The Lithuanian Jewish Community is saddened by the recent anti=Semitic statements and posts made by member of the Lithuanian parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis in some of the media, social networks and even at the Lithuanian parliament itself. It must be said that these sorts of expressions haven’t appeared in Lithuania in a very long time, and that the Jews who live in Lithuania, 80 years after the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, had hoped there would be no more such expressions. All the more so as the war continues in Ukraine and people who comprise an ethnic minority can be used by the aggressor as a tool for inciting social conflict and dividing society.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community believes this act by the member of parliament intentionally sows ethnic discord and is a distortion of historical memory as well as a continuation of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” promulgated by the security service of the Russian tsar over a century ago.
We feel ashamed of the county in which we live and which we love and respect. Its citizens cannot elect to parliament a member who can allow himself to descend to making the following statements:
“It seems that besides Putin another group of animals has appeared in the World: ISRAEL. One group razes schools with tanks, the other group uses tractors,” the politician wrote on his facebook page. “After these kinds of incidents, it’s no surprise why these sorts of statement arise: ‘A Jew climbed a ladder and fell down accidentally. Children, take a stick and beat that little Jew to death…'”
And:
“It’s also disgusting that [Lithuanian prime minister] Ingrida Šimonytė is saying such stupid things when on June 3, 1944, Lithuanian JEWS together with the RUSSIANS exterminated the VILLAGE OF PIRČIUPAI [sic] AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED THERE. That this was the revenge and brutality of the Germans is true, but it’s not the full truth. This again shows that the representatives of our government really don’t care about the murder of our LITHUANIANS by the Jews living in Lithuania between 1941 and 1944. As I understand it, the values policy of our government goes underground when someone travels to Israel and tells fairytales about friendship, so next year they can go to the May 9 [Victory Day] celebrations in Russia!”
And:
“HOW MUCH LONGER WILL OUR POLITICIANS KNEEL DOWN TO THE JEWS WHO KILLED OUR PEOPLE AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE OPPRESSION AND TORTURE OF LITHUANIANS, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR COUNTRY. There was the HOLOCAUST OF THE JEWS, but there was an even LARGER HOLOCAUST OF THE LITHUANIANS IN LITHUANIA! So if our joker politicians apologize to the Jews in Israel, when will the JEWS APOLOGIZE TO US?”
On June 14, the official Lithuanian holiday the Day of Mourning and Hope marking the anniversary of Soviet deportations of Lithuanian citizens to Central Asia and Siberia in early June of 1941, Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis wrote about Aleksandr Slavin who was a Lithuanian Jew:
“THE MASS MURDER OF LITHUANIANS, TORTURE, RAPE OF WOMEN, SEPARATION OF CHILDREN FROM PARENTS WERE JUST A SWEET ATTRACTION AND A HAPPY MOMENT! We, the Lithuanian people, must never forget the Jews and the Russians who very actively contributed to the DESTRUCTION OF OUR NATION!”
That same day Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis continued to post his anti-Semitic statements, proclaiming the next day was June 15:
“Very soon, tomorrow will be JUNE 15!!! I WILL POST A PARTIAL LIST OF JEWS WHO THROUGH THEIR SIGNATURES DEMONSTRATED LOYALTY TO THE RUSSIANS ON JUNE 15, !941, LOADED THOUSANDS OF LITHUANIANS ONTO CATTLE CARS. Who were supposed to be deported deep into the USSR. THUS SENDING THEM TO THEIR DEATHS.”
Writing on June 15 about the historical events of 1941, he again blames Jews for the deportations carried out by the Soviets and distorting the historical concept calls this a Holocaust of the Lithuanian people:
“This was the HOLOCAUST OF THE LITHUANIANS!!!”
And:
“Even after 80 years have passed one ‘subspecies’ group of Jews is still not able to admit that in this tragedy of LITHUANIA their representatives played a very important role, contributing to the torture, deportation and massacre of LITHUANIANS. Together with the Russians, they destroyed LITHUANIA, not just as a country based on the principle of territory, but as a people, a culture, a set of customs and traditions, the intellectual class of country, they destroyed the county’s future which was only able to be resurrected in 1990/1991.”
On the same day the Lithuanian MP posted a list of names of 40 Jewish people who, he alleged, contributed to the extermination of the Lithuanian people, and again attacked and denigrated the state of Israel and the entire Jewish people:
“Our President Algirdas Brazauskas apologized to the Jewish people for the actions of our Lithuanian people, but the men of their state after 82 years are not even able to utter the word SORRY. It seems that word doesn’t exist in the vocabulary of their nation.”
The Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General has begun an investigation into the anti-Semitic statements member of the Lithuanian parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis has made on facebook. All of Lithuania’s highest-ranking politicians have condemned his statements, including president Gitanas Nausėda, prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė and speaker of parliament Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen.
Even so, this wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric makes members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community uncomfortable to say the least, and actually makes us feel degraded and unsafe. If the Lithuanian MP continues this activity and convokes followers to himself, the Jews of Lithuania will definitely feel unsafe in their home country, in a democratic state in Europe. Although the European Union has adopted a strategy for reviving Jewish life in Europe and the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities is in effect in the EU at a fundamental level, it remains up to the member-state to determine how to implement these policies and laws, and how to safeguard the dignity of peoples who have lived for millennia in Lithuania, and it’s up to the member-state to decide how to disperse the feeling of insecurity and to protect against the painful memories of the tragic losses of the Holocaust.
Incidentally, the propaganda machine of the Russian Federation has already latched onto this situation and has found a way to exploit it for its own uses, under the headline “Russian Media Releases Declassified Documents on the Holocaust” and similar:
Russian Media Releases Declassified Documents on the Holocaust
Russia has released new documents claiming that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were highly involved in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust.
Was this the whole point all along?
Sincerely,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, uniting 32 Jewish organizations in Lithuania.
The statement was discussed at the general board meeting of the members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and adopted unanimously.