photo courtesy BNS

An interview by Nemira Pumprickaitė on the Lithuanian state television program Savaitė, www.LRT.lt

The Day of the Genocide of the Jews of Lithuania is marked on September 23. For long years there was silence on the topic of the Holocaust in Lithuania, and when [former late] Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas apologized to the Jewish people, there was hardly unanimous support. Now even Germans are saying Lithuania is the first country in Eastern Europe to openly raise the question of its own citizens’ complicity. About a month ago the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published a feature on Lithuania’s efforts to address the history of the Holocaust. Lithuanians didn’t earn condemnation alone during the Holocaust; there were those who risked their lives of those of the families to save Jews. The appellation Righteous Gentile has been awarded to 889 Lithuanian citizens. Experts say proportionally, according to population size, Lithuania has the most rescuers among the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on the Lithuanian state television program Savaitė…

Full interview in Lithuanian here.