holocaust distortion, and defamation of survivors. Junkets galore (example). Comments to IU here. Far-right unit plans to ensnare CUNY Graduate Center and Yivo too. Watch this space. Michael Cohen (UCLA) comments. More details here and here.
Comment:
►Efraim Zuroff in the Jerusalem Post (28 August 2010). ►John Lantigua in the Palm Beach Post (15 August 2010). ►Ricky Ben-David in the Jerusalem Post (5 August 2010). As PDF. Russian version. ►Tomas Venclova on Bernardinai.lt (14 July 2010); English excerpt here. Full translation. [Reply by K. Girnius on Alfa.lt (27 July 2010), also to Zuroff & Donskis on CNN, 3 June 2010]. ►Yossi Melman in Haaretz (2 July 2010). ►Algimantas Kasparavičius on Delfi.lt (27 June 2010); T.B. Burauskaite's reply on Infodiena.lt. ►Efraim Zuroff & Leonidas Donskis on CNN (3 June 2010) [attacked by a panel of Holocaust educators in Vilnius (22 June), and by K. Girnius on Alfa.lt (26 July)]. ►Dovid Katz in the Jewish Chronicle (27 May 2010). ►Dovid Katz in Tablet Magazine (3 May 2010). ►Leonidas Donskis in the Baltic Times (15 April 2010). ►Efraim Zuroff in the Guardian (3 April 2010). ►Marcus Papadopolous in Government Gazette (March 2010). ►Clifford J. Levy in The New York Times (1 March 2010). ►Dovid Katz in the Jewish Ledger (26 Feb 2010). ►Mark Ames in the Nation (12 February 2010). ►Yehuda Bauer in the Jerusalem Post (25 Jan 2010). ►Monika Bončkutė in Lietuvos Rytas (21 Jan 2010). ►Milan Chersonski in Jerusalem of Lithuania (Dec 2009). ►Dovid Katz in the Guardian (8 Jan 2010). ►Dovid Katz in the Washington Jewish Week (30 Dec 2009). ►John Mann MP (UK) in the Jewish Chronicle (29 Oct 2009). ►Efraim Zuroff in the Guardian (14 Oct 2009). ►Milan Chersonski in Jerusalem of Lithuania (Fall 2009). ►Clemens Heni on WPK (26 Oct 2009). ►Roger Cohen in the New York Times (22 Oct 2009). ►Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian (20 Oct 2009). ►Shimon Samuels at OSCE (5 Oct 2009). ►Paul Hockenos in Newsweek (2 Oct 2009). ►Seumas Milne in the Guardian (9 Sept 2009). ►Dovid Katz on Three Definitions (Sept 2009). ►Leonidas Donskis on Europeanvoice.com (24 July 2009). ►Shimon Alperovich (Jewish Community of Lithuania) on HITB.
More News:
► Brazauskas Dies; Honored Holocaust Survivors. Here.
► CNN releases trailer for Holocaust documentary. Here.
► Rachel Margolis’s book appears in English. Here.
► Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky turns 88. Here, and Here.
► Yitzhak Arad wins National Jewish Book Award. Here.
► Litvak Studies Institute (LSI) founded in Vilnius. Here.
► First event of the Vilnius Jewish Library. Here.
► A panel of Holocaust educators in Vilnius. Here.
► Draft resolution vs. the Prague Declaration. Here.
NEWS CHRONICLE SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE
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Lithuanian Court Approves Display of Swastikas in Public
19 May 2010. A Lithuanian court in Klaipeda approved the public display of swastikas on the grounds that they are 'Lithuania's historical heritage rather than symbols of Nazi Germany'. An 'expert' transported from Vilnius was easily able to persuade the court, which did not bother to ask a contrasting view of the Holocaust Survivor community, or the Jewish Community of Lithuania, in a European country with the highest proportion of Holocaust genocide on the continent. This sad distinction resulted from massive local participation. BNS report on the court's 19 May decision here. Delfi report. JTA report on the court's decision and Dr Efraim Zuroff's reaction. Photo by J. Markevicius on Delfi.
So much for the parliament's 2008 ban on 'Nazi and Soviet symbols' which only caused pain to aged veterans of the anti-Nazi war effort, and which was ultimately part of the machinations in support of the Double Genocide movement in the European Parliament, in cooperation with the movement's local power structures. See also Swastikas and Swasticals.
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Vilnius Prosecutor General Tried to Nix Baltic Pride March & is Overruled by Court; Neo-Nazis, Protected by Police, flaunt Swasticals near Reval Lietuva Hotel
Report here. BNS summary here. The state prosecution service that continues to 'investigate for war crimes' Holocaust survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance, and passes over neo-Nazi marches in utter silence, tried hard (but failed) to stop the May 8th Baltic Pride Tolerance march in Vilnius. Our eyewitness report from one vantage point follows:
8 May 2010. After being refused entry into the actual Baltic Pride marchers' area, on grounds that we did not have individual permits, we were directed to the plaza between the Reval Lietuva Hotel and the CUP department store where we were told the march's concluding point could be observed. There, police eagerly directed visitors and sympathisers into an 'observation area' just below on a grassy hillside. It soon became evident that while limiting the formal numbers of Baltic Pride participants, the police were shepherding visitors into an area occupied by neo-fascists and bolstering their apparent numbers.
Two brave local young women displayed a rainbow peace flag. Several neo-fascists proceeded to spit on them, yank away the flag and set it on fire. Onlooking police did not intervene. A third woman stamped out the fire. When only a small fragment of the Peace flag remained, Wyman Brent, director of the Vilnius Jewish Library, retrieved it and said: 'It will be on display when the library opens in July'. Images of flag by Lukas G. Duenser.
At various points during the morning and afternoon, smoke bombs were thrown by the neo-fascist group assembled, with little reaction from the police.
Visitors felt increasingly uncomfortable at having been directed by police into an area filled with neo-Nazis who sporadically shouted anti-Jewish, xenophobic and homophobic epithets. Austrian Holocaust Museum volunteer Lukas G. Duenser, a member of the Green House team this year, proceeded to advise supporters of Tolerance to pick and wear a dandelion from the hillside as distinguishing mark. As the people on the hillside picked up the newfound symbol, it quickly became evident that a hefty chunk of the crowd in the cordoned-off area were opponents of the neo-Nazis, among them more than a few local residents among the many from different parts of the world who had come to watch.
The main focus of attention, however, were the neo-Nazi flags and armbands flaunted throughout the day by a group of neo-Nazis on the plaza above, flanked by the flags of Lithuania, the European Union, some EU member states, and the Reval Lietuva Hotel sign. They chanted allegiance to Hitler and gave interviews explaining the need to rid the country of 'all degenerates'. When asked why they do nothing, police officers massed beside the neo-Nazis explained with a smile: 'It's not exactly a swastika', referring to the apparent pact with authorities whereby neo-Nazi demonstrations are 'fine' as long as the symbols are not precise swastikas (so much for the 2008 ban on 'Nazi and Soviet symbols'). At a makeshift news stand, one of the neo-Nazis was handing out a newspaper with details of the various swastika-like symbols, referred to by this site as swasticals (see below → 11 March 2010).
In front of the amassed police, the neo-Nazis cheerfully distributed materials including the diagram below which assured the faithful that the swastikas on their flags and armbands were the real thing. So much for the 2008 'ban on Nazi and Soviet symbols' which did nothing but intimidate aged anti-Nazi war veterans domestically, while substantial state funds continue to be directed abroad to persuade the European Parliament to adopt the red-brown resolutions that obfuscate the Holocaust.
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Norway’s Ambassador in Vilnius Stands Up for Human Rights
March 2010. Norway’s ambassador to Lithuania HE Steinar Gil has emerged as a Baltic region champion of human rights, at a time when the Lithuanian government continues its gestures of support for the March 11th neo-Nazi marchers (parallel to Latvian leaders’ stout defense of the March 16th Waffen SS march in Riga). Speaking at a March 19th forum on ‘European and Lithuanian Values’ at the Lithuanian parliament, Ambassador Gil remarked for the record: ‘Every foreigner in Lithuania noticed this march, where the participants were shouting “Lithuania for Lithuanians”. We were shocked.’ The ambassador also pointed out politely that fifty parliamentarians had signed a petition to ban the Baltic Pride gay-rights parade. He asked: How many had spoken up against the nationalist march? He added that every person with respect for herself or himself and for her or his country should condemn this kind of manifestation. Others who have spoken up include Irish ambassador HE Dónal Denham; UK ambassador HE Simon Butt; and Lithuania’s sole Liberal member of the European Parliament, Prof. Leonidas Donskis.
Diplomatic sources tell Holocaust in the Baltics that even measured expression of difference of opinion on ‘mere’ human rights issues is sometimes deemed inappropriate when it comes to a NATO and EU ally at the eastern reaches of the alliance. The result has been likened to a veil of timid silence among some western powers when it comes to human rights, including freedom of speech. Neo-Nazism, antisemitism, Holocaust revisionism (with ongoing defamation of Holocaust Survivors and campaigns for red-brown resolutions in Europe), racism and homophobia are running amok, disseminated by elites in or close to state agencies, who continue, at the same time, to invest heavily in promoting as cover-up disingenuous ‘Jewish’, ‘Yiddish’, ‘Anti-Racism’, ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Anti-antisemitism’ events for the benefit of naive foreign visitors (including so-called UJIs – ‘Useful Jewish Idiots’), who are crowned with embellished status, lavish welcomes, and assorted favors. The perfectly legal ‘new swastika’ that duly outwits the June 2008 ‘equal ban on Nazi and Soviet symbols’ has become emblematic of the moment.
Instead of condemning the neo-fascists, Lithuania’s prime minister Andrius Kubilius proceeded to attack… the Norwegian ambassador (analogous to the Latvian foreign minister’s rounding on Dr Efraim Zuroff of the Wiesenthal Center, instead of expressing the slightest regret over the Waffen SS march in his own capital, → below, 16 March 2010). In his statement, the Lithuanian PM trivialized neo-Nazism, denying that racism and homophobia might be a problem, and failing to see it as unfortunate that the permit for the neo-Nazis’ march was obtained by a senior member of his own party who himself participated (→ below, 23 March 2010).
The Norwegian ambassador’s voice had a rapid beneficial effect on Baltic democracy. After a hopeless silence, Lithuania’s opposition Social Democrats issued a statement on March 23rd criticizing the government's ‘violations of human rights’ (English translation here). The concern of foreign ambassadors is duly noted. Regrettably, however, the statement omits the J-word and ignores the antisemitic and Holocaust-revisionist aspects of the government’s policies. The state’s targeting of Holocaust Survivors via kangaroo ‘investigations’ and state-sponsored defamation in the absence of any charge is a gross violaton of human rights, and it would be a huge benefit to the region for loyal opposition groups to speak up, especially as the persecution of Holocaust Survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance was recently the subject of an acute letter of protest to the Lithuanian prime minister, signed by five senior members of the US House of Representatives, including Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
On 26 March, a group of neo-Nazis protested outside the Norwegian Embassy in Vilnius, on the plaza spanning Kalinausko and Basanaviciaus streets, flaunting flags featuring the Lithuanian colors surrounding the modified swastika. A day later, Norway’s ambassador became a target of the mass circulation daily Respublika, which proceeded to demonize him with a huge unflattering photo which appeared with the paper’s report on the fascists’ demonstration at his embassy (→ below, 27 March 2010). English translation.
Meanwhile, the civic debate inspired by Norway's ambassador began to develop. Although the state's continuing violation of Jewish rights is still a taboo topic, the generic issue of intolerance instigated (or cheerfully tolerated) by the government is gaining traction as a matter for legitimate dialogue. On 27 March, a typical ultranationalist statement blaming 'Russia' for all manifestations of Baltic intolerance was offered by MP Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene (English translation here). A cogent response was published by Vilnius University's Dr Mindaugas Kluonis (English translation here). He makes the point that even if the KGB were responsible for acts of intolerance in the Baltics, it would be incumbent upon proper leaders to speak up clearly against such acts; indeed it is the intolerant elites, including leading political figures who are the ones doing the damage to their country's image. Hopefully soon, someone in the intellectual community will respectfully challenge the state's policies on Jewish issues, including the defamation of Holocaust Survivors; red-brown resolutions and state-sponsored revisionism; neo-Nazi parades and legalized 'remake' swastikas; ploys to sabotage restitution; frequent 1930s style mass media hate-fueling caricaturization of the Jewish people (that typically goes unchallenged). To date, expressions of a Second Opinion have generally been limited to the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Holocaust Survivor groups and foreign diplomats and organizations (on defamation of Survivors; on the red-brown resolutions; on state-sponsored red-brown commissions). Encouragingly, some bold independent voices of citizens have begun to be heard too. It is imperative that the slide in free speech in the region be reversed as a matter of genuine urgency to the European Union and the Western alliance.
Back in November 2009, Ambassador Gil organized a walking tour of the Vilna Ghetto led by Holocaust survivor Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, after parliamentarians and the country’s leading news portal defamed her as ‘under investigation for mass murder’ for having survived the Holocaust by joining the anti-Nazi resistance. Neither the government nor her own employers have since offered a single public word of reply to the baseless and antisemitically motivated calumny. Ambassador Gil organized the walking tour in partnership with the Jewish Community of Lithuania, where he led a seminar prior to the excursion (details → below, 26 Nov 2009; cf. also report at 28 Oct; see also: Responses).
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16 March 2010:
WAFFEN SS MARCH IN RIGA
Sanctioned by the Municipality of Riga on a route concluding with a ceremony at the city's Liberty Monument ...
Poster at left: JEWS!! THIS LAND IS FOR LATVIANS! Poster at right: THE LATVIAN PRESIDENT SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE EVENTS OF MARCH 16, NOT MAY 9!
COVERAGE AND COMMENT:
►Efraim Zuroff in the Guardian (18 March 2010) ►David Charter in the Times (17 March 2010) ►Gary Peach on Associated Press (16 March 2010) ►Clemens Heni on WPK (22 March 2010) ►Dovid Katz in the Algemeiner Journal (26 March 2010)
SEE ALSO: THE INCREDIBLE 17 MARCH 2010 PRESS RELEASE
FROM THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF LATVIA DEFENDING THE WAFFEN SS MARCH TO THE LIBERTY MONUMENT IN CENTRAL RIGA (USING 'RED=BROWN' ARGUMENTS), WHILE ATTACKING DR EFRAIM ZUROFF FOR HAVING DARED CRITICIZE THE EVENT. ORIGINAL FAX FROM THE FOREIGN MINISTER'S OFFICE (PDF).
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11 March 2010:
NEO-NAZIS IN VILNIUS
Sanctioned by the Municipality of Vilnius on a route that included Vilna’s destroyed old Jewish cemetery ...
11 March 2010. Elderly Jewish survivors were shaken to the core by this latest Neo-Nazi march in downtown Vilnius on Lithuania’s March 11 Independence Day. The march was sanctioned by the city municipality. The permit was requested by a member of parliament from the governing party. And in a final flourish of inflicted pain, the approved route included the territory of the dismantled Old Vilna Jewish cemetery. All this marred the twentieth anniversary of the country’s bold breakaway from Soviet tyranny and its inspiring transition to a modern democracy, a magnificent achievement celebrated by all the country’s communities. More photos and reports: Balsas.lt. Delfi.lt. Video by Lietuvos rytas.
Background. Once again, the government’s ‘red-equals-brown’ Holocaust Obfuscation movement played its part. In June of 2008, the country’s parliament had passed a law forbidding both Nazi and Soviet symbols. This struck observers as somewhat curious, given that there are no ‘pro-Soviet’ marches, and the only people to be offended were very elderly veterans who cherished their victory over Hitler. The ultranationalist and neo-fascist movement, however, lost little time in proliferating an array of swasticals, a term we introduce to cover the 'whole lot' of swastika-inspired symbols used by ultranationalists, racists and neo-Nazis in the course of activities against ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, and against foreigners. By marching with ‘three-legged’ swastikas, with the ‘Lithuanian swastika’ and other variations, the neo-Nazis seem to have ‘outwitted’ lawmakers who seem quite unperturbed and content to be ‘outwitted’. Moreover, attempts to resurrect and march around with prewar swastikas as ‘art’ or as a claimed ‘national symbol’ are gaining some traction. Analogously, the 'Lietuva Lietuviams' (Lithuania for Lithuanians) chant, replacing the 'Juden raus' of two years ago (see Antisemitism → 2008, 11 March), seemed to make it all wholesome and legal for the authorities.
White armbands are back. For the aged Holocaust Survivors interviewed since the march, the most painful symbol was, however, not the swastika. It was rather the white armbands worn by some marchers, celebrating the infamous ‘activists’ who set the Lithuanian Holocaust in motion by murdering innocent civilian Jews in dozens of towns before the actual arrival of the Germans in the last week of June 1941. When Nazi forces arrived, ‘the white armbands’ became Hitler’s murderers par excellence. The flaunting of the armband on the streets of central Vilnius in 2010 is a grievous stain on the entire region. It is nevertheless hoped, in spite of recent setbacks on the freedom-of-speech front, that major politicians, academics, intellectuals, law enforcement authorities and other elites will this time act rapidly — and convincingly.
19 March 2010. Jewish Community protests. The fragile but proud Jewish Community of Lithuania issued a statement including the feeling that by issuing a permit for the march, the Vilnius city administration used the 20th anniversary of Lithuanian independence to ‘trample on and offend’ the remnant Jewish community in the country. BNS report.
19 March 2010. Norway’s ambassador speaks out. HE Steinar Gil publicly criticized the government’s and the elites’ silence and spirit of benign acquiescence following the neo-Nazi march. Speaking at a March 19th forum on ‘European and Lithuanian Values’ Ambassador Gil remarked: ‘Every foreigner in Lithuania noticed this march, where the participants were shouting "Lithuania for Lithuanians". We were shocked.’ Ambassador Gil also pointed out that 50 parliamentarians had signed a petition to ban the Baltic Pride parade and asked how many Lithuanian parliamentarians and officials have spoken up against the Nationalist march? He added that every person with respect for herself or himself and for her or his country should condemn this kind of manifestation. Reports on Lithuania Tribune and Delfi.lt (English translation here). Dr Efraim Zuroff’s 22 March statement of support for the ambassador.
23 March 2010. The Prime Minister of Lithuania responds. In response to Ambassador Gil’s concerns, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius issued a statement that is, in the opinion of this website, extraordinary for an EU/NATO head of government. Declaring his country to be more tolerant than Norway or Denmark, and proclaiming that ‘you couldn’t say it’s either nationalistic or homophobic’, the PM goes on say: ‘There are skinheads and neo-Nazis in every country, and they sometimes take a walk or chant something’. He proceeds to brush away as irrelevant the legalization of the neo-Nazi march via a permit obtained by a member of parliament from his own ruling party. As usual, there is no mention of the continuing prosecutorial defamation campaign against surviving Jewish veterans of the anti-Nazi partisan resistance. BNS report here.
27 March 2010. The mass circulation daily Respublika publishes an unflattering photo of the Norwegian ambassador on p. 2 along with its report of the protest delivered to the Norwegian Embassy by a group of participants in the recent neo-Nazi parade. The protesters demonstrated outside the Norwegian embassy in Vilnius on 26 March with flags including the modified swastika flaunted during the parade. Online version of the Respublika report. English translation.
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Vilnius Prosecutors ‘visit’ Lithuanian Jewish Community on Holocaust Remembrance Day, questioning ties to Survivor in Tel Aviv who is the latest to be ‘investigated’
8 February 2010. Confirmation has been obtained that on Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January (respected internationally as the day marking the liberation of Auschwitz), Lithuanian prosecutors visited the premises of the Jewish Community of Lithuania at Pylimo Street 4, Vilnius, to question community leaders about their ‘knowledge’ of Joseph Melamed, a Holocaust survivor resident in Tel Aviv. A native of Kaunas and survivor of the Kovno Ghetto, Mr Melamed is a decorated hero of the anti-Nazi resistance in the forests (1943-44) as well as of the Israel War of Independence (1948). A lawyer, author and retired Israeli diplomat, he is today the elected director of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, one of the world’s last active associations of Litvaks.
Mr Melamed told Holocaust In The Baltics: ‘If they want to ask me something why don’t they come and talk to me? Why do they disturb the tiny surviving Jewish community in Vilnius? Our offices are at King David Street 1 in central Tel Aviv, right off Rabin Square.’ Mr Melamed and the Association of Lithuanian Jews have provided a spirited and ongoing voice of disagreement with the Prague Declaration. They had been the first to challenge the underlying assumptions of Lithuania’s ‘red-brown’ commission back in 1998. Prosecutors have not disclosed what it is they wish to question Mr Melamed about. In the case of their ongoing campaign against other Holocaust survivors, there have been no charges, just defamatory statements and gestures of intimidation. Nor has any been cleared as their ‘investigations’ continue. By contrast, according to the Wiesenthal Center’s data, the Baltic countries have not punished a single Nazi war criminal since independence. Since 2006, they have been pursuing Holocaust survivors who joined the Soviet-backed anti-Nazi resistance, eliciting solid international condemnation, most recently from the United States Congress.
Updates on Russian language services: 10 Feb 2010 on Interfax; 11 Feb on Izrus, Jewish News Agency and JewishRu. Photo of Joseph Melamed in his office with his book on Lithuanian Jewry (2010)
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U.S. Congress Protests Lithuanian Gov. Campaign against Rachel Margolis and other Holocaust Survivors who joined the anti-Nazi Resistance
27 January 2010. On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Margolis family in the United States released to the media a letter from the United States Congress to the prime minister of Lithuania, protesting in no uncertain terms the campaign being waged against 88 year old historian, museum builder and biologist, Dr Rachel Margolis; 87 year old Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute; and 83 year old Holocaust scholar Dr Yitzhak Arad, who was founding director of Yad Vashem. All three have been the subject of ongoing ‘investigations into war crimes’ by Lithuanian prosecutors and of extensive defamation by the country’s mainstream media. Since the saga got underway in the spring of 2006, none has been charged, and not one has been cleared. Holocaust studies specialists increasingly suspect a ruse to create a bogus paper trail of ‘investigations’ of Holocaust survivors as a diversion to the documented history of massive Baltic participation in the Nazi-led genocide of the Jewish population, as well as to the region’s dismal record of not punishing a single Nazi war criminal since independence. See the media coverage; responses to the anti-survivor campaign; critiques of the underlying ‘red=brown’ movement and the state-funded apparatus that underpins it.
The three page letter (available here) is signed by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman; the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Europe, Robert Wexler; Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, and Congressmen Paul Hodes and James P. Moran. The letter addresses the Lithuanian prime minister, Andrius Kubilius in stark terms: ‘Prime Minister Kubilius, we request your written assurance that Ms Margolis can return to Vilnius without fear of being questioned by the prosecutor.’ It goes on to say: ‘Ms Margolis and other partisans should not have to live in continued fear from reprisals, media defamation or harassment from authorities. As the leader of Lithuania, please take this opportunity to speak directly to your citizens and set the record straight on this critical issue.’
Earlier this month, Jerusalem-based Avi Lehrer posted a second clip of a recent series of interviews with Dr Margolis, filmed at her home in Rechovot, concerning the attempts of prosecutors and press to turn history on its head. She addresses the 2008 visit by uniformed officers looking for her in Vilnius. This follows an earlier segment where Dr Margolis, 88, explains why she yearns to see her native Vilnius (Yiddish Vilne) one more time. See below (at: 28 Oct), and at Blaming the Victims (→ 2008: 5 May; 28 May). Rachel Margolis and other survivors are being filmed (in their native language, Yiddish), thanks to the generosity of Verbe et Lumière – Vigilance (Paris). A 2008 letter to Dr Margolis from 9 ambassadors here; 2009 Tel Aviv event here, and at Responses ( 19 June 2009). Smithsonian.
Rachel Margolis’s A Partisan of Vilna, in English translation and with a new preface by Professor Antony Polonsky, is now in press and can be ordered (Academic Studies Press, Boston); see Recent Books (→ Rachel Margolis).
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German Parliamentarian wins award in Jerusalem, blasts the ‘Prague Declaration’
23 December 2009. German Social Democratic parliamentarian Gert Weisskirchen was awarded a certificate of honor at the Israeli Knesset on 16 December for a lifetime of fighting antisemitism, racism, and Holocaust distortion. The Knesset session was integrated into the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism. During an informal celebration at Jerusalem’s Crowne Plaza Hotel, Mr Weisskirchen penned, in his famed telegraphic style, on Global Forum letterpaper, his opposition to the ‘Prague Declaration’ in the spirit of three new ‘DEs’: ‘De-valuation of the victims, De-stortion of history, De-legimitization of the Holocaust. These are the reasons why I oppose the Prague Declaration’ — Gert Weisskirchen
Images courtesy of Dr Clemens Heni of WPK.
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Holocaust Survivors call on Global Forum to condemn the ‘Prague Declaration’
15 December 2009. In a statement issued at the launch in Jerusalem of the 2009 Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, the Association of Lithuanian Jews called on the Forum ‘to forcefully condemn the Prague Declaration, which seeks to create a false symmetry between Nazi and Soviet crimes, and is an attempt to obfuscate and diminish the Holocaust by various means (including an attempt to redefine genocide)’. The statement describes the Prague Declaration as ‘a prime symptom of a new and dangerous strain of antisemitism that seeks to distort the history of the Holocaust and to confuse perpetrators and victims’.
Jerusalem Post coverage: 17 Dec 2009 and 18 Dec 2009.
The Prague Declaration was proclaimed in June 2008 as the de facto manifesto of the ‘Double Genocide’ movement. It and its associated resolutions have been widely condemned by human rights activists, including British MP John Mann, chairman of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism. MP John Mann was honored by Israel’s Knesset on 16 Dec 2009. He spoke out forcefully at the Global Forum against the Prague Declaration and various ultranationalist campaigns in Eastern Europe to declare ‘equivalence’ of Nazi and Soviet crimes.
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Foreign Minister, on eve of Jerusalem visit, explains his view of ‘red and brown’
9 December 2009. In a wide-ranging interview (English here), Lithuania’s foreign minister remarked before his visit to Jerusalem that Nazi and Soviet crimes were indeed different, but in this sense: ‘Lithuania suffered from both, but civilized humanity universally condemned the crimes of the Nazis a long time ago, whereas the memory of the Soviet victims was neither morally nor legally assessed for a long time’. There is no retreat from the implicit equation of the unequatable, no comment on the unique scale of Holocaust genocide which has left Litvak Jewry on the brink of extinction; on his country’s legacy of massive collaboration; on his state agencies’ continuing defamation of elderly Holocaust survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance; on his ministry’s investment in the Prague Declaration and other red-brown initiatives; on the attempts to forge a single ‘state truth’ history for Europe. Hopefully, the minister, who has forcefully condemned racist, antisemitic and homophobic outbursts in the media, will now announce removal of the ‘red-equals-brown movement’ from his ministry’s agenda.
Mr Foreign Minister, the unspeakable pain inflicted on the tiny remnant Jewish communities of Eastern Europe by the unconscionable defamation of Holocaust survivors by your prosecutors (in Lithuania alone among the nations of Europe); by the Prague Declaration and red-brown commissions; by all the state sponsored efforts to obfuscate the Holocaust — these are even more hurtful and damaging than those crude outbursts in the media that you have boldly condemned. There is little to be gained by condemning primitive antisemitism with one hand while espousing its sophisticated new incarnation with the other. The Prague Declaration is the new antisemitism par excellence (see. e.g. Heni 2009, Katz 2009, Katz and Heni 2009, Samuels 2009). Jerusalem’s Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism presents a splendid opportunity for your government to abandon the red-equals-brown movement and the dictation of ‘truth in history’ by politicians (see Milne 2009; Steele 2009). Leave history to the competing ideas of historians.
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Justice Minister defies documented history, denies Lithuanian Holocaust collaboration
2 December 2009. On his blog, the justice minister of Lithuania dismisses the internationally known history of massive (and official and institutional) Lithuanian collaboration with the Nazi annihilation of the country’s Jewish population during the Holocaust. English translation. Delfi summary in Lithuanian. BNS summary in English. He makes no mention of his own prosecutors’ continuing defamation of Holocaust survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance, or the international condemnation of his prosecutors' activities. He does, however, fault the US, Great Britain and the USSR in connection with the Holocaust.
His blog cites his prime minister’s earlier HARDtalk interview with the BBC’s Jonathan Charles on 30 Nov (video here; → Holocaust issues at timecode starting ±18:40; alternate here at ±5:55). The PM effectively let slip the policy of investing in Jewish memorials and projects while trying to (a) equate the Holocaust with Soviet crimes, and (b) downplay local collaboration.
Ronald Lauder (4 Dec 2009), Daiva Repečkaitė (4 Dec 2009) and Efraim Zuroff (7 Jan 2010) reply.
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Key Diplomats in Vilnius ‘walk in the rain’ with VYI Librarian Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky
26 November 2009. A group of ambassadors and chiefs of mission defied persistent rain to go on a historical walking tour of the Vilna Ghetto, where Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, 87, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, recounted the history of the city's anti-Nazi resistance. They represented the embassies of Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Russia. Britain, Canada and the United States had participated on a previous date.
The walk was preceded by a meeting at the Jewish Community of Lithuania addressed by Norwegian ambassador HE Steinar Gil, JCL chairman Dr Shimon Alperovich, executive director Mr Simon Gurevich, and Professor Dovid Katz of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. The event is perceived as a meaningful response to the campaign of defamation targeting Jewish veterans of the anti-Nazi resistance (see below at 28 October 2009). Report at: Responses (→ 26 Nov 2009).
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Shimon Peres Attacked for holding Nazi and Soviet crimes to be Different
14 November 2009. Leading Baltic news portal Delfi.lt attacks Israel’s president Shimon Peres for differentiating Nazi and Soviet crimes. English translation. Peres’s remarks were distorted (see original; English translation). The Delfi piece includes this graphic:
Daiva Repečkaitė replies.
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Erasmus Students invited to ‘Exchange Genocide Project’
November 2009. European exchange students on the Erasmus program in Lithuania have received this email from the program’s local leadership inviting them to join for free an interactive ‘Exchange Genocide Project’ complete with Russian speaking actors and psychological and physical punishment. Participating Erasmus students are required to sign this confirmation form. Erasmus is financed by the European Union. There is no mention of any ‘Exchange Genocide Project’ to commemorate the Holocaust or to visit peacefully any of the 202 mass murder sites in the country.
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German President awards Fania Brantsovsky the Federal Cross of Merit; Antisemitic Tirade Follows in Vilnius
28 October 2009. Antisemitic reaction on Lithuania’s main news portal came within minutes of the German embassy’s press release announcing its award to anti-Nazi Jewish partisan veteran Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. The award is the president’s Federal Cross of Merit. It was presented to her by Germany’s ambassador to Lithuania Hans-Peter Annen in a ceremony at his embassy in Vilnius. Details at Responses (→ 28 Oct 2009). [May 2010: Disturbingly, neither Fania’s award nor the antisemitic barrage against her has been mentioned to this day on the VYI website.]
English translation of the report on the Baltic internet portal Delfi, including the remarks of a ruling-party member of parliament. It appeared with this caricature of the 87 year old Holocaust survivor who had just been honored by Germany’s president. Posted comments that threatened her with violence have now been removed. More details at Blaming the Victims (→ 28 Oct 2009). Daiva Repečkaitė and Milan Chersonski reply.
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Rachel Margolis turns 88
28 October 2009 also marked Dr Rachel Margolis’s 88th birthday. Dr Margolis, anti-Nazi partisan veteran, historian and biologist, lives in Rechovot, and feels unable to return to Vilnius because of the situation. Birthday greetings at Responses (→ 28 Oct 2009, II). [See now the later report of 27 January 2010, above, on the letter sent by five senior members of the United States Congress to the prime minister of Lithuania concerning Dr Margolis and the other Holocaust Survivors defamed by the far right's 'Double Genocide' industry in the Baltics.]
