7 February 2011. Letter of protest, signed by twenty-one people, is handed to the Lithuanian Embassy on London at 10 AM by MP RH Denis MacShane; Professor Danny Ben-Moshe, and Danny Stone, director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism. Report here. Text of the letter here. List of signatories here.

6-7 February 2011. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry is the chief sponsor of a London event called: ‘Colloquium: No simple stories. Jewish-Lithuanian relations between coexistence and violence’ at UCL and the Warburg Institute. Report/comment here. Poster here. Colloquium programme here. Final programme here. Clemens Heni’s critique here.

4 February 2011. ‘A shameful Shoah whitewash’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Efraim Zuroff).

4 February 2011. ‘Lithuania accused over Holocaust event’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Simon Rocker).

28 January 2011. ‘Can-Kam pact is over’ on Progress Online (by Denis MacShane).

27 January 2011. ‘Cameron’s ECR farce continues’ on Left Foot Forward (by Ben Fox).

26 January 2011. ‘A rather simple story: Lithuania, the Jews, and the Shoah’ on DefendingHistory.com (by Clemens Heni).

20 January 2011. MP Denis MacShane delivers a major speech on antisemitism in the Commons. Report here. Text of the speech here.

20 January 2011. ‘A challenging look at Jewish life in Lithuania’ in the London Jewish News (by Nitza Spiro).

17 January 2011. Lord Janner of Braunstone QC (formerly MP Greville Janner) publishes his essay ‘Never Again’ on the website of the Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism, taking note of the ‘antisemitic agenda’ that is served by the Double Genocide movement. Report here. Essay here.

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2010

23 December 2010. The Holocaust Survivor community responds cautiously to the news (spread by an emailed/forwarded poster), that the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, which masterminded a new attempt in December 2010 to insert ‘Double Genocide’ and obfuscate the Holocaust in European Union law (see top story), was now one of the parties financing a ‘Colloquium’ titled ‘Jewish-Lithuanian Relations Between Coexistence and Violence’ on 6-7 Feb 2011 in London. ‘All welcome. No registration needed.’ Poster here. Details here.

21 December 2010. ‘Why is the US silent on “double genocide”? While European countries have condemned the new Holocaust revisionism in the Baltics, America shows no moral leadership’ in the Guardian (by Dovid Katz).

13 December 2010. Labour MP Denis MacShane asks Secretary for Europe David Lidington to make public the letter of seven ambassadors concerning rising antisemitism in Lithuania. Mr. Lidington turns him down.

8 December 2010. BBC Radio’s World Service Heart and Soul program by Wendy Robbins on issues in Lithuania.

25 November 2010. The British Embassy in Vilnius plays a pivotal role in the issuing of a historic statement (signed by seven Nato ambassadors) on ‘Double Genocide’, the growing antisemitic and Holocaust Denial atmosphere, and the May 2010 court ruling permitting public swastika displays.

25 November 2010. Ambassador S.J. Butt publishes a letter in the Canadian Jewish News on the work of Rachel Kostanian, director of the Green House [5th item].

17 November 2010. ‘The Real Friend is the one who tells you when something is wrong’ on Alfa.lt (by Dovid Katz).

10 November 2010. ‘Mr Lidington is right, but there is more to it’ on DefendingHistory.com (by Dovid Katz). [later version = 17 Nov 2010].

8 November 2010. ‘Minister welcomes progress in Lithuania on compensation for seized Jewish properties’ on UK in Lithuania / Press Center.

14 October 2010. ‘Count, explain, remember’ in The Economist (by Edward Lucas).

7 October 2010. ‘Nazi crimes have been downgraded in Lithuania’ in the Canadian Jewish News (by Esther Goldberg [London]).

5 October 2010. ‘The fatal fact of the Nazi-Soviet pact. I coincide with Zuroff and Katz on the centrality of the Holocaust, but we must not overlook how Stalin enabled Hitler’s crimes’ in the Guardian (by Timothy Snyder).

30 September 2010. ‘Why Red is not Brown in the Baltics. Unhappily, Timothy Snyder’s historical reassessment of the Nazi-Soviet pact coincides with Baltic ultra-nationalist agendas’ in the Guardian (by Dovid Katz).

29 September 2010. ‘A dangerous Nazi-Soviet equivalence. Timothy Snyder’s emphasis on the Hitler-Stalin pact as the genesis of war blurs the moral responsibility that was Germany’s’ in the Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff).

28 September 2010. ‘Echoes from the killing fields of the East. The Second World War is often seen through Western allies’ eyes. But the real geopolitics and worst atrocities scarred the East’ in the Guardian (by Timothy Snyder).

24 September 2010. ‘Rise of the Right. The fall of parliamentary seats into extremist hands represents the biggest shake-up on the continent since the disappearance of communism’ in Newsweek (by Denis MacShane).

17 September 2010. ‘Lithuania’s Double Genocide policy’ in the Guardian (by Tessa Rajak).

‘Lithuania has taken more than a “walk-on part in British politics”. When the European parliament called on its members, in April 2009, to mark 23 August as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, and when the OSCE, in July 2009, adopted the Vilnius Declaration on increasing awareness of totalitarian crimes, we too became party to the equation of Nazi crimes with those of communism in the Baltic states. By accepting the parallelism, we also have excused collaborators, ignored the unspeakable savageries perpetrated in Lithuania between 1941 and 1945, condoned the pardoning of every single Lithuanian war criminal until today, and endorsed the prosecution of Jewish resistance fighters, whose situation remains unresolved.’

—Professor Tessa Rajak in the Guardian, 17 Sept 2010

15 September 2010. ‘Were Stalin’s crimes really less wicked than Hitler’s?’ in the Telegraph (by Daniel Hannan).

14 September 2010. ‘I see why “double genocide” is a term Lithuanians want. But it appals me. To equate Soviet and Nazi crimes is dishonest and historically false. Why has this poisonous idea taken such deep root?’ in the Guardian (by Jonathan Freedland).

8 September 2010. ‘Rachel Kostanian: Historian whose task is remembrance of the Holocaust’ in the Canadian Jewish News (by Esther Goldberg [London]).

1 September 2010. ‘Time to free Europe of this poison’ on the Parliamentary Committee against Antisemitism (by Dovid Katz).

27 May 2010. ‘It is time for Cameron to reject the EU nutters’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Dovid Katz).

3 April 2010. ‘The threat of Baltic ultranationalism. The EU is wrong to ignore the resurgence of neofascism in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — It threatens European democracy’ in the Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff). In Estonian. In Lithuanian.

7 March 2010. ‘Latvian Waffen-SS veterans defy calls for ban with rally to commemorate comrades’ in Times Online (by David Charter).

March 2010. ‘65 years on the ghost of Nazism resurfaces across Europe’ in Government Gazette (by Marcus Papadopoulos).

19 January 2010. Peter Ryley’s Blog: ‘Defending history’.

8 January 2010. ‘Halting Holocaust Obfuscation. The Baltic ultranationalists rewriting east European history as an equal Nazi-Soviet “double genocide” must be stopped’ in the Guardian (by Dovid Katz). Alternate link [reprint in the Algemeiner Journal]. Republication in Russian.

7 January 2010. ‘A sinister scheme to devalue the Shoah is gathering steam’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Efraim Zuroff).

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2009

30 November 2009. Lithuanian prime minister’s Hardtalk interview with the BBC’s Jonathan Charles. Video here; → Holocaust issues at timecode starting ±18:40; alternate hereat ±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. Efraim Zuroff (7 Jan 2010) replied on 7 January 2010 (here).

30 November 2009. ‘Polish antisemitism needs examination. It would be parochial to give a free pass to Michal Kaminski et al just because we resent the issue becoming a political football’ in the Guardian (by Tim Whewell).

30 November 2009. ‘Tories must reject “Double Genocide” proponents. Alliance with those who would downgrade the Holocaust is a grave mistake’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Dovid Katz).

1 November 2009. ‘Beyond Kaminski’ in New Statesman (by Mehdi Hasan).

31 October 2009. ‘Cameron must end Tories’ far-right fling’ in the Irish Times (by Dovid Katz).

29 October 2009. ‘Europe must focus on Baltic hate. We must continue to push the issue of Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian antisemitism’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by John Mann MP).

‘As a result of our All-Party inquiry into Antisemitism, the Foreign Office has been pursuing an active programme of agenda-raising using the relevant European organisations and instruments, and has been hailed as a model of best practice. I will be raising this matter at the cross-departmental working group on Antisemitism and with the Foreign Secretary. It is our intention to send a further fact-finding mission to both Latvia and Poland in order to evidence more comprehensively attitudes and activities. Should these missions have implications for political parties in those countries then I think that discrete but robust pressure will be in order. We must continue to monitor and combat this evolving form of antisemitism and should expect the highest standards of both British and European officials in combating racism in all its forms.’

— John Mann MP in the Jewish Chronicle, 29 October 2009

22 October 2009. ‘Miliband on Cameron’ in The New York Times (by Roger Cohen).

21 October 2009. ‘Clinton and Kaminski: What the papers say’ in the Jewish Chronicle (by Jessica Elgot).

2o October 2009. ‘I knew the day of Holocaust “debate” would come. Just not in my lifetime’ in the Guardian (by Jonathan Freedland).

14 October 2009. ‘Eastern Europe’s long buried truths’ in the Guardian by Efraim Zuroff.

13 October 2009. ‘Latvian Waffen-SS: No ifs, no buts’: G uardian editorial.

11 October 2009. ‘Is Michal Kaminski fit to lead the Tories in Europe?’ in the Guardian (by Toby Helm).

7 October 2009. Guardian: ‘Cameron’s Latvian liaison. The Conservatives’ choice of partner in Europe traduces Latvian democrats who acknowledge wartime atrocities against Jews’ by David Cesarani.

2 October 2009. ‘Lazy Tory apologists for Latvian SS’ in the Guardian (by Peter Beaumont).

28 September 2009. ‘The Nazi whitewash’ in the Guardian (by Efraim Zuroff); alternate link.

9 September 2009. ‘This rewriting of history is spreading Europe’s poison’ in the Guardian (by Seumas Milne).

21 August 2009. ‘But is Kaminski good for the Jews? Stephen Pollard’s defence of the rightwing Polish MEP shows the dangerous naivety of taking support for Israel at face value’ in the Guardian (by Antony Lerman).

19 August 2009. ‘History is much too important to be left to politicians. The EU must not give succour to self-interested revisionists who equate Stalinism and Nazism’ in the Guardian (by Jonathan Steele).

31 July 2009. ‘Stop “respectable fascism” now. I lost the Conservative whip because I acted on principle to stop disguised extremism, symbolised by Michal Kaminski’ in the Guardian (by Edward McMillan-Scott).

29 July 2009. ‘Cameron may have helped the Polish right, but he has not served Britain. A dubious rightwinger how heads conservatives in Europe. What on earth does the Tory leader think that he’s doing?’ in the Guardian (by Timothy Garton Ash).

29 July 2009. ‘Exclusive: Jewish leaders turn on Cameron’s Tories’ in New Statesman.

21 July 2009. ‘The Tories’ path to disaster. The Conservatives were once the party of world and European affairs but, as William Hague has shown, they aren’t any more’ in the Guardian (by Denis MacShane).

18 July 2009. ‘Rabbi [Barry Marcus] urges Tories: cut link to Polish MEP Euro group chief accused of being antisemitic’ in the Guardian (by Toby Helm and Rajeev Syal).

16 July 2009. ‘Diary. The Lord will provide, of course. But he must keep some for himself – charity begins at Home’ in the Guardian (by Hugh Muir).

19 June 2009. Lord Janner of Braunstone’s certificate of achievement to Dr Rachel Margolis is presented to Dr Margolis at Leivick House in Tel Aviv by Dovid Katz.

31 May 2009. ‘”Genocide Industry” has hidden agenda. Attempts at equalising historical wrongs are often aimed at Holocaust obfuscation’ in The Irish Times (by Dovid Katz).

27 May 2009. UK Ambassador HE Simon Butt (seated, left foreground) visits the Dr Sheine Sideraite Yiddish Reading Circle at the Jewish Community of Lithuania in a show of support.

16 May 2009. ‘History holds key to mutual understanding’ in The Irish Times (by Paul Gillespie).

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2008

9 October 2008. Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky showing HE Donal Denham, ambassador of Ireland, and HE Simon Butt, ambassador of the UK, the remains of the forest fort (more details on the fort here) in the forest, where she and another hundred or so anti-Nazi partisans, almost all of them Jewish escapees from the Vilna Ghetto, lived from late September 1943 to early July 1944. An earlier plan for a group of Western ambassadors to visit more formally in the summer of 2008 was thwarted by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. The embassies of Ireland and the United Kingdom then decided to go forward with a private visit.

from left: HE Donal Denham, ambassador of Ireland; Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky; HE Simon Butt, ambassador of the United Kingdom

September 2008. Excerpt from UK MP Denis MacShane’s Globalising Hatred. The New Antisemitism (see Recent Books → 2008 → MacShane).

‘The rise of nationalist antisemitic politics can be seen in Lithuania. Jews who escaped to join the anti-Nazi partisans in Lithuania in the Second World War are now being accused by Lithuanian antisemites of taking part in war crimes. 95% of Lithuania’s 200,000 Jews who lived in the country before the Russian occupation in 1939 and the Nazi invasion of 1941 were killed by Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators. Lithuanian Jews who survived the Holocaust are now in their eighties, but such is the antisemitism coming back to life in some quarters of nationalist politics in the Baltic state, that it has been possible to open investigations that put Jews on the same level as their executioners.’

— Denis Macshane, member of the UK parliament, in his Globalising Hatred. The New Antisemitism, p. 33.

27 August 2008. ACTION: British Ambassador HE Simon Butt organizes a walking tour of the Vilna Ghetto led by Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, attended by ambassadors / chargés d’affaires of fifteen NATO nations: Austria, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, USA.

25 August 2008. ACTION: British Ambassador HE Simon Butt organizes a letter to Dr Rachel Margolis in Rechovotsigned by ambassadors or chargés d’affaires of Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA.

24 August 2008. ACTION: Sir Martin Gilbert confirms his resignation from the ‘International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania’.

21 August 2008. ‘Prosecution and persecution: Lithuania must stop blaming the victims’ in the Economist [by Edward Lucas]; alternate link; 2nd alternate link.

17 July 2008. ‘Lithuania and the battle for memory’ on BBC Radio’s Crossing Continents(by Tim Whewell); alternate link. Accompanying article: ‘Reopening Lithuania’s old wounds’.

6 June 2008. ‘The Holocaust Survivors facing war crimes trials’ in The Jewish Chronicle (by Dana Gloger).

3 June 2008. ACTION: While some Euro-politicians were busy declaring the Prague Declaration that day, Ireland’s ambassador to Lithuania, HE Dónal Denham hosted a reception in Vilnius to honour Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, less than a month after Lithuanian police came looking for her and Dr Rachel Margolis. More details here. The event concluded with the diplomatic community and invited guests joining Fania in singing the Jewish partisans’ Holocaust-era hymn Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg (‘Never say you are walking that last road’). The event was attended by ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Holy See, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States, among others.

An excerpt from Ambassador Denham’s speech:

‘Fania is one brave woman! You are a beautiful person, a special person, an inspiration to us all.’

—HE Dónal Denham at the reception to honor Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky at the Irish Ambassador’s Residence in Vilnius, 3 June 2008

♦

Report in Lithuania Today (May 2008):

31 January 2008. MP John Mann, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, rising in the House of Commons, critiques the January 2008 precursor of the ‘Prague Declaration’ [see entry for 2:30 PM, paragraph 4; see also paragraph 3].

‘On 22 January, in Tallinn, Estonia, five MEPs from five different countries met to launch a group called Common Europe—Common History. It has the same theme—the need for an equal evaluation of history. It is just a traditional form of prejudice, rewritten in a modern context. In essence, it is trying to equate communism and Judaism as one conspiracy and rewrite history from a nationalist point of view. Those are elected MEPs.’

— John Mann (Bassetlaw), House of Commons, 31 Jan 2008, 2:30 PM (column 509 on www.parliament.uk)

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See also: Proposed solutions; Ireland supplement (2008); UCL issues.

2013

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2010

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