by Grant Arthur Gochin

On December 16, 2016, I posted this about the efforts to remove the honors for the man responsible for the murder of my family in Lithuania – Noreika:

https://ggochin.wordpress.com/2016/12/16/noreika-monument/

The Cultural Heritage Department has responded; their response is attached to this post.

The Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department will not do anything to remove the honors. They offer no explanations for how they come up with their decisions or why our facts were incorrect.

They say the plaque was installed in 1997 and belongs to the city, not the library. How do they know this when the city does not? Again they offer no backup.

Noreika signed the orders to ghetto my relatives, his writings are extensive, we are very clear as to his beliefs and his actions. The Genocide Center has defended Noreika, notwithstanding the abundant evidence against him. The mayor of Vilnius has ignored our appeals, and now the Cultural Heritage Department offers a declination without backup or addressing our claims. We can be very clear as to the value given to a Jew murderer in Lithuania, versus a Jewish victim.

I am just amazed at the time and energy they have put in to defending this Jew murderer, very much similar to the time, energy and expense they went to, to deny that my Grandfather was my Grandfather, where it took the Lithuanian Supreme Court to rule that the Interior Ministry’s positions were “absurd” and “baseless.”

Given how dishonest the Lithuanian lower courts were in my citizenship cases, I am clear that the Lithuanian judicial system would be as dishonest on a case like this, and I would have to go back to the Supreme Court to have any truth addressed.

It is clear to me what Lithuania as a country is, how very sad for the decent Lithuanian people.

Cultural Heritage Department reply:

From Grant Gochin’s blog.