by Jūratė Juškaitė
manoteises.lt

The figure of the Jew remained even after the Holocaust in Lithuania, at Užgavėnės [Shrovetide carnival figure] and in libels concerning the blood of Christian children and matzo bread. These sorts of stories not only remind us how much daily anti-Semitism exists and is even enjoyed among us, but also forces us to think about an uncomfortable matter: who are these people whom we cannot forget, and where are they?

One of them is Amit Belaitė, the director of the Union of Lithuanian Jewish Students. It seems if not for the Holocaust our conversation might have been very simple, without long pauses and deep feelings of guilt. But after decades of silence, questions such as what happened to ‘your’ people, how did they survive, how did the Holocaust inform your experience, seem to erupt from within like a torrent.

Full interview in Lithuanian here.