Holocaust – Page 25 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

The Lithuanian Tradition of Distorting History

It has become a Lithuanian tradition for the media to mark Holocaust commemorative days with articles shockingly distorting factual history. On January 27, 2021, the United Nations’ International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, Lithuanian MP Valdas Rakutis came out with an article called “International Holocaust Day and Historical Memory” which contained, apart from basic nonsense unbefitting even feeble minded Lithuanian historians, gross insults aimed at the victims.

He wrote: “After all, there was no lack of Holocaust perpetrators among the Jews themselves either, especially in the structures of self-government in the ghettos. We must name these people openly and strive to make sure people similar to them don’t appear again. But we must also answer the question of what the views of the Jews themselves were, what ideas encourage some Jews to cooperate with the Soviet government, to take high posts in the repressive Soviet structures. Sometimes understand the reasons allows us to understand the ends, even if it doesn’t justify the means” (see: https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/pozicija/679/1329389/valdas-rakutis-tarptautine-holokausto-diena-ir-istorine-atmintis).

At the time this surprising series of statements caused a real scandal which cost Rakutis his post as chairman of the Lithuanian parliament’s Historical Memory Commission. They tried to smooth over the scandal by saying Mr. Rakutis expressed himself poorly and was misunderstood. The actual items of Holocaust denial and the distortion of history, however, were not condemned appropriately. This member of parliament continues in Parliament and continues to mix up his political views of unknown origin with real history in his public statements.

Full article here.

2022-10-27

News from Kaunas

Several weekends ago some members of the Kaunas Jewish Community travelled to Alytus. On the way, they stopped in Butrimonys, once a thriving Jewish town, where local school teacher Danutė Anušauskienė provided a guided tour of her hometown.

In Alytus they visited bonzai gardener Kęstutis Ptakauskas who created the Morning Dew Japanese garden there. They toured an exhibit of Litvak artists at the restored synagogue, now a museum, after which they went to the Dzūkijos dvaras restaurant to try the traditional dishes from the Dzūkija ethnographic region of Lithuania.

2022-10-24

Leonard Cohen Statue Appears in Vilnius Old Town

An official unveiling of a new metal statue of Leonard Cohen will take place in the courtyard at Pylimo street no. 38 in Vilnius at 3:00 P.M. on October 21. The statue was made by the late sculptor Romualdas Kvintas and it has found a temporary home on Šv. Mykolo street until now. The courtyard at the corner of Pylimo and Ligoninės streets will be a more permanent home. The triangular block formed by Pylimo, Ligoninės and Rudininkų streets once housed the main Jewish hospital in Vilnius, which was incorporated in the Vilnius ghetto and then destroyed. Kvintas, an ethnic Lithuania, did a whole series of statues on Jewish themes later in life. Leonard Cohen will now join Kvintas’s other works in the immediate neighborhood, including the metal sculpture of Tsemakh Shabad with cat and child, and a metal statue of Tevye the milkman which appeared without fanfare several years ago on Lydos street. All three of these statues by Kvintas are located inside the Vilnius ghetto territory.

2022-10-212022-10-21

Jewish Partisan Who Fought Nazis Battles to Preserve Forest Fort Where Resistance Group Lived

by Felix Pope and Karen Glaser, Jewish Chronicle

Fania Brantsovsky, now 100, escaped the Vilna Ghetto to join the Avenger group. Now she’s fighting to save their woodland camp so the next generations can learn of their struggle

in 1943, 21-year-old Fania Brantsovsky escaped from the Vilnius Ghetto through a gap in a wall and fled to a forest 12 miles away. For the next year, she lived with 100 other Jews in a wooden bunker deep in the woods, from where they launched attacks against the Nazis.

Today, Mrs Brantsovsky, who turned 100 in May, is the only surviving member of the group of partisans led by the poet Abba Kovner who called themselves the Nokmim, Hebrew for “Avengers”.

Now Mrs Brantsovsky has called for the now rapidly disintegrating fort in the swampy Rudnicki Forest to be preserved as an international Jewish heritage site.

Full story here.

2022-10-202022-10-20

Rethinking Trauma: What We Don’t Know about the History of Roma and Jews in the Baltics

The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library hosted an international conference called “Rethinking Trauma: Studies of Roma and Jewish History in the Baltic States and the USA.” Academics from the United States and the Baltic states who gave presentations pointed out Roma and Jewish history is often neglected and talked about how this history affects the present.

The goal of the conference was to explore the social, cultural and political mechanisms behind how the Roma and Jewish communities rethink the trauma experienced during the Holocaust and what significance this trauma holds today in the Baltic states and the United States.

The conference was organized by the multicultural children’s and youth center Padėk Pritapti, the Roma Social Center, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Department of Ethnic Minorities, the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, the Social Anthropology Center of Vytautas Magnus University and the Lithuanian Roma Community. Partial financing came from the US embassy in Vilnius, the Baltic-American Freedom Fund, the Vilnius municipality, the EVZ fund and the Active Citizens Fund.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2022-10-182022-10-20

Exhibit of Pastel Works by Solomonas Teitelbaumas

The harvest has been gathered, Jews have built sukkas and are celebrating with friends and family. That is what was, but now there are only echoes, to keep the traditions and to survive, thanks to our rescuers, for whom there are no statues.

The difficult, crowded and confusing streets of Vilnius remind us of our shared pain. This pain envelopes a Jew and makes him try to share it with, with a Lithuanian, a Pole or some foreign visitor. But without malice, with love for his neighbor, but always remembering, so it might never happen again.

An exhibit is being prepared for the traditional gallery on Pylimo street. This will be diaries with pastel in hand, recording life as it is, but also with an eye to the philosophic and the tragic. Stay tuned for more information.

2022-10-142022-10-14

The Fate of Lithuanian Volunteer Soldier Liba Mednik from Širvintos

The first volunteer Lithuanian soldiers who fought for the country’s independence are today undeservedly forgotten. They were often simple village boys or hired hands, less frequently Tsarist army recruits, who defended our right to live as free people. What’s most interesting is that it wasn’t just ethnic Lithuanians who fought in those battles for independence, there were groups of people of other ethnicity who fought. The idea of freedom was cherished by women as well. Among those who received the Order of the Cross of Vytis were women. Širvintos was and is a town with a diverse ethnic make-up and the location of one of the fiercest battles for independence. Lithuanian Radio and Television tells the little-known story and reveals unknown aspects of these battles for independence.

Program in Lithuanian viewable here.

2022-10-122022-10-12

Commemorating Holocaust Victims in Švenčionys

On October 3 a ceremony was held in the Švenčionys city park to mark the anniversary of the onset of the mass murder of Jews in the region in the first week of October, 1941. In total over the course of the Holocaust approximately 8,000 Jews from the city and surround district were murdered.

Kristina Sizonova moderated the event. Speakers at the ceremony included Lithuanian Jewish Community executive board member Ela Gurina who is the chairwoman of the Holocaust Victims Commission, Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro, Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium principal Ruth Reches, Polish ambassador to Lithuania Urszula Doroszewska, deputy mayor of the Švenčionys district Violeta Čepukova, Pabradė’s Rytas Gymnasium history teacher Danguolė Grincevičienė and others.

2022-10-062022-10-06

Katharina von Schnurbein Calls for More Attention to Litvak Cultural and Historical Sites

Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator for implementing strategies to combat anti-Semitism and foster Jewish life in Europe, visited the Vilnius ghetto and other memorial locations Wednesday, the Lithuanian Jewish Community reported.

She called attention to the poor state of monuments during the tour and called for more care and maintenance of such sites in Lithuania.

LJC staff member and guide Viljamas Žitkauskas provided the guided tour and told the visiting official about the 700-year history shared by Lithuanians and Jews, the importance of Vilnius as the Jerusalem of the North and the ruins left in the wake of the Holocaust.

LJC chairwoman Fainia Kukliansky accompanied von Schnurbein on the walking tour and said: “Vilnius is special in that it’s not enough to just see it. The buildings, the statues, even the paving stones have a deep and significant history. You have to hear Vilnius. I am pleased von Schnurbein found time in her busy schedule to visit the most important sites and to learn about our history, culture and traditions.”

2022-10-042022-10-06

In Kaunas, British Artist Shines Light on Holocaust Massacre Forgotten by Locals

Photo: Artist Jenny Kagan’s immersive exhibition “Out of Darkness” in Kaunas, Lithuania, July, 2022 (photographer Gražvydas Jovaiša).

Near the site of one of the genocide’s most heavily photographed atrocities, lighting designer Jenny Kagan brings the city’s wartime past “Out of Darkness”

by Matt Lebovic, Times of Israel, October 1, 2022

The 1941 Lietūkis garage massacre in Kaunas, Lithuania, was among the Holocaust’s most heavily photographed aktions against Jews, but many of the city’s current inhabitants have never heard of the atrocity.

On June 27, 1941, a group of pro-German Lithuanian nationalists tortured and murdered at least 50 Jews at the city’s Lietūkis garage. During the massacre, a German soldier took photos of dozens of Lithuanians, including children, cheering while a man called “the death dealer” beat Jews to death with a crowbar.

Among the Jewish men murdered that day was British artist Jenny Kagan’s grandfather, Jurgis Stromas, who owned the Pasaka (Fairytale) cinema in town. At one point during the public slaughter, the “death dealer” climbed atop a mound of corpses and performed the Lithuanian national anthem with an accordion.

2022-10-032022-10-03

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community Marks Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide

The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community marked the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide September 23 with a ceremony at the monument commemorating the former gates of the Šiauliai ghetto. The ceremony was attended by members of the Jewish community, teachers and high school students and deputy mayor Egidijus Elijošius. People laid wreaths of flowers and placed stones on the monument, after which participants moved on to Righteous Gentiles Square where Lithuanian rescuers of Jews were remembered. Later members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community went to the mass murder site in the Pročiūnai forest were hundreds of people of different ethnic backgrounds were murdered during the Holocaust. They then went to the monument to the Jews from Šiauliai and the surrounding area murdered in Kužiai village.

2022-09-30

Telshe Yeshiva Restored

As reported earlier, the city of Telšiai has been restoring the world-famous Telshe (Telz) yeshiva there over the last few years. A reader sent in some snapshots of the interior at the re-opening, below.

2022-09-292022-09-29

New Film Exposes Lithuanians’ Brutality, Enthusiasm in Holocaust Crimes

by Michael Kretzmer

For the last three years my life has been entirely absorbed in the making of a documentary film that attempts to tell the truth about the Lithuanian Holocaust. This has been a terrible task, an entirely unwanted one, and one that has exacted a significant personal price. Many times I have bitterly regretted taking it on, but once started there could be no turning back: the injustice of what happened to our people, and even more importantly, what is happening today in Lithuania, cannot be ignored.

The most painful task was the journalistic duty to forensically research and report the depraved cruelty of our persecution. Nothing can prepare you for the incomprehensible, sordid detail: the celebratory murder of children in front of parents; the delicate physics of smashing babies’ skulls against trees (thousands of them); the horror carnival of small, terrified girls being loaded onto trucks for deadly rape parties by Lithuanian gangs; the imprisonment of thousands of Jews in their own synagogues and their slow murder either by fire or by starvation and thirst amidst human filth and the stench of their loved ones’ rotting bodies; the beheadings, the immolations, the thousands of deadly humiliations; the destruction of this dazzling 600-year-old civilization–220,000 Jews slaughtered, the highest murder rate in all of Holocaust Europe; and above all, the thought of our depraved Lithuanian tormentors laughing at our pain and humiliation. And the knowledge that the Lithuanian government is still, politely, laughing at us today.

I am a journalist and film-maker by profession but for months I struggled to find the narrative voice that could tell this terrible story. And one day I found that voice. It was obvious, the only voice that matters. The voice of the murdered. This is why I have called my film J’Accuse! It is their cry for justice from the killing pits of Lithuania.

2022-09-29

Lithuanian MP Proposes Day to Commemorate Rescuers

Photo: Paulė Kuzmickienė by J. Stacevičius, courtesy LRT.

Lithuanian MP Paulė Kuzmickienė has proposed naming March 15 a national day of remembrance of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. March 15, 1966, was the date Vilnius University librarian Ona Šimaitė was awarded the title of Righteous Gentile by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Commemoration and Studies Institute in Jerusalem. She was the first Lithuanian to receive the distinction.

“Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews deserve exceptional attention from the state and society. These were people who often didn’t appear different from others on the surface, but were dignified by their values and remained human even during the most difficult circumstances, did not collaborate with the Nazis and saved others at risk to the freedom and the lives of themselves and their families,” Kuzmickienė said.

Lithuanian MPs Paulė Kuzmickienė, Stasys Tumėnas, Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, Emanuelis Zingeris and Liudvika Pociūnienė have signed off on the proposal for this new Lithuanian commemorative day on March 15.

2022-09-282022-09-28

Parliamentary Committee Approves Funding to Keep Sugihara House Open

On August 5 the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian parliament approved the idea of providing the Sugihara House in Kaunas 150,000 euros annually to keep the museum open.

This followed a plea by museum director Ramūnas Janulaitis, appointed in the wake of the death of the museum’s founder and director Simonas Dovidavičius in December of 2019, for help maintaining the museum after a steep reduction in tourist visits because of the virus panic and the Ukrainian war.

Ambassadors from Japan, Israel, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland to Lithuania responded to the plea with a joint letter to Lithuania’s minister for culture and minister for science, education and sports. In their letter they said Chiune Sugihara’s legacy was important for building democracy, tolerance and human values.

2022-09-272022-09-27

Švenčionėliai Students Get Special Lesson and Tour on Jewish History and Holocaust

Students in the 8th and 9th grades at the King Mindaugas School in Švenčionėliai in southeast Lithuania got a special lesson and tour on September 23, the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide proclaimed by the Lithuanian parliament in 1994. They gather in the foyer of the Švenčionėliai Cultural Center to hear history teacher Stanislava Černiauskienė’s lesson on the history of the Jewish people in Lithuania, and to hear Milda Petkevičienė-Dečkuvienė’s performance on violin.

The class then went to the local mass murder and commemoration site where history teacher Ona Orechovienė recounted how local Jews were murdered there and in surrounding areas.

The special history lesson for September 23 was arranged by King Mindaugas School assistant principal and history teacher Nijolė Kapačinskienė, Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Šapiro and the Švenčionėliai Cultural Center.

2022-09-27

Righteous Gentiles Remembered in Kupiškis

Local residents commemorated Righteous Gentiles Elena and Juozapas Markevičius at the cemetery in the town of Palėvenė September 23 with flowers and candles, after which a prayer was held at St. Dominykas’s church for priests who rescued Jews, including father Zenonas Karečkas who hid the Jewish girls Mira Burdė and Irma Degon who had fled the Vilnius ghetto in a local monastery, and the priest Antanas Juškas, who passed Feigė Kaganaitė off as the Catholic nun Teresė during the Holocaust. Prayers were also said for the Markevičius family who rescued nine Jews. Kupiškis regional administration mayor Dainius Bardauskas attended the Mass, following which local historian and museum specialist Aušra Jonušytė presented an exhibition of photographs called “Remembering the Rescuers of Jews from the Palėvenė Parish.” She said the local rescuers experienced repression and exile after the war under Stalin’s rule.

Aldona Ramanauskienė, the head of the local chapter of the Lithuanian Catholic Women’s Union, spoke about the Markevičius family. Litvak guide from Kaunas Chaim Bargman spoke about the priest Antanas Juškas. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman also spoke about Righteous Gentiles. Vidmantas Markevičius thanked everyone for remembering his grandparents.

2022-09-27

Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide Marked in Panevėžys

“Today we remember those who were condemned to death by spiritual darkness and insane brutality. When Lithuania lost her people, beloved and appreciated members of the community, noble people who created our cities and country. We lost helpless elderly and children who never had the chance to grow up. Realizing the horror of those days, we speak about it every year, in order to remember, so that oblivion will not cover up this tragedy. Let member protect us, let there be no tolerance for violence, let there only be space for violence left in the darkest pages of history,” deputy Panevėžys mayor Valdemaras Jakštas said at the “Sad Jewish Mother” statue there after he lay a wreath and lit candles to mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide on September 23.

2022-09-262022-09-26

Recent Workshops and Events

We are pleased to share some snapshots from the dance class held on the last Sabbath of summer at the Cvirka Park space next to our Israeli street food kiosk. Julia Patašnik led the dance group. Also, we have snapshots from the gefilte fish workshop and the opening of seniors’ club Abi Men Zit Zich’s 25th season.

2022-09-262022-09-26

Holocaust Victims Remembered at Ponar

To mark the Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide proclaimed by the Lithuanian parliament in 1994, different groups converged on the Ponar Memorial Complex on September 23, 2022. One group held a different commemoration in the Vilnius ghetto territory, Vilnius Old Town, and arrived by train. Other groups came by bus and private automobile. Near the railroad tracks in Ponar where Holocaust victims were unloaded and sent to the killing pits, March of the Living participants, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania, Lithuanian politicians, foreign diplomats and members of the public assembled and walked the same route to the Ponar Memorial Complex where short speeches were delivered in front of the central monument there.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said: “We lived in peace, we couldn’t have imagined at all there would be war and in such a manner. Confidence in life, confidence in the future can be broken. And the young people need to hear about this. Because the young people are also responsible for our future, not just because we want to teach them to be good citizens.”

2022-09-26