A website claiming to represent the Kaunas Jewish Community published Wednesday a wholly incorrect report that German tank forces under NATO had desecrated a Jewish cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second largest city, and that swastikas had been painted on gravestones there.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Žakas Gercas said the website was not affiliated with the Kaunas Jewish Community and that his community always publishes its news and announcements at www.lzb.lt

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented: “This
was a shock to me. After checking what was reported, I can say this is fake news and an informational attack. We have reported this to the Lithuanian institutions which deal with this and have asked that this be stopped. I call upon all people not to submit to this provocation and not to sign this so-called petition. It is a great shame that on the eve of the Jewish new year our Community is being exploited for these sorts of provocations. All the more since at this time the president and foreign minister of Lithuania are visiting the US.” Chairwoman Kukliansky refused to speculate who might be behind this fake news, but cautioned that “no one does these sorts of things for no reason at all.”

The photos posted on the fake website appeared to be photoshopped, according to experts.

The state of the Jewish cemeteries and mass murder sites in Kaunas has been a longstanding issue for the Kaunas and Lithuanian Jewish Communities. The main culprit behind their deplorable state has and remains the apathy and disregard of the modern Lithuanian state towards the victims of the Holocaust, not NATO tanks or NATO forces.