Photo: Krakės Jewish cemetery
The Jewish Culture Week in Krakės: Let’s Learn about the Krakės Jewish Community project will take place from June 16 to 18 in Krakės in the Kėdainiai district of Lithuania. More information is available here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2751960485049357
Robertas Dubinka, director
Krakės Cultural Center
Laisvės alley no. 1, LT – 58242, Krakės, Kėdainiai region
tel. 8 347 38274, mob. 8 615 85084
email: krakiukc@gmail.com
by Jūratė Juškaitė
Historians calculate about 17,000 people were deported from Lithuania during the first Soviet occupation. They were sent into Russia on cattle cars from June 14 to 18, 1941, and many didn’t survive their first winter. Most people who live here know these facts, but the tragedy turns out not to be uniquely Lithuanian.
Violeta Davoliūtė’s book “Population Displacement in Lithuania in the Twentieth Century” was recently completed and will appear soon [it appeared in 2016], in which the culture historian recalls the tragedy and attempts to put the deportation of Jews at the same time within the general Lithuanian context again. She says the story which appeared during the Lithuanian independence movement was ethnocentric and often way too “Catholicized.” Although official commemoration policies appear complex to say the least, and more complicated by the prevailing stereotype of the “Judaeo-Bolshevik,” Davoliūtė says these and similar stereotypes don’t divide deportees, who formed a close-knit community of shared experience.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
Press release
June 10, 2020
Vilnius
Launch of “How Did It Happen? Christoph Dieckmann Answers to Rūta Vanagaitė”
Dr. Christoph Dieckmann is a prominent German historian and a member of the Lithuanian President’s International Commission for the Evaluation of Crimes Committed by the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania. His monumental study “German Occupation Policy in Lithuania, 1941-1944” (Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941–1944) was awarded the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research.
In the new book, controversial Lithuanian writer Rūta Vanagaitė poses a series of questions to Dieckmann in conversations which become too long to call just an interview, conducted over two years. Rūta Vanagaitė taps Christoph Dieckmann’s vast knowledge of the Holocaust throughout Europe to answer the questions which still bother her and presumably other Lithuanian readers who have begun to look seriously at this period of history.
by professor Pinchos Fridberg
Vilnius, obzor.lt
Information for my webpage readers
For your consideration, the article “On the Article ‘Did Kazys Škirpa Rescue a Jewish Rabbi?'”
This article of mine was created simultaneously with the Russian version “По поводу публикации «Kazys Škirpa išgelbėjo žydų rabiną?» Казис Шкирпа спас раввина?” of June 1, 2020, at obzor.lt
You might well ask, “Why did you post a Lithuanian text on a Russian instead of a Lithuanian newspaper internet site?” I will tell you frankly:
Lithuanian sites won’t publish me.
It is a strange thing that the New York Times and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quote me, and yet I am an undesirable author on Lithuanian sites.
Would you believe that in 2013 Artūras Račas, who was then the director of the Baltic News Service news agency, wrote an article about me called “Dear Jewish ‘professor,’ your anti-Semitism is wearisome: dedicated to Pinchos Fridberg” in which he passed on to me some great advice:
“Dear Pinchos, you who call yourself ‘professor,’ …
“stick a gag in your mouth, crawl under the table and be quiet.”
Dear parliamentarian,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community received your apology regarding the use of a Nazi salute during a vote in a parliamentary committee. We most likely don’t have to repeat that raising an arm in this way (with two fingers raised higher) is associated without a doubt with the glorification and worship of Hitler and at the same time with the brutal degradation and murder of Jews.
We would very much like to believe your apology is sincere. At the same time, we are surprised by statements made in your letter to the effect the situation has been escalated artificially, and that there was the attempt to draw the Lithuanian Jewish Community into “unfair political games which do harm to the reputation and ethical stature of politicians.”
I can say firmly the LJC is an independent organization and no one is manipulating it. For many years now we have been following reports of possible expressions of anti-Semitism and providing this sort of information about expressions of anti-Semitism and the response by state institutions to international institutions battling anti-Semitism.
About 95% of Jews living in Lithuania were murdered here during World War II and in total 6 million of my people died in the Holocaust. These numbers have not been and will not become tools for political games. It is the Community’s duty to preserve their memory and to attempt to insure the times of the Nazis and the Shoah are never repeated.
In pursuing these goals, one of the most important roles is played by public education, something to which you, too, can contribute. You could, for example, hold lessons by historians on the Holocaust for the public in your Biržai-Kupiškis voting district, set up meetings with ghetto survivors, and so on. The LJC supports these kinds of public initiatives and would gladly become a partner in organizing these activities. We believe these kinds of events and similar initiatives with the involvement of Lithuanian members of parliament would contribute to encouraging tolerance, better mutual understanding and a better understanding of history.
Therefore we call upon you not to limit your apologies to letters and words, but to show true leadership through real action.
I would like to inform you your colleague Arūnas Gumuliauskas’s dissertation “The Activities of the Lithuanian Communist Party in the Development of the Art of Theater in the Republic (1966-1980)” has been recognized worthy of the degree of doctor of philosophy in independent Lithuania.
I would like to learn your opinion about this.
Pinchos Fridberg
May 30, 2020
Vilnius
P.S. You may find further details in Lithuanian, English and Russian here:
Голый факт: в Независимой Литве текст «Аллилуйя КПСС» признали достойным степени доктора наук
Dear Roza,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets you on your birthday and wishes you great health, happiness, joy, that you remain young at heart and that your future always be bright!
Mazl tov! Bis 120!
§§§
The following text was posted by the Kaunas European Capital for 2022 project’s Memory Bureau internet site:
MEMORY OFFICE: R. BLOCH
Roza Gapanavičiūtė Bloch, a Litvak born in Kaunas in 1930, talks about her family’s experience during the Second World War in Kaunas ghetto, and later – in the Stutthof concentration camp. The Holocaust took almost all her loved ones – mother Anna, father Markus, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins… Roza ran across her brother Boris in the empty Laisvės Alėja in Kaunas, where she returned to after the war.
Press release
May 30, 2020
World Jewish Congress Thanks President Trump for Signing “Never Again Education Act” into Law
The Act Will Provide Critically Needed Support for Holocaust Education
NEW YORK–The World Jewish Congress is expressing its appreciation to President Trump for signing into law the Never Again Education Act. H.R. 943, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support, and passed the Senate by unanimous consent, will provide federal funding to expand Holocaust education in the United States.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder, who has advocated for the importance of increased Holocaust education in American schools and for governments at all levels to promote legislation to that effect, said in response to the president signing the bill into law:
The First Vilnius City Police Department has sent an e-mail to the Lithuanian Jewish Community declining to investigate further an incident on Victory Day, May 9, when motorcyclists dressed up in Nazi German military uniforms and helmets, played German march music and harassed Vilnius residents marking Victory Day against Nazi Germany as well as the embassy of the Russian Federation in Vilnius. The Nazi bikers rode circles around the embassy several times and did the same in central Vilnius. The event was recorded on our webpage here.
After explaining why the Prosecutor General’s Office passed the case to Vilnius police to investigate, the document maintains police checked the motorcyclists during the event and found no Nazi symbols on their uniforms. Investigator Vitalija Auglytė noted in the document police determined there was no law against playing German military airs in public, and said police on the scene had warned the bikers to disperse because their actions could be considered offensive by a portion of society.
The PDF document in Lithuanian the LJC received is presented below.
Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, LT-01117 Vilnius, telephone (8) (5) 261 3003, fax (8) (5) 2127915, email info@lzb.lt
to:
Office of Prosecutor General,
Rinktinės street no. 5A, LT-01515 Vilnius
email: generaline.prokuratura@prokuraturos.lt
cc:
President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda
email: kanceliarija@prezidentas.lt
Speaker of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania Viktoras Pranckietis
email: Viktoras.Pranckietis@lrs.lt
Statement
On Anti-Semitic Activities
May 27, 2020
Vilnius
The Lithuanian Jewish Community constantly monitors information about expressions of anti-Semitism and provides the corresponding information on these expressions and the reaction by state institutions to it to international institutions fighting anti-Semitism.
Recently the LJC learned two members of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee at the committee’s sitting of May 20, 2020, raised their arms in salute to one another in the fashion which prevailed in Nazi Germany (an excerpt of the meeting was posted on youtube at https://youtu.be/2ZATZiDvSdI). Raising the arm in this manner (with two fingers raised higher) unavoidably leads to Jewish people associating the salute with the worship and lionization of Hitler and the intentional and brutal degradation and extermination of Jews.
Following thorough examination of this video material one has to come to the conclusion it contains public derision, degradation and incitement to hatred of Jews based on their ethnicity (and perhaps other ethnic groups as well who were persecuted by the Nazis). It is clear from the recording that members of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, to whom high moral standards are applied, are performing this action.
For some reason their colleagues at the sitting (other members of the National Security and Defense Committee and members of cabinet) tolerated this in silence, neither disciplining nor condemning their two “fellow thinkers.”
We do not gainsay the possibility the recording was fabricated. In that case it incurs no lesser liability, because this sort of recording also seeks the same aims, to divide the ethnic communities living in Lithuania.
It should be noted the excerpt from the meeting which carried the date and the appellation “Nazis in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania” was neither composed nor posted by the LJC.
Article 25 of the constitution of the Republic of Lithuania enshrines the right to express one’s convictions and the right to provide information which cannot be restricted except by law when it is necessary to protect public health, personal honor and dignity, privacy, public morality or for the defense of the constitutional order, while part 4 of this same article provides freedom of expression does not include criminal actions such as sowing ethnic, racial, religious or social discord, calls to violence and discrimination, slander and libel and disinformation.
One instance of restriction on the freedom of self expression is contained in article 170 of the criminal code of the Republic of Lithuania. Incitement against any ethnic, racial, religious or other group of people doesn’t necessarily include the call to commit a specific violent or criminal act; public derision and degradation are sufficient grounds, something which we observe in the aforementioned video material.
Attempts against people committed with offense, derision or slander against specific groups and groups of people is sufficient grounds for state institutions to assign priority to fighting racist statements in terms of irresponsible use of the right to self expression which does harm to the dignity or even safety of a portion of society or groups of people (European Court of Human Rights in the case Tor Fredrik Vejdeland and others vs. Sweden, February 9, 2012).
The composition of the crimes defined in both parts 2 and 3 of article 170 of the criminal code are formal: they are help to have been committed by the public performance of the acts enumerated, without regard to the consequences of these acts.
Therefore, based on the arguments and information above, we request you initiate a pre-trial investigation for the anti-Semitic crimes alleged in this statement (the act defined in article 170 of the criminal code or other crimes defined in the criminal code).
Appended: photographs (2) from the May 20, 2020, meeting of the National Security and Defense Committee of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania.
Respectfully,
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
May 28, 2020
To: Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Dear Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman,
I am writing this letter in the desire to express my sorrow over a gesture which currently is being escalated in the public space, which I allegedly made in the wish to offend, degrade or otherwise negatively affect the people of Lithuania. I respect Lithuania’s democracy and the people living in our country of all ethnicties, and therefore would never offend or insult even one of them.
I apologize that this artificially hyped situation has forces you to talk about the most painful periods of history marked with the lives of innocent people.
I ask you accept my apology and regret that there is an attempt to draw your Community into unfair political games which do harm to the reputation and ethical stature of politicians.
[signed]
Audrys Šimas, member of parliament
by Rimvydas Valatka, political analyst, LRT.lt
The May 20 meeting of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has reached a new low in this session of parliament. While voting on the Government’s annual report one member voted “for” with the Nazi Hitler salute.
The video recording in which this man who respects the Nazis and insures the defense and security of our state doesn’t let us identify him at first glance.
The Hitler proponent filmed in the National Security and Defense Committee of Lithuanian Parliament appears with his back to the camera and is wearing a sanitary mask. Even so, the member of parliament held his arm in the Nazi salute for a significant amount of time. As if to show specially and so everyone would see how loyal he is to Government leader Skvernelis. At least he didn’t yell “Heil mein Fuehrer” or “Heil Skvernelis!”
May 26, 2020
To:
Viktoras Pranckietis, speaker of parliament, pirmininko.sekretoriatas@lrs.lt
Dainis Gaižauskas, chairman, National Security and Defense Committee, Dainius.Gaizauskas@lrs.lt
Request to Investigate Video
For at least several days now there has been a video posted to youtube in which two members vote by raising their hands in the manner done in the Third Reich during a meeting of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee. The video is accompanied by an audio track in which a member of parliament seems to warn these two the meeting is being filmed.
The video appears under the title “Naciai LR Seime” [Nazis in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania] with the note it comes from the May 20, 2020, meeting of this committee.
This video recording has caused great concern in the international arena and raises suspicions anti-Semitic sentiment is growing rapidly in Lithuania. It is becoming dangerous for Jews to live here because these sorts of salutes were used by the Nazis and their collaborators (who were also Nazis) when the Jews were exterminated in Lithuania and Europe.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community requests an inquiry into whether the two MPs did vote with a “sieg heil” salute and whether the other MP really did warn them as heard in the audio, and to report the results of this investigation to the LJC.
Comments under the youtube posting name one of the MPs who apparently gave the Nazi salute as Audrys Šimas, a member of the Peasants and Green Union faction in parliament.
The video seems to show another MP, identified as Arūnas Gumuliauskas, returning the salute. The MP warning the two not to do that because the meeting was being filmed, according to the audio track, was conservative Laurynas Kasčiūnas.
Please check this information and make a determination on the identity of the MPs involved.
Whether the recording is real or fake, it does harm to the reputation of the Lithuanian parliament and moreover the entire country. It has caused concern and anger among Jews in Lithuania and around the world.
We do not find it credible that in Lithuania only Jews have seen this video nor that members of parliament and law enforcement institutions whose job it is to respond have not seen it. We very much hope an investigation is already underway.
The video is posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZATZiDvSdI
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
The Chaim family from Darbėniai. Front row from left: Khaya, Yehoshua, Tsipora and Estera, back: Rokha and Reuben. 1932, from the Chaim family archive.
Another example of heroism and sacrifice by the people of Žemaitija. The December 21, 1965, issue of the Vakarinės naujienos newspaper published in Vilnius and the June 4, 1966, issue of the newspaper Mūsų žodis published in the Skuodas region of Lithuania carried a story which had been long forgotten, the heroes of the story having passed on, and their resistance activities during the brutal time of the Nazi occupation still hasn’t been fully appreciated.
The Chaim family who lived before the war at Palangos street no. 15 in Darbėnai, Lithuania, were much like the other families around them, dreaming of a better life for their children and a bright future for Lithuania.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets Viktoras Reizinas on his 80th birthday. Happy birthday, Viktoras. We wish you the best of health, much happiness, warmth and love.
Mazl tov. Bis 120!
May 22 is the birthday of Fania Brancovskaja and her daughter Vita. We heartily wish you both a very happy birthday. Warm wishes from the entire Community. Stay healthy, energetic and happy!
Mazl tov! Bis 120!
A stele with a bas-relief and inscription was erected at a ceremony in Širvintos, Lithuania, May 19 to commemorate Liba Mednik (Mednikienė), who fought for Lithuanian independence when the first republic was being created in the early 20th century.
Sculptor Romualdas Kvintas designed the memorial to look like a Jewish headstone, a stone slab with inscription, and with a bronze image of the woman attached in bas-relief fashion. The bronze portion of the monument was cast and installed on the stone by the sculptor Mindaugas Šnipas by request of the Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community. Kvintas has done a number of large stone sculptures on Jewish themes.
Mednik, who was born in 1875, lived through the entire tragedy of the Jewish people in Lithuania, fighting for Lithuanian independence and the interwar Republic, and being murdered in the Holocaust in Lithuania. According to historian Stanislovas Dačka, she was murdered in the Pivonika forest near Ukmergė (Vilkomir) with about 12,000 other Jews from the area in early autumn of 1941. Širvintos, her hometown, lies about 15 kilometers to the southeast of Ukmergė.
Vilijus Kavalauskas celebrated her in his book “Lietuvos karžygiai: Vyties Kryžiaus kavalieriai,” calling her a unique and strong character. During the Lithuanian conflict with Poland in 1922 and 1923, Liba Mednik collected military intelligence and distributed it to the Lithuanian military and Lithuanian partisans. She sent documents garnered from Polish headquarters and money to the Lithuanian fighters, Kavaliauskas reports.
Abramas Saksonovas, a survivor of the Holocaust, is celebrating his 90th birthday. The Lithuanian Jewish Community would like to add our greetings to those of everyone else celebrating Abramas’s important milestone.
Dear Abramas, we wish you great health, much happiness and a happy and fun birthday! Mazl tov! Bis 120!
In response to this claim to the Lithuanian Public Prosecutor:
https://ggochin.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/complaint-to-public-prosecutor/
the following denial has been received:
There is no purpose in seeking truth or Justice inside Lithuania. The State has formed a unified position to protect historical revisionists and to lie about their Holocaust perpetrators. This is consistent with their Courts, Ethics watchdogs, and government departments. They will not allow any review of facts within Lithuania. Further cases inside Lithuania serve only as stepping stones to reach the European Court of Human Rights.
Therefore, truth is only able to come from outside of Lithuania. In that regard, the City of Beverly Hills reviewed the following data:
https://ggochin.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/city-resolution.docx
City-Resolution and unanimously voted for the following resolution:
Item_D-15_Agenda_Report
https://eutoday.net/news/politics/2020/beverley-hills
Full text here.
Note: the district prosecutor’s rejection to initiate a pre-trial investigation linked to above cites Lithuanian court precedent claiming criminal prosecution is not always the best way to stop socially harmful acts. The LJC notes Lithuanian prosecutors have never attempted to apply existing law to domestic promoters of anti-Semitism and Holocaust deniers. For more recent examples of this, see here and here.
Photo: LRT
Lithuanian Public Radio and Television and BNS reported Wednesday the sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas died on May 7 at the age of 86. He was known mainly for the large Soviet-era memorial statue at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Initially the statue was dedicated to all victims of fascism.
Full article in Lithuanian here.