Memory Shifts
Another year has come and gone. Different calendars calculate the years in different ways. According to ours, it has been 81 years since the majority of the Jews of the Lithuanian shtetls were exterminated. Over those 81 years most of the rescuers and the executioners have also died. Still, memory remains. But what memory is that exactly?
Many people mark the dates commemorating the Holocaust by repeating "we remember." In Lithuania, however, there is no lack of Holocaust denial, trivialization and distortion. We should erect a statue to the monumental efforts Lithuanian state institutions have made in favor of Holocaust denial. These efforts include memorial plaques and statues for the murderers and the organizers of mass murder. Streets and even schools are named after them. Besides the better-known figures such as Noreika, Krištaponis and Baltūsis there is a whole series of gray-zone characters. On the one hand, we know about their activities in the structures which carried out the Holocaust, but on the other, there is a lack of information about their specific actions. Lithuanian state historical memory policy tends towards heroizing figures in both these categories, if they "fought the Soviets."
Were there any significant changes made over the last year in trying to overcome the Holocaust denial and trivialization and the distortion of history prevailing in Lithuania? Unfortunately we did not experience any significant change, although there were important events.
Some of these events demonstrated movement in the right direction.
Worth noting was the publication in Lithuanian of Silvia Foti's book "Vėtra lietaus šalyje" [Storm in the Land of Rain] about her grandfather, Lithuanian Nazi Jonas Noreika. The book was published by the Kitos Knygos publishing house in Vilnius. The launch of the book coincided with hostilities in the Ukraine, which might go towards explaining the lack of public attention to the book.
The Lithuanian parliament made March 15 a date commemorating those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania. The initiative for this was the renaming of a square in Šiauliai to honor Righteous Gentiles. March 15 was the date chosen because back in 1966 that was the day Lithuanian Ona Šimaitė was recognized as a Righteous Gentile by the Yad Vashem institution in Israel.
Appreciation of Righteous Gentiles is a new thing in Lithuania and should be encouraged. Some squares have been named after Righteous Gentiles and several have commemorative plaques. There's a possibility this public honoring of Righteous among the Nations will displace the wave of lionization of the murderers. For now, the idea of honoring the rescuers is travelling down a rough road. The Vilnius and Kaunas municipalities have been discussing this for a decade but so far haven't moved forward with implementing any projects in this regard, despite the fact, for example, that Kaunas has the Chiune Sugihara House museum which has been working productively for a long time.
Publishing hasn't pounced on the topic, either. Back in 1967 Sofija Binkienė's book "Ir beginklo kariai" [And Soldiers without Weapons] appeared and this was at that time a very significant event. Since then books have been published about rescuing Jews and the rescuers, dozens of titles, but they are still few and each book represents a small breakthrough in the search for truth. The publishing house Kitos Knygos mentioned above is planning to translate and publish Jan Brokken's book published in 2018 about the rescue activities of the Dutch consul in Kaunas, Jan Zwartendijk. Japanese ambassador Sugihara issued transit visas to Jews fleeing Lithuania while Zwartendijk provided them visas to their alleged final destination, the Caribbean island Curaçao under Dutch rule. Lithuanian readers will have a chance to learn about this man's actions saving thousands of Jews trapped in Lithuania.
The Just: How Six Unlikely Heroes Saved Thousands of Jews from the Holocaust: Brokken, Jan, McKay, David: 9781950354566: Amazon.com: Books
The Just: How Six Unlikely Heroes Saved Thousands of Jews from the Holocaust [Brokken, Jan, McKay, David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Just: How Six Unlikely Heroes Saved Thousands of Jews from the Holocaust
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One of the greatest problems facing the commemoration of Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania is the lack of public knowledge about their activities. Contributing to this ignorance is the disgusting Lithuanian tradition of trying to present those who persecuted and murdered Jews en masse as rescuers instead. As in the case of Jonas Noreika, we are often told stories about how people responsible for the Holocaust were really saving Jews. Take for instance the case of Kaunas military commandant Jurgis Bobelis who released a few dozen Jews from the overcrowded prison in Kaunas, at the same time several thousand Jews were being shot to death at the concentration camp he established. The family of Lithuanian Provisional Government minister Gabrielius Žemkalnis-Landsbergis, whose ministry was in charge of setting up the concentration camp, rescued a Jewish girl. The attorney Požėla, an enthusiastic participant in the mass murder of the Jews of Biržai with blood on his hands, tried to save a Jewish family in Pakruojis. Holocaust deniers use these episodes to transform the murderers into rescuers, ignoring and suppressing their involvement in mass murder and genocide. If education can change Holocaust denial, distortion and trivialization, then books are important. It's important what we read and which books we purchase. Sadly, Silvia Foti's book in Lithuanian received much less attention than her original book in English. Lithuania needs many, many more books such as Foti's.
Film obviously has a great role to play in educating the public. Last year the film "J'Accuse" directed by Michael Kretzmer came out. The film did not reach Lithuania last year. Abroad it won prizes at many film festivals. Some day it must come to Lithuanian viewers, and that will be a certain breakthrough. The only question is when, and how many people it will reach.
Another important event in Lithuania was the victory achieved by US diplomats at the end of the year. The Lithuanian Government proposed and the parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Goodwill Compensation to allow for additional payments of tens of millions of euros as compensation for personal property stolen from Jews. American diplomacy has long sought the return of Jewish property seized during the Holocaust. In reality, the way these amendments were adopted was very strange. There was no debate. The prime minister only said the amendment was proposed, and the parliament adopted it. Some Jewish communities and separate individuals in Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai protested against the content of the draft legislation. They were dubious about the small amount of compensation being offered, who controlled disbursement of the compensation and the form of compensation. There might have been more protest, except that only a few weeks passed between the prime minister's announcement and the adoption of the law by parliament. There wasn't enough time to find out what was on offer, never mind making any counteroffers. It's worth noting here that many Holocaust victims were not allowed to seek the return of their property in Lithuania in the 1990s when Lithuania was returning and making restitution for seized property. The precondition for applying for the return of property or restitution was Lithuanian citizenship. Most Jews who didn't reside in Lithuania had no path towards citizenship. Critics of the new law say the current fund disbursing compensation--the Goodwill Foundation--pays just over 10 euros for each murdered Jewish individual. The Lithuanian media put a damper on these discussion by saying Lithuanian Jews were afraid the compensation wouldn't reach them, see:
https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/1849506/seimui-patvirtinus-kompensacijas-lietuvos-zydai-baiminasi-kad-pinigai-ju-nepasieks
Viewing the situation impartially, it seems the pumping of extra millions of euros into the Goodwill Foundation is an attempt to shut down criticism of Lithuania's historical memory policies characterized by Holocaust denial, distortion and trivialization. Whatever the true case might be, by adopting this law the Republic of Lithuania is recognizing a certain kind of responsibility for the mass murders committed from 1941 to 1945.
Yet another important initiative by legislators was the Law on De-Sovietization. Under this law an instrument is created for removing from public spaces names and commemorative markers propagating totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. The law will come into force in May of 2023. It creates an inter-agency commission to decide whether a statue, commemorative plaque or street name promotes such a regime. The director of the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania (aka Genocide Center) signs a directive and the offensive honorary marker must be removed.
The only problem is the Genocide Center for decades now has faced criticism they are lionizing Nazi collaborators. The Genocide Center's director seems perfectly prepared to continue to deny the problem of heroizing Nazi collaborators. Speaking about the new law coming into effect, he said: "Actually there are only sites of the Soviet regime which should be removed in Lithuania" (see: https://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/genocido-ir-rezistencijos-tyrimo-centro-direktorius-del-smetonos-iamzinimo-kyla-rimtu-klausimu.d?id=92226295&fbclid=IwAR2uPPuYczfxhMoruEJ5PtilEsHs6xMXR5WDm9N-f2K97qw9YTAoAxlJ224).
With this sort of prejudiced attitude, it's very doubtful the inter-agency commission will ever be asked to consider the removal of monuments to Nazis. Again we will have this rabidity towards statues to progressive writers and artists, vandalism in cemeteries and, most likely, the construction of new statues to Nazis.
Another sad fact from last year: destruction and vandalism of statues to Soviet soldiers led to the destruction and vandalism of memorials to Holocaust victims. There were ten such despicable cases in the country over the last year. Of course we hold out hope the police and the public will put a stop to this wave of anti-Semitism. We'll find out very soon, January 27 is the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and people will visit the memorial sites, many of which are in remote locations, and we will learn of the latest vandalism at these sites.
Looking back at the year past, we have to admit that while there were changes which inspired hope, there were just as many changes which pushed Lithuanian society in the opposite direction. For the positive changes to carry the day, people of good will must be more active. If good people do nothing, that is usually enough for evil to prevail.