by Sergejus Kanovičius

bernardinai.lt
July 29, 2016

Recently members of the City of Vilnius’s Commission of Names, Monuments and Memorial Plaques (hereinafter the City Commission) visited these issues.

Members of the Commission apparently didn’t feel a lack of expertise in the matters at hand and didn’t seek the advice of the Lithuanian Language Commission on how to write Washington Square (there is no W in Lithuanian, but in any case it wasn’t Wrocław), didn’t ask for public input on Ukraine Square and felt confident enough to deliberate on issues related to commemorating Jonas Basanavičius.

But one question was the subject of much–how to say it precisely–profound avoidance of responsibility and competence. This was the issue connected with Vilnius City Council member Mark Harold’s statement in which he argued for renaming Kazys Škirpa Alley the Alley of the Righteous Gentiles. What did the Commission do? The Commission said they didn’t know what to do. They asked for help from another institution which, also not knowing what to do, issued historical reports on Škirpa full of evasions (he didn’t take part in mass murder because the Germans wouldn’t allow him to travel, he didn’t murder anyone personally, he was just the head of the anti-Semitic LAF and called for getting rid of the Jews in this manner: “Having examined the anti-Semitic statements encountered in texts prepared by the Berlin LAF organization, it can be stated its members proposed solving ‘the Jewish problem’ not through genocide, but by means of driving them out of Lithuania.” This is a quote [translated] from Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Lithuanian Residents director T. B. Burauskaitė’s history report sent to the head of the municipal administration of Kaunas).

The director continued, doing all sorts of mental manipulations, supposing the call to drive Jews out of Lithuania wasn’t such a great sin, really. Of course she’s silent on the fact that this “innocent” call to drive them out was immediately disregarded by Škirpa’s congregation. The white armbanders of the LAF instead of driving the Jews out of Lithuania began to murder them in cold blood. Some Commission members, understanding full well Škirpa’s “achievements” as one of the godfathers of the initial mass murderers, and knowing the zigzags the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Lithuanian Residents makes and fully believing all of them, still approached the Center for an “expert” opinion. Really? Is the call to drive the Jews out a task unworthy of having an alley named after it?

The Commission suggested going to politicians for help. I can totally imagine it, just right before elections some dozen or so political suicides appear who begin to talk about how things truly are. Well, perhaps someone not in the running this time will respond with something, that, let’s say, “the temporary isolation of Jews in ghettos” was no sin at all, or, if it was, only a semi-sin, while those who did sin were forced to do so by circumstance. Perhaps we should have an Alley of Circumstances? But Škirpa, see, before he was head of the LAF, before he had written and then censored his anti-Semitic memoirs, did carry the Lithuanian flag up to the tower of Gediminas. Of course he later desecrated that flag rather severely. But does anyone care about that?

The Commission also decided to hear the public’s opinion. Almost as they do things in Switzerland. Again, not concerning Ukraine or Washington Square or Jonas Basanavičius, but regarding godfather of the Lithuanian Holocaust, leader of the LAF, anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator Kazys Škirpa. Unfortunately, we are no Switzerland. We’re not even Norway, where such a commission which dared ask the public whether Quisling should be honored in some way by naming an alley or passageway after him would be thrown out and sent to clean herring instead. Somehow these Norwegians know that the garbage of history is not fit to decorate street fronts and if anything belongs only in a museum. As an example not to be followed.

In any event the Commission decided this kind of discussion should be held in September [2016]. For now, Škirpa will stay. Because the Olympics, beer, discotheques, basketball games at unusual times–all of this is a vacation, for the mind and the conscience. And when we come back from vacation, we’ll get the Genocide Center’s briefing. The end.

One can play at democracy in all sorts of ways, one can try to pretend the Commission isn’t competent concerning only one matter, that of Škirpa (or General Vėtra as he is also called). Dear honored Commission, you don’t need expertise for this. You only need a modicum of conscience, which, reading through the minutes, was only displayed by one member, by Darius Kuolys, who recognized and said there is a problem here.

As the founder of the Maceva Litvak cemetery catalog agency, in response to the Commission’s call for public discussion, I ask the Commission to take my opinion into account: to leave Škirpa’s name up as the name of the alley named after him. Not merely as proof of your incompetence. As an accusation against your conscience. Righteous Gentiles don’t deserve this sort of horse-trading. If they have to wait their turn for 75 years, it means they should keep on avoiding publicity today. The decisions and resolutions made by the Commission protect them perfectly from that publicity. Almost like the LAF’s calls to action. He to whom the shame belongs, let him share it with others.

Full editorial in Lithuanian here.