The Kaunas Jewish Community is planning an evening of classical music dedicated to those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust at 6:00 P.M. on December 27 at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Actor and director Aleksandras Rubinovas will speak about the Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews 80 years ago. The event is free to the public but prior registration is required at https://forms.gle/1vzWccjif3yduBFv6
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Lithuania’s International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania held their final Road of Memory event in the Lithuanian town of Telšiai on December 9. The Commission held these processions in concert with other organizations at different locations in Lithuania from June till now to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust. This final procession included local politicians, foreign ambassadors, students from local schools and others. Miša Jakobas performed kaddish, a number of speakers spoke indoors and out, and the musical group Klezmer Klangen Vilne performed.
December 10, 2021, marks 94 years since the birth of Vilnius ghetto diarist and victim Yitzhak Rudashevski.
by Zigmas Vitkus
By invitation of the mayor of Ukmergė, a public discussion was held in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) on December 2 concerning the problem of historical commemoration of captain Juozas Krikštaponis, an officer of the Second Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion. Lithuanian History Institute historian Mindaugas Pocius delivered an extremely important report there detailing his comprehensive and repeated research on this man’s activities during World War II and demonstration Krikštaponis as an officer in a unit which served the Nazis from October to December of 1941 had taken part in the mass murder of thousands of Jews and Soviet POWs in Nazi-occupied Byelorussia.
The Ukmergė administration which has long postponed addressing this problem will have to decide soon what to do with the statue located in the town center dedicated to “the commander of the Lithuanian partisan military district Vytis who died in 1945” in battle with NKVD troops, a man who, as the facts show, was also a war criminal.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
A Lithuanian History Institute historian says it’s a mistake to issue awards to commander of the partisan Vytis military district captain Juozas Krikštaponis and to commemorate him in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) and elsewhere.
Mindaugas Pocius who works at the institute’s Twentieth Century History Department said: “There are no doubts among historians regarding Krikštaponis’s participation in the mass murder of Jews and other civilians. We need to put an end [to this controversy].” He was speaking last Thursday at a discussion held by the Ukmergė regional administration, the Lithuanian History Institute and the Ukmergė Jewish Community on the life and person of Juozas Krikštaponis.
The former partisan commander is commemorated and lauded in Ukmergė as a fighter in the post-WWII liberation struggle, but historians say they have determined he was a Holocaust perpetrator. Pocius says bestowing state awards on him was done too hastily and a mistake was made in not doing comprehensive research on Krikštaponis’s biography before commemorating him. A stone monument was erected in his honor and a street named after him in Ukmergė in 1996. In 1997 Dalia Kuodytė, director of the Center for Research of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, provided him the status of military volunteer. In 2002 president Valdas Adamkus issued a decree promoting Krikštaponis posthumously to the rank of colonel, based on the recommendation of Lithuanian defense minister Linas Linkevičius.
“Of course neither the Defense Ministry nor the President’s Office had complete information. They went by [Genocide] Center’s recommendation, which at that time had not performed research on Krikštaponis’s biography and knew nothing about his activity during the war,” Mindaugas Pocius said.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community held their annual Holocaust quiz for high school students on December 2 this year, the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Four teams of students competed.
Before the quiz the high school students watched a documentary film about the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex where more than 1.5 million people were murdered, more than one million of them Jewish men, women, children and elderly.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said it wasn’t just Jews who suffered from the barbaric actions planned by the Nazis in World War II against humanity. Europeans of other ethnicities also suffered because of their religion, ethnic origin, traditions and disabilities. Nonetheless, six millions Jews were exterminated simply because they were Jews.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community looks on in surprise and with concern at statements issuing from the press secretary of the Communist Chinese Foriegn Ministry claiming Jews and other ethnic minority communities in Lithuania are suffering “serious discrimination” and pressure, the LJC said in a press release.
Although there is public and free dialogue between the LJC and Lithuanian government institutions concerning commemoration of the past and other painful chapters of history regarding the Holocaust, we vigorously reject any and all accusations Jews are experiencing discrimination in Lithuania today.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said: “Lithuania is a democratic country which respects its Jewish citizens and safeguards the rights of all its citizens. While we sometimes have differing opinions regarding heritage and property destroyed during World War II by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators, or regarding unreturned property, we are nonetheless and active and free part of Lithuanian society. In our country we freely express our views, and we support open and public dialogue with institutions and other groups of society. It is absolutely unacceptable attempting to draw our small community into a solution of bilateral and international disagreements through mendacity and manipulation.”
Jenta Timukienė passed away Sunday. She was born in 1939 and was an inmate of the Kaunas ghetto. May her soul rest in peace. Our deepest condolences to her family, friends and fellow members of the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners.
Panevėžys mayor Rytis Račkauskas held a reception for Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni-Levy. They spoke about projects taking place in the Lithuanian city and opportunities for cooperation.
“I thank the ambassador and the embassy for their attention to Panevėžys. For many years now we’ve enjoyed intense cooperation between the municipality and the Israeli embassy. I hope and believe our cooperation with our sister-city Ramla and with the embassy will only continue to grow in strength,” Račkauskas said.
The Israeli ambassador met with the Panevėžys Jewish Community and visited Jewish historical and commemoration sites including the former Rabbinate, yeshiva, Jewish high school and the Yavne school following the meeting with the mayor.
Kauno.diena.lt
The tragic events of the Holocaust have left visible marks at the Ninth Fort. During World War II it was turned into one of the largest mass murder sites in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. From 1941 to 1944 Jews from Lithuania and transported here for Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, the Soviet Union and Germany were murdered here.
The mass murder began November 25, 1941 [sic]. That day 2,934 Jews were shot. The newspaper Kauno Diena presents our readers with a text by a former resident of Kaunas living in Germany concerning the blood-curdling events, commemorations of them and her feeling of guilt. Her grandparents’ home was right next to the Ninth Fort and the so-called road of death.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum is launching two editions of YIVO linguist Zelig Kalmanovich’s diary written in the Vilnius ghetto, in Lithuanian and English, titled Hope Is Stronger than Life. The book will be presented at 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday, November 24, at the Samuel Bak Museum, aka the Tolerance Center, at Naugarduko street no. 10 in Vilnius.
Rescuers of Jews have been commemorated in Šarnelė in the Plungė region. A street has been renamed for the Righteous Gentiles, with only one household of rescuers still remaining on that street, that of poet Vytautas Mačernis. Historians say the residents of this village rescued dozens of Jews from the Holocaust.
The stone monument stands on the edge of the village of Šarnelė in front of a house where Jews hid from the Nazis. Descendants of Juozapas and Adolfina Karpauskas say their grandparents provided safe haven for Jews for three and a half years.
Grandson Aleksandras Karpauskas said: “They rescued 16 Jews, and there was another family of 10, the 2 parents and eight children. So that’s 26 people. And usually on such a large farm there would be about four hired hands, so you can just imagine that there were 30 people around you every day.”
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to help distribute support and gifts from Germany to the Former Ghetto Prisoners Welfare and Support Fund. Right now we need a little attention to warm the heart of each of our seniors. We invite you to volunteer to be a member of our time so we can deliver these care packages safely and quickly to our seniors. Please send an email to info@lzb.lt if you are able to help. Thank you.
Rachil Zeidenberg passed away November 19. She was born in 1933. Our deepest condolences to her sister Maja and daughter Roza.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has donated a thousand copies of Yitzhak Rudashevski’s Vilnius Ghetto Diary. [Several days ago] the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Athletics hosted a ceremony for the symbolic hand-over with education and athletics minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, former culture minister Kindaugas Kvietkauskas, who translated the book from Yiddish to Lithuanian, and book designer Sigutė Chlebinskaitė participating.
It’s symbolic this is happening in the run-up to Rudashevski’s birthday on December 10, which will be a good opportunity for teachers and students to talk about him and his diary. The book has been included in the Lithuanian language and literature curriculum and Rudashevski is also mentioned in the history curriculum now undergoing revision.
“The simplest matter in embarking upon the path of Holocaust education is literature. It often facilitates better understanding of some of the matters involved than history textbooks can. Anne Frank’s diary is read around the world and is popular, and here in Lithuania we have a similar diary written by an adolescent. My assignment is to donate this book to schools, and it is the job of the education system to say, and there a million Yitzhak Rudashevskis,” Faina Kukliansky said.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has delivered 1,000 copies of Yitzhak Rudashevski’s “Vilnius Ghetto Diary” in Lithuanian translation to the Lithuanian National Education Agency for distribution to almost all primary school libraries across the country.
At the hand-over ceremony several days ago, LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said the gift will contribute to Holocaust education in Lithuania and that Rudashevski’s diary provides a personal perspective which children are able to grasp more easily. Rudashevski wrote the diary as a teenager from Vilnius. She presented one copy of the book personally as a symbolic gift to Lithuania’s education and athletics minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė on the occasion.
“While we provide the book to the schools, it’s important to remember there were thousands of Rudashevskis,” chairwoman Kukliansky said.
Grigorijus Kušneris passed away November 14. He was born in 1932. Our deepest condolences to his wife Nadežda, daughter Natalija and son Anatolijus.
The synagogue in the town of Alanta in the Molėtai region stands on slight hill side a little bit away from Ukmergės street on the right-hand side of the Alanta-Molėtai road. It is unique in Lithuania and Europe. It is one of only seventeen surviving wooden synagogues spread across Lithuania. Judging from its shape, it is thought it was built in the late 19th century. The Alanta synagogue is the only surviving synagogue from the Romantic period with an intact interior and interior stairs left in Lithuania.
The renovated synagogue will be handed over to the Molėtai regional administration for managing public use of the state-protected heritage site for cultural, educational and tourism activities including exhibits and tours teaching local Jewish history.
The European Jewish Congress held their firs in-person meeting since the outbreak of the corona virus in Vienna on November 10. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky attended.
The meeting touched on current problems of concern to European Jewish communities.
On November 9 members of the executive board attended a commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht at the Holocaust memorial Judenplatz in Vienna. The same day EJC president Moshe Kantor presented a comprehensive plan to defeat anti-Semitism.
The following was sent from the Lithuanian consulate in Tilsit, aka Tilžė in Lithuanian, in East Prussia to the Political Department of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on November 10, 1938. The second page is a telegram from Königsberg to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry dated November 12, 1938.