Holocaust – Page 120 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Oldest Man in the World Likely 112-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor

Yisrael Kristal, photo courtesy of family

The old phrase “may you live to 120” is becoming a real possibility for more and more people around the world, and one man, a Holocaust survivor, seems to be having the last laugh.

The Jerusalem Post reported last week the Gerontology Research Group reached out to a grandson of Yisrael Kristal this week following the death of Yasutaro Koide in Japan, who was also 112. According to the organization, Kristal is now the oldest living man on record, although this still has to be validated by his documentation.

He has in his possession his marriage certificate from the 1920s but it is unclear as yet if this will suffice to formally register him as the oldest man in the world.

Kristal was born in 1903 in the town of Zarnov in the Lodz province of what is now Poland to a religious family. His father was a Torah scholar and Kristal himself went to heder, or religious primary school until the age of 11.

Full story here.

2016-01-24

Hundredth Anniversary of Birth of Vladas Varčikas, Rescuer of Jews, Teacher, Violinist

The Kaunas Jewish Community and the Sugihara Foundation “Visas for Life” invited friends who knew Vladas Varčikas and all who wanted to pay their respects to this gigantic figure, a rescuer of Jews, humanitarian, teacher and violinist, to celebrate hsi 100th birthday with a concert in the Grand Hall at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. The hall was filled to capacity and overflowing despite the frozen weather.

Kaunas Jewish Community member Stasys Makštutis began to tell the story of Varčikas and the story was continued by his grandmother, Elena Andriuškevičienė, who was rescued from the Kaunas ghetto by Varčikas and survived to later become his colleague. Varčikas’s students, students of his students and their children performed music and shared their memories of the man. Actress Kristina Kazakevičiūtė, whose daughter was a student of Varčikas, read out director Kama Ginkas’s recollections of Varčikas, the man who saved him. She also read passages from Reinhard Kaiser’s book about Edwin Geist, whose compositions were rescued for posterity by Varčikas.

2016-01-22

Three-Day Seminar for Teaching Holocaust Opens at Vilna Gaon Museum

The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum Wednesday kicked off a three-day seminar with speakers from around the world for sharing ideas with Lithuanian teachers teaching the Holocaust.

Museum director Markas Zingeris welcomed the audience and said the Holocaust has become topical in the news media again because of a convergence of events: Islamic fascists carrying out acts of terror on European streets and the response by right-wing extremists to the influx of refugees and others from Middle Eastern countries.

Danius Junevičius, roving ambassador-at-large from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the history of Lithuanian Jews is inseparable from general Lithuanian history, and the lessons of the Holocaust are needed now more than ever, and that history must not repeat itself.

2016-01-20

Vilna Gaon Museum to Hold Three-Day Holocaust Seminar

To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum is hosting three days of seminars on the Holocaust featuring a panel of speakers from Lithuania and Western Europe. Speakers are to include Philippe Boukara and Georges Bensoussan from Mémorial de la Shoah, the French co-sponsor of the event with the International Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania from Lithuania.

The seminars are called “The Holocaust, Collaboration and Mass Murder in Lithuania” and will run from January 20 to January 22.

2016-01-19

Events to Mark Holocaust Day in Panevėžys at Noon, January 26

On November 1, 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization adopted a resolution to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. Remembering the Holocaust is inseparable from studying the causes of this tragedy which rocked civilization to its core and inseparable from teaching and inculcating tolerance and human respect. Lithuania is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and an active participant in international programs to fight anti-Semitism.

The mass murder of Jews began even before the Nazis occupied Lithuania in 1941. Over a few months the majority of the Lithuanian Jewish community were murdered. Survivors were sent as slave labor to the ghettos set up in the cities and towns. The Nazis “liquidated” most of the ghettos after a few short months while the remaining ghettos in Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai operated for another two to three years. The Vilnius ghetto was liquidated on September 23, 1943. Most of the inhabitants were shot to death at Ponar while others were transferred to concentration camps. The Panevėžys ghetto was liquidated on August 15, 1941. Thirteen and a half thousand Jews were shot. More than 200,000 Jews were murdered in Lithuania during World War II, accounting for approximately 95 percent of the Lithuanian Jewish community. There are more than 200 mass murder sites in Lithuania and about the same number of old Jewish cemeteries.

The Jewish community in Lithuania formed near the end of the 14th century. They were a thriving ethnic community in Lithuanian towns and cities by the beginning of the 20th century. In the period between the last half of the 19th and early 20th century, Jews accounted for between a quarter and a half of the population in many cities and towns. They were citizens of Lithuania with their own individual daily cares, worries and joys. Compared to other ethnic communities, the Jewish community was one of the largest in Lithuania.

2016-01-19

Lithuanian President and Wife Recognized as Righteous Gentiles

January 17, BNS–Lithuanian interwar president Kazys Grinius and his wife Kristina have been recognized posthumously as Righteous Gentiles for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Grinius and his wife took in Kaunas ghetto prisoner Dmitri Gelpern during the Nazi occupation. The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum report they were informed of the recognition in December. The contributions of Kazys Grinius and wife Kristina to saving Jews was recognized by Lithuania in 1993 when they were posthumously awarded the Life Saver’s Cross.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS Sunday the commission’s work in Israel took so long because none of the witnesses are still alive and Yad Vashem has strict requirements.

2016-01-18

The Righteous among the Nations recognition commission at the Yad Vashem Memorial and Institute in Jerusalem has recognized interwar Lithuanian president Kazys Grinius and his wife Kristina as Righteous Gentiles based on testimony by Dmitri Gelpern, an anti-Nazi partisan.

Grinius served as prime minister of Lithuania from June of 1920 to February, 1922. He was elected president by the Lithuanian parliament in June, 1926, and served in the post until mid-December that year when he was removed in a coup d’etat by Antanas Smetona.

Grinius refused to collaborate with the Nazis and was opposed to any foreign occupation of Lithuania. He fled to the West when the Soviet army reoccupied Lithuania in 1944 and emigrated to the United States in 1947.

Deputy chairman of the Kaunas ghetto partisan organization Dmitri Gelpern gave testimony to the Spielberg Foundation that he tried to flee to the East when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union (including Lithuania), but the Germany army caught up to him, so he had to return to Kaunas. On the way back Gelpern met Chaim Yelin and his family. Before the Kaunas ghetto was set up, the Yelin family hid with one of Gelpern’s relatives. Gelpern’s relative was a schoolmate of Kristina Griniuvienė, now Kazys Grinius’s wife. Kristina was also well acquainted with Gelpern because both were stamp collectors and they sometimes traded stamps between them. Gelpern’s relative ran into Kristina in the city one day and told the latter Dimitri was also in Kaunas. Kristina told her to pass on the message that if Dmitri Gelpern needed help, she was prepared to give it. Gelpern entered the ghetto with the rest of the city’s Jews, but decided to take Kristina Griniuvienė up on her offer after the Great Action. They welcomed him into their home and provided him his own room. Dmitri ate in common with the Grinius family. When their friends came over, the Grinius family didn’t attempt to hide Gelpern because none of their friends were anti-Semites. Gelpern stayed with them for several months, but sometimes went into town and mingled in with a column of Jews being used as slave labor to enter the ghetto. The Grinius family provided medicine to Gelpern as well and provided him with vital information.

Kaunas ghetto partisan Sarah Ginaitė recalls Gelpern spent the entire first winter of the Nazi occupation with the Grinius family, until Kazys Grinius was deported.

Kazys Grinius died in Chicago on June 4, 1950. His wife died on May 2, 1987.

2016-01-18

Israeli Embassy Photo Exhibit of Pope in Israel Opens in Panevėžys

A photo exhibit of Pope Francis’s visit to Israel in 2014 was unveiled in Panevėžys on January 14, 2016. The exhibit was the initiative of the Israeli embassy and ambassador Amir Maimon spoke at its Panevėžys opening, thanking organizers including the Panevėžys Jewish Community, the Panevėžys Catholic bishopric and the Panevėžys municipality, as well as the audience for coming.

2016-01-17

Echoes of Memory Photo Exhibit by Irena Giedraitienė Opens

The ceremonial opening of an exhibition of photo albums and photography by photography artist Irena Giedraitienė called “Echoes of Memory” was held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on January 14. The exhibit features images of survivors of ghettos and concentration camps in Lithuania and abroad, and of rescuers of Jews.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky introduced the artist and her work to the international audience at the event. Israeli embassy deputy chief of mission Yehuda Gidron commented the faces in the portraits on exhibit not only captured moments in time and the personalities and characters of the people, but also showed some of them smiling, conveying optimism and hope. Tobias Jafetas, a representative of the Union of Former Concentration Camp and Ghetto Prisoners, thanked the artist for her work commemorating Holocaust survivors in photos which will inform future generations. Other speakers spoke about the artist’s work and life as well.

2016-01-17

Academic Insight into the Holocaust Experience

by Ruth Reches

A well-rounded understanding of the psychological and other effects of the Holocaust is relevant both in the academic and social spheres. It is imperative that we grasp the extent of the Holocaust and understand it fully in order to avoid such a disastrous phenomenon in the future. There are many academic sources which portray and fully examine the Holocaust from the moral, philosophical, economic, political and other points of view. Psychological research on the Shoahm however, has only just begun. Without such research an understanding of the extent of the Holocaust is incomplete and the evaluation of its meaning incorrect.

Catastrophes and especially their psychological impacts always capture the attention of psychologists. There is a wide variety of research focusing on the psychological effects of, for instance, natural disasters or military conflicts. A common feature in researching these catastrophes is the fact that scholars concentrate on temporally more proximate consequences. Usually such research is carried out right after the event takes place or in the course of a few years. Long-term psychological effects are under-researched but it is this particular area which is of key importance: it allows us to evaluate the fundamental outcomes which do not fade easily.

2016-01-122017-05-15

Mourning, with Breaks

by Sergejus Kanovičius

Every time an important anniversary approaches, I get uncomfortable. Even frightened. Especially when the anniversary is connected with an incalculable, perhaps incomprehensible number of victims. Frightened, because soon those who according to rank must speak, will, with the prerequisite voice of mourning. Grave words filled with bureaucratic condolences and sympathy will ring forth, then vanish in emptiness, as if a wind had blown across the frozen fields and furrows of Lithuania.

2016-01-072017-07-12

Remembering the Holocaust Victims of Panevėžys

The Panevėžys (Ponevezh) Jewish Community has compiled a small book called “Nežudysi” [“You Will Not Kill Us”]. It contains information gathered from issues of the newspaper “Išlaisvintas Panevėžietis” [“Liberated Ponevezher”] published in the early years of World War II. The surviving articles allow us to reconstruct images from the tragic moments the Ponevezh Jewish community experienced at that time. A new city administration was formed in June, 1941, which was led by a commandant and the Nazis. Very quickly a so-called Jewish Quarter was established through which passed more than 13,000 Jews. The ghetto lasted 40 days. All of its inmates were murdered so quickly and efficiently that even now it is impossible to make complete lists of the victims. The book also discusses the small portion of the Jewish population which managed to escape during the first days of war. It also details Jewish property in Panevėžys and its seizure, mass murder sites and Jewish cemeteries. The chapter called “Gatvės vaiduokliai” [“Ghosts of the Street”] tells the story of Joint Street, which the new city administration renamed June 22nd Street in the desire of pleasing the Nazi occupiers. There is also much space devoted to the Righteous Gentiles of Panevėžys who risked their lives to save entire families of Jews. The last part of the book provides a list of documents and articles at Lithuanian archives and libraries awaiting scholarly attention. The text is printed on a red background symbolizing the spilling of the blood of innocents to focus the reader’s attention on the meaning of the text. A ceremony to present the new book is scheduled for January 29, 2016 in Panevėžys.

2015-12-31

Ukrainian President Calls on Israel to Take a Stand on Conflict with Russia

Poroshenko shakes hands with Knesset chairman Yuli Edelstein while Israeli president Reuven Rivlin claps during special session held December 23, 2015. Photo courtesy of Hadas Parush/Flash 90

“Russia supplied systems to Syria that can change the balance of power in the region,” Poroshenko warns in speech to Knesset

Israel should take a side in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said in his address to the Israeli parliament the Knesset Wednesday.

“When evil wins in one place, it will try to continue to another,” Poroshenko warned. “We need to act in coöperation and Israeli politicians should make their stance towards Ukraine very clear.”

Poroshenko said that over the last 21 months, 9,000 Ukrainians were victims of “Russian-funded terror,” and warned that the 17,000 Jews on the Crimean Peninsula may find themselves in danger.

“The occupiers have started encouraging anti-Semitism,” he said.

2015-12-26

Holocaust Information Exempted from EU Data Protection Measure

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the World Jewish Restitution Organization have both issued statements hailing a decision by the EU to exempt Holocaust materials from a draft regulation on data protection called the General Data Protection Regulation.

IHRA reports that although the law won’t be considered until next year, “after two years of research and analysis, IHRA had determined definitively that researchers and research organizations were already being denied access to Holocaust-related materials on the premise that the GDPR would not permit the use of these materials.”

2015-12-21

When Czesław Miłosz Met Chiune Sugihara, Sort of

by Geoff Vasil

Czesław Miłosz is sometimes called Lithuania’s Nobel Prize winner, although he never claimed to be Lithuanian. Neither did he call himself Polish exactly. His “national identity” was as complex as that of his uncle, Oskar Miłosz, the “French symbolist poet” who was the son of a father from a noble family from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and a Jewish mother.

Czesław Miłosz was born in the village of Šeteniai (Szetejnie) just outside Kėdainiai on June 30, 1911, a period when Lithuania was firmly inside the Russian Empire. He moved to Vilnius and attended the Sigismund Augustus Gymnasium, then studied law at Stefan Batory University (Vilnius University), visiting his uncle Oskar in Paris in 1931. Oskar Miłosz ran in exalted literary circles including some very famous names from the period. This might have influenced the younger Miłosz in helping found the Polish literary circle Żagary in Vilnius that same year. After being graduated from the law faculty he went back to Paris for a year, and then worked at Radio Wilno when he returned to Vilnius.

He spent the period right up to World War II in Vilnius before removing himself to Warsaw, where he helped rescue Jews and was eventually recognized as a Righteous Gentile as well as later becoming a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He describes the period when Lithuania and Vilnius hung in geopolitical limbo in a chapter in his 1959 autobiography, Rodzinna Europa, published in English as Native Realm in 1968, called “Peace Boundary,” the name then used by both sides to describe the Molotov-Ribbentrop line under the peace agreed by Hitler and Stalin.

2015-12-21

Sugihara Film Second Only to the New James Bond in Japan

Name-recognition of Lithuania’s second city Kaunas is growing like mushrooms after a heavy spring rain in far-off Japan. The Japanese premiere of the new film about the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, “Persona non Grata: The Chiune Sugihara Story,” took place in early December and has achieved huge success.

Lithuanian ambassador to Japan Egidijus Meilūnas said the film is currently being shown at over 300 theaters in Japan and is second only to the new James Bond film in terms of popularity. Brochures about Kaunas are also being provided to the public at the movie theaters and other public spaces. Japan seems to be buzzing about the film, with many television programs discussing it and broadcasting images of Lithuania and Kaunas.

“Kaunas is being advertised very heavily right now,” ambassador Meilūnas said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Film trailer here.

Official film site page in Japanese on Sugihara, Kaunas and Lithuania here.

2015-12-17

Auschwitz Guard on Duty When Anne Frank Arrived to be Tried

An SS guard who was on duty when Anne Frank was brought to Auschwitz in 1944 has been found sufficiently healthy to stand trial for mass murder, the Daily Mail reports.

Hubert Zafke, 95, was examined by psychiatric doctors this week appointed by a court in Rostock and judged mentally sound to go on trial for his part in the murders of 3,681 people.

Full story here.

2015-12-09

When Chiune Sugihara Celebrated Hanukkah in Lithuania

Hanukkah, 1939.
Kaunas.

I told him the story of how Judah Maccabee led his men into war against the powerful Greeks, who had defiled the temple, and how their tiny force defeated the much greater armies of Antiochus. Judah and his followers liberated Jerusalem, and set about rededicating the temple, but when they went to light the lamps they could find only enough oil to burn for one day. Keeping the faith, they used the one small cruse they had, and God made the oil burn for eight full days. This is how Chanukah became the festival of lights. Each evening the shammers, the one candle used to light all the others, was used to light one more candle, until on the eighth day all eight candles were burning.

The tables were laden with the best of food and drinks, including some Japanese food which [aunt] Anushka supplied from her shop. We also had veal with small roasted potatoes, roast duck in orange sauce, and many other wonderful things.

Mr. Sugihara also asked me about our family life and my hobbies. When I told him that I collected stamps, he invited me to come and visit him at the consulate. He said he would give me some stamps from Japan.

2015-12-08

Review of Holocaust Fiction by Former Lithuanian Cultural Minister

The Lithuanian news, culture and religion website bernardinai.lt has published a review of a work of fiction by the former Lithuanian minister of culture about a Jewish child surviving the Holocaust in Lithuania.

Rimgailė Kasparaitė reviewed Saulius Šaltenis’s book “Žydų karalaitės dienoraštis,” or “Diary of a Jewish Princess,” published by Tyto alba publishers in Vilnius in 2015. The newspaper and website Lietuvos rytas provided a short synopsis of the book on their page kultura.lrytas.lt, describing it thus:

“‘Žydų karalaitės dienoraštis’ is a novel about young Jewish girl Estera Levinsonaitė’s life in Lithuania during and after the war in the family of a young couple in love. Naked and covered with blood, she crawls to the home of Vladas and Milda on their wedding night…

2015-12-06