End of the World. And the Day After …
O P I N I O N
by Monica Lowenberg
It is the 24th of December 2012, three days after the announced end of the world. I am sitting at my desk drinking a cup of a tea. No gaping hole has suddenly swallowed me up, no heavens have collapsed, no earthquakes have caused Tsunamis to sweep coastal towns. My cat is blissfully unaware of the commotion millions of people around the world have caused on mountain tops, at sacred sites and even in a museum in Russia which for apparently only $1,500 offered salvation in the underground bunker of the former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Apparently the museum sold all 1,000 tickets in one fell swoop and I am sure now regret that they offered a 50% discount if nothing happened. Tant pis. It is amazing how people will believe anything today. Even some very intelligent people.
The last time I looked at the international petition site I set up against the SS marches in Latvia, in number one place, above any human rights cause, came the rights of Shetland ponies. I am not sure what happened to the Shetland ponies but clearly something must have, as thousands and thousands of people across the world vitriolically and vociferously protested and voted for their rights and rightly so. However, when it comes to the rights of humans the voting finger is in most cases nowhere to be seen.As I started this campaign one question has deeply troubled me, why is it that we as humans feel natural empathy towards an animal who is being appallingly abused but not necessarily towards a human being? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing the great enlightenment thinker and close friend of Moses Mendelssohn explained it well in his use of fables. In brief he explained why fables are a more useful tool to impart moral messages than others, as the distinction between for example the perpetrator and the victim, is transparently clear. When we look at a wolf and a sheep it is crystal clear who the victim is and who is the perpetrator but when we look at two human beings, the distinction between the two becomes sometimes blurred due to the associations we attach to those two groups, rightly or wrongly.
For example, if I showed you a photograph of a dog being skinned alive in China you would scream out in horror, it is quite clear to you that the dog is a victim of a human perpetrator and that this act is disgusting however, if I show you today a photograph of victims of Nazism who happened to be Jewish being herded into a ghetto for subsequent murder and if I showed you photographs of how that action was part of a whole system that murdered, tortured, raped, humiliated at each stage, butchered each and every last member of the targeted ethnicity, with the perpetrators jumping upon the bodies for anything useful for domestic life, and if you saw a picture of a powerful man dressed in Nazi uniform or a picture of men with guns by their sides aiming at children, babies, old men, young men, old women , young women, people defenseless, it will be quite clear in your mind who is the perpetrator and who is the victim and naturally your sympathy will go to the victim.
So, now I must ask the question what has happened this very year, in 2012, when I show you a picture of a box that contains the remains of Juozas Ambrazevičius (Brazaitis) who was the Nazi puppet prime minister of Lithuania and signed a piece of paper (among others) confirming the order for all the Jewish citizens of his city, Kaunas, to be relocated to and incarcerated in a ghetto within four weeks. Many of the atrocities described above actually started on his watch. Another of his early orders, in June 1941, was for the setting up of a “concentration camp” for “the Jews” which was actually the Seventh Fort torture and murder site near Kaunas.
Believe it or not: In 2012, the Lithuanian prime minister and culture minister personally signed off on the funding for the repatriation and reburial with full honors, amidst an array of glittering ceremonies, of the 1941 Nazi puppet prime minister Juozas Ambrazevičius (Brazaitis).
So what do you feel when you see his remains being carried with great aplomb, to be buried with high honors, only this year, not ten years ago, not twenty years ago, not fifty years ago but no in 2012 in an EU and NATO country, Lithuania, a country that in only a few short months, in the course of 2013, will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union?
You do not feel horror? You perhaps do not feel horror and disgust because suddenly your image of what a perpetrator and victim are has been turned on its head. You cannot understand how it is possible that such honoring of such a man could happen and therefore when certain great professors and other “Useful Idiots” from the West, who have been lauded and showered with trinkets and titles and welcomed with champagne by the Lithuanian government, people who literally copy-and-paste a historic narrative that the PR team of the Lithuanian government had given them to distribute, you mistakenly believe that the division between perpetrator and victim is not as clear cut as you had thought. As Lessing wrote,
“And how many people are so widely known in history that they need only to be mentioned so that at once the notion of the way of thinking that is particular to them, as well as of their other properties, is immediately awakened in everyone?”
And so as this process takes on momentum your ability to discern between simple right and wrong changes. Imperceptibly. The values that you believed you have shift imperceptibly to the point where without you realizing it you have no clear values anymore. And that is how moral decline and the decline of reason begin their slippery slide.You may only see the box being placed into the ground with priests, soldiers and dignitaries and even famous historians next to it, but the little box contains the remains of a man who contributed to the separation from society, humiliation, deprivation of rights, torture, rape, murder and mutilation of his own citizens who happened to have been born into one of his country’s long-standing minorities.
When an EU government defames you, it sure sticks. From Arad’s biography on Wikipedia after defamation by the same Lithuanian government that tricked him into joining its red-brown commission in the first place. Why is there still no public apology, in 2012?
And when you suddenly realize this you wonder why a government would do this in 2012, a government that will hold the presidency of the European Council in a few months’ time, a government that wishes to be seen as Western. And you wonder how it is possible that this government will be allowed by the EU to take the presidency next year and you think to yourself is it really true that this government has criminalized Holocaust survivors such as the former director of Yad Vashem Yitzhak Arad, who is a leading historian of the Lithuanian Holocaust, or 91 year old Dr. Rachel Margolis who discovered and published the diary of a Christian witness to tens of thousands of murders by local “patriots” of the Jews of Vilna and its area.
And you think quite understandably it can’t be true, there must be other reasons why these people were accused of war crimes, they must have done something. And when I tell you that the Lithuanian government recently spent untold thousands of euros to be able to set up a “Peace Park” where not one or two Jew shooters are honored but hundreds, you think to yourself that can’t be true, there must be another side to the story, there must be other reasons. And when I tell you that since 2008 the Lithuanian government allows not one but two Nazi marches to go ahead in the year, each on one of the nation’s two independence days (16 February and 11 March) of all days, accompanied with swastikas (just an innocent ancient Baltic symbol, says the 2010 Lithuanian law) you suddenly think, Oh it happens everywhere.
The “Lithuanian swastika” (with added lines, top left of middle flag) featured prominently in this year’s state-sanctioned neo-Nazi parade in the heart of the capital city, Vilnius, on the nation’s independence day, March 11th.
However, think again. Does any government allow on Independence Day neo-Nazi marches to take place in the heart of the nation’s capital? For what is the indirect message being given out by that government? it is either we can’t control our neo-Nazis and therefore we give them what they want in the spirit of democracy. Or: we quietly support such action (in addition to the lavish events to honor Western academics hungry for accolades), it is useful in drumming up nationalistic feeling.
Prof. Leonidas Donskis, a Lithuanian MEP, a brave man with high integrity, wrote me that he agreed with me “99%” on the issues raised in my petition. Whether the Lithuanian government and its apologists wish to admit this fact or not, to allow neo-Nazi marches to take place on Independence Day the indirect message also being giving out to the wider world is, tragically, that we support such xenophobia, such antisemitism, such hatred of humanity.
Knighted in Vilnius in Jan 2012 by the president of Lithuania: for helping the PR repackaging of Baltic Holocaust policies for naive Western audiences?
The petition, it should be noted, attracted the signatories of more people around the world than those who would attend the “No Simple Stories, Part 2” conference shamefully co-hosted by UCL and the Lithuanian Embassy. It should be noted that UCL allowed Professor Antony Polonsky, an eminent historian rightly respected for his vast achievements in Polish history — and one recently curiously knighted by the Lithuanian government in effect for betraying the historic truth and betraying the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, a man whose latest book was being launched at the conference and a man who does not work at UCL — the right to refuse my father and me the right to read out the petition at the commencement of the conference. A similar petition, organized back in 2011 by Professor Danny Ben-Moshe, a Londoner who lives in Melbourne, had actually been read out the year before at part 1 of the conference in 2011 and a petition that had also been signed by one of the UCL lecturers. But not this year. What happened between 2011 and 2012? The question that has to now remain is what happened to free speech in a major British institution, namely UCL?
A few days after the petition was delivered to the Lithuanian embassy in London, the Vilnius Municipality issued a press release proposing that next year the neo-Nazi march on Independence Day be rerouted to a lesser city center street, the equivalent of say an Oxford Street march being forced into Duke Street. I suppose an improvement but yet to be seen. At the end of the day the march is still scheduled for Independence Day. At a time when right wing extremism is not walking through Europe but sweeping through it, where in Greece alone, once the cradle of democracy, 9% of the vote is given to the Golden Dawn party, a Neo Nazi faction, if to now still allow today a neo Nazi march to occur on independence day, if such action is not grossly irresponsible I would like to know what is.
And yet despite all of this, why do you not protest, why do you not say no? Perhaps because outside of Lithuania and particularly in Israel and in London the face that the Lithuanian government gives to the public at large at glittering events, at conferences with established British universities, at book launches at book weeks is of peaceful respectability in designer suits, with adulation for acquiescent Jewish dignitaries. Not skinheads with jackboots. Nevertheless, this same government, though given the opportunity to simply write a letter of apology to Rachel Margolis, a lady who has even won the public support of Gordon Brown, has still not found it fit to write to this elderly 91 year old lady and say “Sorry, and you can come and visit Vilnius any day.” You see as the Jewish Chronicle quoted in a recent article, the Lithuanian government’s behavior has to be held into question if it is not to be seen as “duplicitous” as clearly there is a discrepancy between what is seen abroad and what is done at home.
So, after all this you now ask yourself quite correctly, how have these things been allowed to happen. It is actually very simple. These things have been allowed to happen because Lithuania which had perhaps the highest percentage (not absolute number of course, it is a small country) of collaborators in the Holocaust, in Europe, and certainly had the highest percentage of its Jews killed in all of Europe (96.4% of Lithuanian Jewry) has to date not found it proper to punish a single collaborator but rather instead of prosecuting such criminals prefers to see them as “patriots” and honor them. It is as simple as that.
In view of this fact, the Lithuanian government would be wise to realize that until they say sorry and stop, apart from the issues listed in the petition, the honoring of mass murderers and equating of Nazi crimes with Soviet crimes today, the victims and descendants of people who were victims of Nazism in particular but concerned citizens as well, will not be able to trust the Lithuanian government and certainly not a government that hero worships in 2012 mass murderers of a kind that defeat description. It is as simple as that.
At the end of the day the Lithuanian government, unlike the German government or the Italian have not found it necessary to say sorry. It is as simple as that.
Instead the Lithuanian government like the Latvian sees the Lithuanians and the Latvians as having been the victims of the Soviets and the Nazis, to the extent that a Lithuanian foreign minister had absolutely no qualms when he publicly announced that the only difference between Hitler and Stalin was the size of their moustaches. You see, yes, Lithuania like Latvia was invaded by the Germans and the Soviets and their past is troubled and of course the voices of innocent Latvians and Lithuanians should be heard, people who also suffered terribly. But it is of utmost importance that these two Baltic countries in particular, admit that they collaborated with the Nazis and murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people who happened to be Jews, who had no knowledge in the main of Communism and did not drink champagne with Stalin. The Prague Declaration of 2008 “On European Conscience and Communism,” a document that John Mann MP correctly pointed out was “sinister” and one that the Lithuanian government have been catapulting with great rigor into Europe, is indeed a sinister document, it paves the way for people who committed terrible crimesto get off the hook and excuse the inexcusable, by way of the red-equals-brown equation that itself enables the utter confusion of perpetrators and victims during the Holocaust.
The officials who organized the recent UCL conference seemed hell-bent on ensuring that not one conference goer would even know about the 2012 response, the Seventy Years Declaration of 2012. Why this freakish attempt to control information in the information age?
Now you may say, “Oh all these terrible things in the Holocaust happened such a long time ago, it happened, it is past, let’s live in peace, let’s make up” and you are right that it is important that we live in peace and it is right that we make up when true apologies have been given. Yet I need to remind you of two images and your response. The picture of the dog being skinned alive in China and the picture of the box of remains of the 1941 Nazi puppet prime minister taken in the very same year, your first response was of horror and your second was of confusion.
You see, when governments and their pawns decide to distort historical narratives to meet political agendas then imperceptibly, it is not the beginning of the end of the world but if left unchallenged it is the beginning of the erosion of European conscience and the end of moral reason.
Appendix
Some of the participants in the December 17th protest at the Lithuanian Embassy in London.On Monday 17 December, 2012 at 10.30 AM, my 90 year old Holocaust survivor father Ernst Loewenberg, a native of Halle an der Saale who lost 35 members of his family in the Holocaust, went to the Lithuanian Embassy in London, SW1 to deliver a major petition.
At 10 AM, a small group of protesters met Ernst outside Pimlico Underground Station in London and quietly accompanied him to the Lithuanian Embassy for 10:30 AM. As the Lithuanian embassy had not seen it fit to respond to an email by me, his daughter, of 1 December 2012, an email that politely requested that the Lithuanian government address the issues raised within the petition before the conference, a conference that later that day was co-hosted by the Lithuanian Embassy and UCL, we arrived unannounced.
The petition which in little under two weeks had acquired the signatories of over 300 people worldwide, including the names of eminent politicians, scholars, Holocaust survivors, educationalists and concerned citizens was delivered by Ernst along with letters from: Dr. Hans Coppi, respected historian and son of the famous resistance fighters Hans and Hilde Coppi; Ruth Barnett, Kindertransportee, educationalist and campaigner for the rights of ethnic minorities; David Cukier, second generation Holocaust survivor and former UCL student; Budd Margolis, cousin of Dr. Rachel Margolis, the 91 year old Holocaust survivor who is one of the Jewish survivors “investigated” by the Lithuanian government for “war crimes” for the “crime” of having survived the ghetto to join the anti-Nazi resistance. Dr. Margolis is afraid to return to Lithuania one last time for a visit to her home town; Professor Gert Weisskirchen a German Social Democrat MP who gave his personal regrets and the German embassy’s regrets to Ernest Loewenberg for being unable to accompany him to the Lithuanian Embassy that day.
The protesters who accompanied Ernst Loewenberg and myself included: Mark Davidson, photojournalist and campaigner for the rights of the disabled in the UK, who covered the Paralympics for various nationals; Panos Fellas, a campaigner for the rights of the Roma and Sinti community in Corinth, Greece; Irene Fick, second generation Holocaust survivor of non-Jewish parents; Rosemarie Lowenberg, wife of Ernst Loewenberg; Fabio Perselli, editor, photographer and son of former Italian diplomat who was put into a German prisoner of war camp.
Videos of the protest at the Lithuanian Embassy, London, 19.12.2012
'Excusing the inexcusable' Parts 1 and 2
1. http://youtu.be/JSKQTMt4jVo P
On Monday 17 December 2012 at 10.30am, 90 year old year Holocaust survivor Ernst Loewenberg went to the Lithuanian Embassy in London to hand in a petition . In this video his daughter Monica explains why
Monica Lowenberg explains the reasoning for the Lithuanian government's duplicitous behaviour and how one 'insiduous' document , namely the Prague Declaration, can erode European conscience.
On Monday 17 December 2012, 90 year old Holocaust survivor Ernst Loewenberg delivered a petition to the Lithuanian Embassy in London. Look how long an elderly gentleman had to wait at the Lithuanian Embassy's doorstep before the petition and letters, he was carrying on behalf of over 300 people across the world, which contained the signatures of eminent politicians, scholars, Holocaust survivors, activists, educationalists and concerned citizens was taken...
DOCUMENTS: Petition (with links; with select signatures) ◊ Petitioner’s dossier. UPDATES: Petition’s first effect ◊ Jewish Chronicle ◊ London Jewish News ◊ UCL Hebrew Dept lets Holocaust survivors down ◊ Disinformation campaign ◊ Monica Lowenberg looks back at the events (24 Dec. 2012). LETTERS: Alumnus writes to provost (& to ambassador) ◊ Ruth Barnett ◊ Hans Coppi (English) ◊ (Rachel Margolis’s cousin) Budd Margolis ◊ Gert Weisskirchen
Prof. (em.) Gert Weisskirchen
Lecturer Willy Brandt School/Erfurt University Dezember 17, 2012
H.E. Ambassador Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene
The Embassy of Lithuania
Exzellenz, sehr geehrte Frau Botschafterin,
Ihnen wird heute eine Petition übergeben. In sieben Punkten werden Tatsachen festgehalten, die jede Tatsache für sich, jeder Überlebende des Holocaust nur als einen Angriff auf seine Integrität und auf sein persönliches Leid verstehen kann. Jeder Einzelne, der um die furchtbaren Taten der Nazi-Diktatur weiß, muss sich wehren gegen jeglichen Versuch, den unerhörten Mord an den europäischen Juden zu relativieren. Deutsche haben in deutschem Namen den industriellen Massenmord exekutieren wollen. Dieser schrecklichen Wahrheit hat sich Deutschland stellen müssen. Diese Wahrheit darf durch nichts relativiert werden. Neo-Nazis warten nur auf eine Möglichkeit, dieses Menschheitsverbrechen mit anderen Verbrechen gleich zu setzen. Könnte es dann soweit kommen, dass Hitler im Nachhinein triumphiert?
Alle sieben in der Petition enthaltenen Tatsachen unterstütze ich.
Ebenso dringend wie herzlich bitte ich Sie inständig darum, diese Petition der neuen Regierung Litauens zu übermitteln. Damit verknüpfe ich die Hoffnung, dass die neue litauische Regierung jeden Eindruck zurückweisen wird, dass in der litauischen Gesellschaft sich rechtsextremistische Tendenzen verstärken. Unsere gemeinsame europäische Aufgabe ist es, jede Form des Antisemitismus in dem Augenblick zu bekämpfen, wenn er erkennbar wird.
Hochachtungsvoll grüßt Sie
Gert Weisskirchen
Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages 1976 – 2009, 1999 – 2009 Spokesman on Foreign Affairs SPD,
Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office of the OSCE 2006 – 2009,
Träger des Ritter-Ordens Litauen
Translation
Professor Emeritus Gert Weiskirchen
Lecturer Willy Brandt School/Erfurt University, 17th Dec. 2012
H.E. Ambassador Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene
The Embassy of Lithuania
Your Excellency, dear Madam Ambassador
Today you will receive a petition, listing seven facts. Holocaust survivors will perceive every single one of these facts as an attack on their integrity and bringing their personal distress to the fore yet again. Each person who knows of the terrible acts of the Nazi dictatorship, has to oppose every single attempt to diminish the outrageous murder of European Jews. Germans sought to carry out this industrialised mass murder in the name of Germans. This is the dreadful truth Germany had to face and this truth must not, by any means, be diminished. Neonazis are in waiting for any opportunity
to equate this crime against humanity with other crimes. Could Hitler have triumphed after all?
I support all seven facts listed in the petition.
I implore you, urgently and with all my heart, to send this petition to the new Lithuanian government and I hope that the new Lithuanian government will actively work against any notion that right extremist tendencies are encouraged in Lithuanian society. It is our common European task to oppose any form of anti-Semitism without fail immediately it is expressed.
Yours sincerely
Gert Weisskirchen
Member of the German Bundestag 1976-2009,
1999-2009 Spokesman on Foreign Affairs for the
Social Democratic Party of German
Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office of the OSCE 2006-2009
Order of the Lithuanian Knighthood
Letter from UCL Alumnus David Cukier to Lithuanian Ambassador
HE Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė
The Lithuanian Embassy,
Lithuania House,
2 Bessborough Gardens,
Westminster,
London, SW1V 2JE
13 December 2012
Dear Ambassador,
I write to you concerning the forthcoming conference to be hosted by UCL called ‘Simple Stories’ where the conference co-sponsored by your government is attempting to revise the accepted historical narrative concerning the events of 1939-1945 in Lithuania . In so doing it is encouraging divisive extremist fascist and communist political opinion in your country, which as a EU and NATO member, it surely behoves Lithuania to seek to eliminate. Rather it should be incumbent on the Government of Lithuania to discourage prejudicial politics against all its minorities including the small Jewish minority in the country, and to respect human rights that were so lacking in the war years between 1939-45. However your government’s moves to rewrite established historical facts concerning the holocaust and the impact on the Lithuanian people including the Jews is little short of an affront and an abuse to all the people who lived through those tragic times. .
Your Government’s sponsorship of this conference in which these revisionist narratives will be expounded is yet another blow to the memories of those who suffered death and deprivation at the hands of, and by the actions of a section of the Lithuanian Authorities and Foreign External Invasionary forces. That such views should not be expounded as historical fact is clearly obvious, but cynical manipulation of Jewish participants (mainly the very same Holocaust survivors and Jewish authorities not fully comprehending of this prejudicial strand of revisionism is to be abhorred.
I therefore urge you to re-consider your sponsorship of this conference at UCL until there can be assurance of a clear statement that as a responsible member of the EU the politics of hate and extremism have no place in our shared historical narrative and that the Lithuanian Government in its endeavours should do all it can to respect historical truth and unashamedly support non prejudicial politics, but rather the dissemination of historical truth in accord with established historical facts understood the world over, and within the auspices of the EU and its academic institutions.
I therefore appeal to you to relay this message to your government to reconsider carefully the path it is taking by following the above described course of action and return it back into the mainstream of historical and political opinion held by EU members and other distinguished international governments and organisations.
Yours faithfully,
David Cukier
DOCUMENTS: Petition (with links; with select signatures) ◊ Petitioner’s dossier. UPDATES: Petition’s first effect ◊ Jewish Chronicle ◊ London Jewish News ◊ UCL Hebrew Dept lets Holocaust survivors down ◊ Disinformation campaign ◊ Monica Lowenberg looks back at the events (24 Dec. 2012). LETTERS: Alumnus writes to provost (& to ambassador) ◊ Ruth Barnett ◊ Hans Coppi (English) ◊ (Rachel Margolis’s cousin) Budd Margolis ◊ Gert Weisskirchen
Letter from Prof. (em) Gert Weisskirchen to Lithuanian ambassador
Prof. (em.) Gert Weisskirchen
Lecturer Willy Brandt School/Erfurt University Dezember 17, 2012
H.E. Ambassador Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene
The Embassy of Lithuania
Exzellenz, sehr geehrte Frau Botschafterin,
Ihnen wird heute eine Petition übergeben. In sieben Punkten werden Tatsachen festgehalten, die jede Tatsache für sich, jeder Überlebende des Holocaust nur als einen Angriff auf seine Integrität und auf sein persönliches Leid verstehen kann. Jeder Einzelne, der um die furchtbaren Taten der Nazi-Diktatur weiß, muss sich wehren gegen jeglichen Versuch, den unerhörten Mord an den europäischen Juden zu relativieren. Deutsche haben in deutschem Namen den industriellen Massenmord exekutieren wollen. Dieser schrecklichen Wahrheit hat sich Deutschland stellen müssen. Diese Wahrheit darf durch nichts relativiert werden. Neo-Nazis warten nur auf eine Möglichkeit, dieses Menschheitsverbrechen mit anderen Verbrechen gleich zu setzen. Könnte es dann soweit kommen, dass Hitler im Nachhinein triumphiert?
Alle sieben in der Petition enthaltenen Tatsachen unterstütze ich.
Ebenso dringend wie herzlich bitte ich Sie inständig darum, diese Petition der neuen Regierung Litauens zu übermitteln. Damit verknüpfe ich die Hoffnung, dass die neue litauische Regierung jeden Eindruck zurückweisen wird, dass in der litauischen Gesellschaft sich rechtsextremistische Tendenzen verstärken. Unsere gemeinsame europäische Aufgabe ist es, jede Form des Antisemitismus in dem Augenblick zu bekämpfen, wenn er erkennbar wird.
Hochachtungsvoll grüßt Sie
Gert Weisskirchen
Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages 1976 – 2009, 1999 – 2009 Spokesman on Foreign Affairs SPD,
Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office of the OSCE 2006 – 2009,
Träger des Ritter-Ordens Litauen
Translation
Professor Emeritus Gert Weiskirchen
Lecturer Willy Brandt School/Erfurt University, 17th Dec. 2012
H.E. Ambassador Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene
The Embassy of Lithuania
Your Excellency, dear Madam Ambassador
Today you will receive a petition, listing seven facts. Holocaust survivors will perceive every single one of these facts as an attack on their integrity and bringing their personal distress to the fore yet again. Each person who knows of the terrible acts of the Nazi dictatorship, has to oppose every single attempt to diminish the outrageous murder of European Jews. Germans sought to carry out this industrialised mass murder in the name of Germans. This is the dreadful truth Germany had to face and this truth must not, by any means, be diminished. Neonazis are in waiting for any opportunity
to equate this crime against humanity with other crimes. Could Hitler have triumphed after all?
I support all seven facts listed in the petition.
I implore you, urgently and with all my heart, to send this petition to the new Lithuanian government and I hope that the new Lithuanian government will actively work against any notion that right extremist tendencies are encouraged in Lithuanian society. It is our common European task to oppose any form of anti-Semitism without fail immediately it is expressed.
Yours sincerely
Gert Weisskirchen
Member of the German Bundestag 1976-2009,
1999-2009 Spokesman on Foreign Affairs for the
Social Democratic Party of German
Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office of the OSCE 2006-2009
Order of the Lithuanian Knighthood
Letter from UCL Alumnus David Cukier to Lithuanian Ambassador
HE Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė
The Lithuanian Embassy,
Lithuania House,
2 Bessborough Gardens,
Westminster,
London, SW1V 2JE
13 December 2012
Dear Ambassador,
I write to you concerning the forthcoming conference to be hosted by UCL called ‘Simple Stories’ where the conference co-sponsored by your government is attempting to revise the accepted historical narrative concerning the events of 1939-1945 in Lithuania . In so doing it is encouraging divisive extremist fascist and communist political opinion in your country, which as a EU and NATO member, it surely behoves Lithuania to seek to eliminate. Rather it should be incumbent on the Government of Lithuania to discourage prejudicial politics against all its minorities including the small Jewish minority in the country, and to respect human rights that were so lacking in the war years between 1939-45. However your government’s moves to rewrite established historical facts concerning the holocaust and the impact on the Lithuanian people including the Jews is little short of an affront and an abuse to all the people who lived through those tragic times. .
Your Government’s sponsorship of this conference in which these revisionist narratives will be expounded is yet another blow to the memories of those who suffered death and deprivation at the hands of, and by the actions of a section of the Lithuanian Authorities and Foreign External Invasionary forces. That such views should not be expounded as historical fact is clearly obvious, but cynical manipulation of Jewish participants (mainly the very same Holocaust survivors and Jewish authorities not fully comprehending of this prejudicial strand of revisionism is to be abhorred.
I therefore urge you to re-consider your sponsorship of this conference at UCL until there can be assurance of a clear statement that as a responsible member of the EU the politics of hate and extremism have no place in our shared historical narrative and that the Lithuanian Government in its endeavours should do all it can to respect historical truth and unashamedly support non prejudicial politics, but rather the dissemination of historical truth in accord with established historical facts understood the world over, and within the auspices of the EU and its academic institutions.
I therefore appeal to you to relay this message to your government to reconsider carefully the path it is taking by following the above described course of action and return it back into the mainstream of historical and political opinion held by EU members and other distinguished international governments and organisations.
Yours faithfully,
David Cukier
David Cukier, Alumnus of UCL, Writes to the Provost on Lithuanian Government’s December Conference
O P I N I O N
by David Cukier
David Cukier, a child of two Holocaust Survivors, studied Pharmacology at University College London, 1975-1978, where he also participated in some Jewish and Yiddish studies activities. He has released to Defending History for publication his letter to the president and provost of UCL, Professor Malcolm Grant, expressing concern over the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Department hosting a second Lithuanian government sponsored one-sided Holocaust conference.
In his covering letter to DH.com, Mr. Cukier adds:
“My concern relates to the personal experiences related to me by my parents and extended family who lived in many countries across Europe during the war, and never failed to stress the importance of relating the truth of what happened during those years. This is what is at stake when we confront Holocaust deniers and Holocaust revisionists, whether individuals , governments or academics. It also relates to present day political movements and governments who deny the authenticity of the Holocaust as a means of de facto delegitimization of the national aspirations of the Jewish people.”
London, 29 November 2012
The Provost
University College London
provost@ucl.ac.uk
Subject: UCL Conference on December 17th and 18th 2012: Jews and Non-Jews in Lithuania: Coexistence, Cooperation, Violence
Dear Professor Grant,
I write to you in about a matter of great concern to me regarding an event due to held at UCL on Monday and Tuesday, December 17th and 18th 2012, namely an “International conference” on the topic “Jews and non-Jews in Lithuania: Coexistence, Cooperation, Violence” to be held under the auspices of the University.
My concern as a former student is that for the second time in two years UCL is about to make a second grave error by hosting this conference which is designed to foster and develop a revisionist historical perspective, intended to re-write the objective historical narrative established by many years of careful and high quality historical research by many academics of the highest credentials all over the world, on the well known and established history of the Jews in the Baltics before and during World War II.
The impetus for this conference is funding from the government of Lithuania that sees its political interest in revising the historical narrative and factual accuracy of the history of the Baltics during World War II for its own current politically expedient policies. That this should happen a mere seventy odd years after the horrific events of the Holocaust in Europe, and under the auspices of UCL which has throughout its history been a beacon institution for researching the truth and determining the facts, is tragic and potentially a blemish on the reputation of UCL.
I call upon you as the Accountable Officer of UCL to examine the hosting of this conference and the authenticity of the historical research that is to be presented. I also urge you to examine the motivation for the funding for this conference, whether advisedly and legitimately sourced for establishing objective history, for the purposes of adding to the body of historical research, or rather, as it seems, actually designed to misrepresent, and develop a re-writing of historical truth for misguided political purposes. Surely such a position is an untenable position for UCL to uphold, and warrants careful inquiry by you, on the advisability of holding under the College’s auspices this planned conference.
Regards,
David Cukier
David Cukier’s Follow-up Letter to the Provost of University College London
O P I N I O N
by David Cukier
The following is the text of the author’s letter today to the provost of University College London, following up on his earlier communication of 29 November.- From: David Cukier
- To: “provost@ucl.ac.uk” <provost@ucl.ac.uk>
- Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 3:38 PM
- Subject: UCL Conference on December 17th and 18th 2012: Jews and Non-Jews in Lithuania: Coexistence, Cooperation, Violence
Dear Professor Grant,
I attach an earlier communication to you in which I asked you to consider the wisdom of hosting the above conference at UCL as a former student who takes great pride in having studied at UCL and the objectives and principles established by its founders.
One of those principles is freedom of thought and expression in the pursuit of truth. I believe that Monica Lowenberg has contacted your office on the hosting of this conference and requested permission to speak for a brief amount of time, no more than five minutes, to express a view concerning the dangers of historical revisionism which the Lithuanian government appears to be engaged in, as recognised by many EU governments and British and EU parliamentarians. The cynical sponsorship, some might say, of this conference by the Lithuanian Government for their partisan political ends should not go unchallenged especially in an academic setting with a distinguished past, particularly in the field of Hebrew and Judaic studies.
I appeal to you both in the name of fairness and for maintaining the good reputation of UCL, and the principles on which it was founded to allow Monica Lowenberg the opportunity to express the disquiet felt by a large section if not the overwhelming majority of the Jewish lay public in this country and abroad, the fears they harbour concerning the development of this strand of historical revisionism sponsored by the Lithuanian Government particularly in resurrecting extreme ideologies for politically expedient motives.
Refusing to let Monica speak and express an alternate view will be seen as another insult to the historical memory of countless Holocaust victims and a signal suppression of freedom of expression in an academic institution whose original purpose was to uncover truth and give freedom to expression and open learning, to the widest possible constituency. I would have thought that such a request is a minimal request of your good office and a confirmation that all valid and cogent views are welcome at UCL to all participants, both invited lecturers and general participants alike, that no one is excluded from expressing their view simply because it is inconvenient or likely to embarrass the sponsors or funding partners.
One again I urge you to allow Monica Lowenberg access on your authority, and to ensure that she is given the opportunity to speak and make her points to the conference in the name of simple decency, and allow her the freedom to express the wider Jewish Community’s concern on the very matters that constitute the agenda for the conference.
Kind Regards,
David Cukier
Email from Monica Lowenberg to UCL Provost
From: Monica Lowenberg Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:45 PM Subject: FAO The Provost, UCL, regarding Free Speech being not permitted by Prof Polonsky, refusal to allow Monica Lowenberg to read out petition To: provost@ucl.ac.uk
To the Provost
Dear Professor Grant,
Please find pasted below correspondence between myself and Dr Francois Guenest of UCL and Prof Polonsky who together have organised with the Lithuanian government this years Part 2 conference 'No Simple Stories' to be held next week 17-19 Dec at the Lithuanian embassy in London and UCL.
Dear Professor Grant,
Please find pasted below correspondence between myself and Dr Francois Guenest of UCL and Prof Polonsky who together have organised with the Lithuanian government this years Part 2 conference 'No Simple Stories' to be held next week 17-19 Dec at the Lithuanian embassy in London and UCL.
I requested that I read out a petition that hundreds of people across the world, scholars, survivors and non agree with, a petition that disagrees with Polonsky's and the Lithuanian government's interpretation of events and action. Polonsky as designated organiser has refused me the opportunity to read out the petition.
Serious questions have to now be raised about the conference, its agenda and UCL ie Has Polonsky's knighthood by the Lithuanian government and the launch of his latest book at the conference prevented him operating in the spirit of democracy? By refusing me to read out the petition which would take simply 5 minutes of conference time with my 90- year old Holocaust survivor father present, a petition which hundreds of people across the world, scholars, survivors and non agree with, a petition that disagrees with Polonsky's and the Lithuanian government's interpretation of events and actions, free speech can no longer be heard in an established British institution.
One can now only conclude that UCL a major London university is now violating BASIC WESTERN principles of open discussion on the orders of the PR department of a far right Baltic republic. . The issue at stake here is not this or that point in Professor Antony Polonsky's book or biography. IT is that he has forbidden a petition that makes constructive requests of the Lithuanian government.
Yours sincerely,
Monica Lowenberg
Serious questions have to now be raised about the conference, its agenda and UCL ie Has Polonsky's knighthood by the Lithuanian government and the launch of his latest book at the conference prevented him operating in the spirit of democracy? By refusing me to read out the petition which would take simply 5 minutes of conference time with my 90- year old Holocaust survivor father present, a petition which hundreds of people across the world, scholars, survivors and non agree with, a petition that disagrees with Polonsky's and the Lithuanian government's interpretation of events and actions, free speech can no longer be heard in an established British institution.
One can now only conclude that UCL a major London university is now violating BASIC WESTERN principles of open discussion on the orders of the PR department of a far right Baltic republic. . The issue at stake here is not this or that point in Professor Antony Polonsky's book or biography. IT is that he has forbidden a petition that makes constructive requests of the Lithuanian government.
Yours sincerely,
Monica Lowenberg
UCL Hebrew-Jewish Studies Dept Rejects Monica Lowenberg’s Request for Five Minutes to Read Petition at Lithuanian Government Sponsored Conference
London observers were wondering whether the medal Professor Antony Polonsky received earlier this year from the president of Lithuania for his PR work for the Lithuanian government may have something to do with his denial of Monica Lowenberg’s request, asking for five minutes to read out at next week’s conference her petition to the Lithuanian government, proposing constructive solutions to the issues at hand. The petition has to date garnered over 250 signatories from two dozen countries. The following is the correspondence, which started with Ms. Lowenberg’s appeal to Professor Ada Rapoport-Albert and Dr. Francois Guesnet. Dr. Guesnet, the Corob Reader in Jewish History at UCL is one of the conference coordinators on behalf of the Lithuanian government funded institutions financing the conference. Holocaust survivors consulted cannot understand why safe and secure academics who hold high posts at Western institutions should so fear “even to give five minutes for somebody else to come and disagree” with the conference’s pay-masters in the freedom of the British capital.
MONICA LOWENBERG’S PETITION
UCL and its Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies find themselves challenged by a simple question:
Will freedom of speech and respect for the views of the Holocaust Survivor community be respected to the extent of five minutes being granted for the reading of a petition to the Lithuanian government, or does Lithuanian government financial sponsorship preclude the granting of the request?
The following email correspondence, none of it bearing on personal matters, was released today by Ms Lowenberg’s office in London, and is published below with permission from her office.
One of the emails, from Professor Polonsky, contains a lengthy and standard restatement of Lithuanian government talking points (the “Liekis talking points” version) somewhat tailored for Jewish audiences. Like any set of talking points, each relates somehow, often obliquely to the point made in the petition, without confronting it head on. The opposing points are view are expressed in Ms. Lowenberg’s petition.
- From: Monica Lowenberg
- Date: Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 8:58 PM
- Subject: Request from Monica Lowenberg
- To: Ada Rapoport-Albert
As head of the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Dept at UCL and as someone who was a signatory on last year’s petition presented to the Lithuanian embassy by Prof Danny Ben Moshe and Dr Denis MacShane MP, I would be grateful if you would view the petition I have set up on Change.org:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/he-ambassador-asta-skaisgirytė-liauškienė-lithuanian-ambassador-london-uk-abandon-state-sponsored-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-obfuscation
I naturally hope you will sign the petition and bring it to the attention of colleagues and students, but I write today on another matter.
I respectfully request permission to take five minutes of the opening session to read out the petition to the conference, hopefully in the company of my father, who is a 90 year old Holocaust Survivor.
After reading internet reports that Professor Donskis was moderating the opening session, I wrote to him. He kindly explained to me that I need to contact university or embassy authorities to gain permission to read out the permission to the opening session of the conference. Hence I now appeal to you. I will be quick and polite, and will leave after five minutes, or less.
I hope this is possible.
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your help in this matter.
With kind regards,
Monica Lowenberg
- From: Monica Lowenberg
- Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 1:24 PM
- To: Guesnet, Francois
- Subject: Request from Monica Lowenberg
- 12 December 2012
I am of the understanding from my colleague Dr Saul Isroff, who has already spoken to Prof Michael Berkowitz, that you are the organiser for this year’s second UCL conference of ’No Simple Stories’ a conference, generously sponsored by the Lithuanian embassy for the second time in two years running.
On Sunday last, I was in email contact with Professor Donskis. Literature circulated, stated that he was the ‘Moderator’ for the conference and therefore I respectfully asked him if he would permit me in his position as ‘Moderator’ the opportunity to read out, with my 90 year old Holocaust survivor father present, a petition I have set up and read out at the opening session on Tuesday 18 December 2012 at 10am, at JZ Young Lecture Theatre, UCL. Prof Donskis kindly explained that I need to contact university or embassy authorities to gain permission to read out the petition as he is not the ‘moderator’. Hence I now appeal to you as organiser of the UCL conference.
My petition:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/he-ambassador-asta-skaisgirytė-liauškienė-lithuanian-ambassador-london-uk-abandon-state-sponsored-anti-semitism-and-holocaust-obfuscation
UCL as a university of high standing and academic merit has clearly no political interest in organising this controversial conference; however, it is quite evident from actions taken by the Lithuanian government in the past two years, in particular, that they do. When questioned whether my accusations of the Lithuanian government within the petition were false, Prof Donskis very bravely did not deny these claims but rather agreed with them ’99%’ .
I am truly sorry to place you in this difficult situation but as I am certain you are aware, it is of intellectual, political and ethical integrity that as organiser of this conference you arrange that I am allowed to now speak and read out the petition at the beginning of the conference. UCL, an internationally respected university of high repute must not allow its good name to be damaged. As you recognised the importance of Prof Danny Ben Moshe reading out at the opening ceremony of last year’s UCL Part 1 No Simple Stories conference, a petition dated 7 February 2011, which I note your colleague Professor Rapoport-Albert signed , so I trust you will recognise the moral imperative of me being allowed to speak as well. In the light of the Lithuanian government not decreasing their agenda to excuse the inexcusable but rather intensify it, with the reburial of their puppet prime minister, only this year amidst glittering events and conferences, a man who signed the forms for the Jews of Kovno to be put into a ghetto, I am certain that even though this request places you in an exceptionally difficult situation, you recognise as organiser why it is morally important that you permit me to read out the petition at the beginning of the conference with my father, Holocaust survivor Ernst Loewenberg, whose family were in the main all murdered, present.
I would like to assure you that I will be quick, polite and take but five minutes. One of your colleagues Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith, who only this year on the 10 November conducted for my father, mother and myself a Kaddish service for 35 members of our family who perished in the Holocaust, can testify that I will be polite.
Please do let me know your agreement to this request before the close of this coming Friday. I will also aim to call you.
With kind regards and thanks for your consideration of this important moral issue,
Monica Lowenberg
On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 6:04 PM, Antony Polonsky wrote:
Dear Ms Lowenberg,
Francois Guesnet has passed on to me your message since I am the organiser of the academic conference to launch volume 25 of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry which has as its theme ‘Jews in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1772’. This volume of Polin is the first to contain a core of articles devoted to the history of the Jews in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in Yiddish, Lite) in the modern period. That this is now possible is the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the re-emergence of an independent Lithuania, which was followed by a revival of many disciplines in the social sciences and humanities which languished in the conditions of Soviet censorship. One of the areas which benefited from the new freedom was the history and study of the Lithuanian Jewish past. The Holocaust and Soviet rule completely destroyed earlier Jewish creativity. During the entire Soviet period between 1940 and 1990, Jewish studies did not exist as an academic subject in Lithuania, as was the case elsewhere in the Soviet Union.
The revived interest in the Jewish past of the country not only evoked scholarly interest but also presented Lithuanian society with a challenge. Jewish studies in Lithunia is a central topic in the difficult conversation on the history of Jewish-Lithuanian relations and is closely linked to the broader transformation of historical memory of the post-Soviet era and the problem of coming to terms with the widespread local collaboration in Lithuania during the Holocaust. This complex and painful issue was aired in a number of international scholarly conferences in the 1990s. which also saw the establishment in Lithuania of a number of academic institutions devoted to the Jewish past in Lithuania.
Initially the two sides were very far apart but groups of scholars soon began to emerge in Lithuania, in Israel, Europe and North America who began to investigate in a dispassionate and scholarly manner the history of once great community of which now only small traces remained. New works appeared on the anti-Judaic policies of the Catholic Church and the emergence of modern Lithuanian antisemitism, the development of Jewish-Lithuanian relations between the wars and the social and political impact of the crises which led to foreign occupations in the 1940s. The years of the First Republic (1918-1940) came to be seen as a significant period of transformation: the first modern polity dominated by ethnic Lithuanians decisively impacted inter-communal relations, especially those between Lithuanians and Jews.
The chapters in this volume reflect this new research and deal with a number of different themes: the specific character of Lithuanian Jewry, the way relations between Jews and Lithuanians developed in the years after 1772, first under tsarist rule and then in independent Lithuania, the devastating impact on the Jewish community and on Lithuanian-Jewish relations of the Soviet and Nazi occupations of the country between 1940 and 1944, the further negative consequences on Jewish life of the reoccupation of the country by the Soviets between 1944 and 1990 and finally the slow revival of Jewish life since the independence and the attempts which have been made since then both to investigate the Lithuanian-Jewish past and to come to terms with the difficult legacy of the Holocaust.
Among the contributors to the volume are leading Jewish historians of the area as well as a number of Lithuanian historians who have adopted a critical attitude to the Lithuanian past. Several of them will be participating in the conference which will enable fruitful exchanges on the many difficult topics discussed in the volume. Accordingly we do not think your reading a statement at the conference will serve any useful purpose. The conference at University College is open to the public and members of the public are welcome to listen to the presentations and ask questions if they wish to so.
In response to the specific points you raise in your petition.
1. The attempt to prosecute Yitshak Arad for alleged war-crimes and to question Rachel Margolis and Fanya Brantsovskaya in regard to this accusation was clearly misguided and has been dropped by the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office, partly under pressure from some of those participating in the conference. I facilitated the translation and publication of Rachel Margolis’s memoirs in English to which I contributed a long introduction.
2. The reinterment of Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis provoked a widespread debate in Lithuania and led to an open letter to the government from many leading intellectuals in the country. It read “We the undersigned citizens and descendants of citizens of Lithuania strongly object to the official honoring of Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis, head of the Provisional Government of Lithuania that was active from June–August, 1941 during Lithuania’s occupation by Nazi Germany by the Government and Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, officials of the City of Kaunas, and other dignitaries. In June 1941 many Lithuanians longed for any opportunity to liberate themselves from the Stalinist occupation. The motives, words and deeds of those who joined the anti-Soviet uprising must be judged individually. Alas, the uprising was marked by anti-Semitic rhetoric, pro-Nazi proclamations, and violence against innocent civilians. The Provisional Government was unquestionably inspired and headed by the Lithuanian Activist Front, whose anti-Semitic and authoritarian program is well-documented. The Government‘s rhetoric, actions and cooperation with German authorities, inescapably compromise its legitimacy and moral status. As Acting Prime Minister, Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis cannot avoid responsibility for its activities. Documents of the time show that the Provisional Government led by Ambrazavicius-Brazaitis did not distance itself from the pro-Nazi policies actively supported by Kazys Škirpa‘s Lithuanian Activist Front. Moreover, the Provisional Government declared its willingness to contribute to the organization of Europe on “New Foundations”as formulated by Nazi Germany. It is worth recalling that the Provisional Government identified as “enemies” even some members of Lithuania’s intelligentsia, for example, some of the faculty of Vytautas Magnus University.
A government which consigned an entire class of its citizenry to discrimination and persecution, and then subsequently failed to defend it from mass killings conducted by an occupying power and those collaborating with it, cannot properly claim to be defending freedom. The putative benefits of the Provisional Government’s unsuccessful attempts to reassert Lithuanian sovereignty are vastly overshadowed and defiled by the inhumane words and deeds to which it lent its authority. And what would be the value of sovereignty bought at the price of the blood of the innocent?
The recent state-sponsored commemoration of Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis’s life and legacy that took place on the occasion of his reburial was an egregious error of moral judgment. It exalted a would-be leader who showed no regret or remorse for having failed the most basic test of principled leadership: standing up for justice and for the innocent.
Family and friends of the deceased have the right to a private ceremony. However, by publicly honoring Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis and providing funding for the commemoration, the Lithuanian Government and those public officials and dignitaries who took part exacerbate the confusion among many regarding the values upon which the Republic of Lithuania is founded.
Public officials who turned down invitations to the commemoration should be congratulated.
But we must do more. We must firmly and unequivocally state that:
- we deplore the persecution and destruction of innocent Lithuanian citizens and others that took place during the tenure of the Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis Provisional Government;
- a critical evaluation of the Provisional Government’s words and deeds is not a matter of interest to only one or another group or organization, but a matter of principle for all Lithuanians;
- in Lithuania the rights and dignity of all must be defended; and
- there is no honor in gains achieved at their expense, however meaningful.”
Among those who signed this letter was the co-editor of volume 25 and a number of the Lithunian contributors.
3. The independence day marches, in which right-radicals and antisemites have participated have been permitted (not encouraged) by the Lithuanian authorities. The number of people who participated was small and they were also widely condemned by the more liberal elements in Lithuanian society. The issue here is of freedom of expression, which is an essential element in a free and open society. Lithuania is one of the more successful countries of the former Soviet Union in establishing a pluralist and outward looking political culture. It has recently (unlike Ukraine) conducted a parliamentary election which was for the most part held to be free and fair.
4. The questions of Tuskulėnai is a complex and sad story and is fully discussed in an article in the volume by Ellen Cassedy. In 1994, 700 bodies were found buried under the green lawn of an old Vilnius estate called Tuskulėnai. Research determined that they were the remains of people who had been executed by the KGB shortly after the Second World War. In the newly independent republic, the discovery prompted nationwide outrage. Plans for a memorial got underway. But it soon came out that many of the bodies—hundreds, in fact—were those of Lithuanians who had helped to massacre Jews in 1941. The Jewish community protested ‘the erection of a common memorial to those who are considered to be freedom fighters and those who, based on all moral norms, are war criminals and indictable offenders’.
It was not possible to separate the bones into two neat piles—patriots here, criminals there—and so construction came to a halt and a stormy debate began over what to do with the bodies and with the site itself. Could a memorial be designed that would pay tribute to the fallen without enshrining evil deeds? After years of delay, a new blueprint was drawn up, this time not for a pantheon of heroes but for a ‘Park of Quiet’, a place of reflection, with an education wing exploring the complexities inherent in the site. When the Park of Quiet opened in November of 2004, however, no such wing had been created. In 2008, oversight of the memorial was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, whose mission focused on the victims and misdeeds of the Soviet, not the Nazi, era. On a web page devoted to Tuskulėnai, the Centre made no mention of the complicated issues raised by the victims’ tangled identities. And the educational presentations offered at the memorial in 2010 concerned the Lithuanian flag; Lithuanian holidays that were outlawed during the Soviet era; and the ‘dullness of Soviet everyday life’. The opportunity to use the site to communicate the complex truths of two eras, has remained unfulfilled. This is one of the issues we will be discussing at the conference.
5. The main sponsors of the ‘Prague Declaration’ were Vaclav Havel, the late president of the Czech Republic and Joachim Gauck, now President of Germany, both figures whose moral authority is unquestioned. It does not seek to equate Soviet and Nazi crimes, but to draw attention to the enormous extent of the former, which have sometimes been forgotten.
Yours sincerely,
Antony Polonsky
On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 1:43 AM, Monica Lowenberg wrote:
13 December 2012
Dear Professor Polonsky,
Many thanks indeed for your detailed reply and apologies for not getting back to you immediately, I am at this time of year like yourself and others exceptionally busy. As you can imagine, the international specialists we have consulted hold different views, and we are absolutely confident of the facts in my petition. Of course you have every right to publish your response, which would hopefully lead to a respectful, dignified and public exchange of views at whatever time you would wish to proceed with publication in an appropriate forum.
In the meantime, there is just one issue which needs a rapid reply: May I have five minutes to read my petition at the opening session of the conference, in the company of my 90 year old father Ernst Loewenberg, who is a Holocaust survivor. After reading the letter, I will leave. You and others would have all the time in the world to respond should you wish to, and of course, to publish your response when you feel ready, so that these grave issues may be discussed frankly and openly.
The wording of my petition, checked meticulously with Holocaust survivors from Lithuania, members of the Lithuanian Jewish community and scholars in different parts of the world, is the wording that has now been effectively approved by hundreds of signatories from close to two dozen countries. It is the document which I humbly and respectfully ask permission to read out at the conference.
May I have five minutes to read the petition at the conference’s opening session?
I would be most grateful if you would be so kind as to reply as a matter of urgency, on this one point: whether you permit me five minutes to read out the petition on Tuesday 18 December 2012 during the opening session. I ask to be accompanied by my father, Ernst Loewenberg, a Holocaust survivor. We will both leave immediately after the reading so as not to disturb your proceedings in any way.
As I have many commitments at this time of year I apologise for having to place pressure on you however, I would be most grateful if you would be so kind as to confirm, in writing by email, by this Friday 14 December 2012 by 12pm, whether you permit me to read out the petition on Tuesday 18 December 2012 at 10am, directly after the ambassadors welcome or at least within the first thirty minutes, so that departure can be assured by 10.30am at the latest. If you agree to me reading out the petition, I humbly request that you be so kind as to state exact venue address to where I should go and permit my father Ernst Loewenberg to be present as well. If I receive no response from yourself by email by this coming Friday 14 December 2012 by 12pm, I will very sadly have to assume that the answer is no and you have declined my request to read out the petition.
With many thanks for your kind consideration,
Yours sincerely,
Monica Lowenberg
- From: Antony Polonsky
- Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 1:24 PM
- Subject: Re: FW: Request from Monica Lowenberg
- To: Monica Lowenberg
As I explained in my letter your suggestion that you come to the conference, read a statement and then leave is contrary to all principles of academic discussion and I therefore cannot accept it.
Yours faithfully,
Antony PolonskyOn Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:38 PM, Monica Lowenberg wrote:
13 December 2012
Dear Professor Polonsky,
As you well know, my offer to leave after reading the petition was to avoid disturbing your conference; I would be more than happy to stay and discuss. This seems yet another lame attempt to deflect attention from the one and only main point: Whether people who attend this conference are permitted to know about the petition and these constructive requests being made to the Lithuanian government? The petition is not about your book or your colleagues. It is addressed to the Lithuanian government, as you well know.
I am shocked and flabbergasted that the request for five minutes to read out a petition to the Lithuanian government (that is sponsoring your conference at UCL), to read it out on behalf of the Holocaust survivor community and many hundreds of people who hold opinions different to your own, strikes you as contrary to principles of academic discussion. Hundreds of people have signed the petition, including Holocaust survivors from Lithuania, eminent scholars and many Lithuanian citizens. What is very sad for me is that an East European government’s PR budget to subvert open debate can jettison free discussion, to the point where professors from the west who have received awards and knighthoods from that government are so afraid that an audience in London might be exposed to a second opinion (one at odds with the government talking points you have sent me). The petition is a public, published document with hundreds of signatures. Your attempt, on behalf of the Lithuanian government, to try to ensure that those attending your conference never find out about the petition’s very existence must fail. We shall be taking this to the provost of UCL today.
All good wishes
Monica Lowenberg
- From: Antony Polonsky
- Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:51 PM
- Subject: Re: Response with regards to Free Speech not permitted by Prof Polonsky, refusal to allow Monica Lowenberg to read out petition
Dear Ms Lowenberg,
You must do as you are best advised.
Yours faithfully,
Antony Polonsky
On 14/12/2012 11:37, Monica Lowenberg wrote:
14 December 2012
Dear Professor Berkowitz, Dr Guesnet, Prof Rapoport Albert,
Further to Professor Polonsky’s response to myself yesterday evening I am appealing to your good reason as organisers, hosts and heads of dept at UCL, an established and internationally respected university.
It has been shameful and hideous that UCL have made me beg like this to ask for 5 minutes to read out a petition to the Lithuanian government who you have in this instance tragically and unwisely collaborated with for a second time.
I am appealing to your good reason in the interest of the thousands of young people I have taught over 18 years in my capacity as a teacher in London and in Newcastle and as a former researcher and DPhil student at Sussex university. In the spirit of free speech and democracy and with the purpose of upholding all that we know is important, keeping the integrity of UCL alive a major world university which the Lithuanian government deliberately targeted for those reasons, I beg you to allow me and my father to read out the petition to the Lithuanian government on Tuesday 18 December at 10.00am.
I look forward to receiving a positive response from UCL
Yours sincerely,
Monica Lowenberg
On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Michael Berkowitz wrote:
Dear Monica,
If you have an opportunity to call me please do. I’ll try to explain why I support Professor Polonsky.
very best,
Michael
- From: Monica Lowenberg
- Date: Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 12:20 PM
- Subject: Re: REquest for UCL staff to reconsider Monica Lowenberg’s request to read out the petition infront of the Lithuanian government Tuesday 18 December 2012 with her 90 year old father Ernst Loewenberg present
- To: Michael Berkowitz
Thank you for our conversation today and for confirming that you are unprepared to allow me to read out the petition today .
As a result and as mentioned, I now do not permit that you or any of your colleagues and students at UCL have access to the documents I gave in good faith to Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith only this November concerning the 35 member of my father’s family who were murdered in the Holocaust. I am copying Frank into this email.
In view of your recent decision I cannot allow documents so personally precious to us to be handled or used in any shape or form by a university department that supports a right wing, Baltic extremist government that is using this conference for their own political aims.
Monica Lowenberg
Related Press Articles:
1. http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/94132/lithuanian-holocaust-event-duplicitous%E2%80%99
Lithuanian Shoah event is 'dulicitous' by Jennifer Lipman published in The Jewish Chronicle, 13 December 2012
2. http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/12/13/you-cannot-adulate-hitler%E2%80%99s-forces-and-be-committed-to-human-rights-and-pluralism/
'You cannot adulate Hitler's focrces and be committed to Human Rights and Pluralism' by Dovid Katz published in The Algemeiner , 13 December 2012
3. http://www.timesofisrael.com/pardoning-nazism-in-the-name-of-lithuanian-jewish-relations/
'Pardoning Nazism in the name of Lithuanian Jewish Relations' by Efraim Zuroff published in The Times of Israel , October 14, 2012
4. http://www.totallyjewish.com/
see page 11
Jewish News (UK)-Shoah Denial is being replaced by an illusive and delusive evil by Dovid Katz Defending History.com, page 11, August 2012
5. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=270124
Lithuania's Shame' by Efraim Zuroff published by The Jerusalem Post, 21 May, 2012
6. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120329/eastern-europes-hitler-nostalgia-echoes-hitler-pt-5 by Michael Goldfarb
7. http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/62983/lithuania-attacked-over-holocaust-retort
Lithuania attacked over Shoah retort by JC Reporter published in The Jewish Chronicle 2 February , 2012
8. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/don-t-rehabilitate-the-guilty-1.407063
'Don't rehabilitate the guilty' by Efraim Zuroff published in Haaretz 13 January 2012
9. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/women-of-courage-rachel-margolis-2236081.html
10. http://www.thejc.com/the-holocaust/44728/a-shameful-shoah-whitewash
'A shameful Shoah whitewash' by Efraim Zuroff published in The Jewish Chronicle, 4 February 2011
11. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
To equate Soviet and Nazi crimes is dishonest and historically false. Why has this poisonous idea taken such deep root? by Jonathan Freedland in Vilnius , published in The Guardian, 14 September, 2010
12. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/32432/the-crime-of-surviving
' The Crime of Surviving. By arguing that Nazi and Soviet crimes are equal, Lithuania is airbrushing the Holocaust out of its history'
13. http://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/21392/europe-must-focus-baltic-hate
Europe must focus on Baltic hate
We must continue to push the issue of Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian antisemitism by John Mann MP, published in the Jewish Chronicle October 29, 2009
Eastern Europe's long-buried truths
The Tories' new rightwing European allies have provoked a debate over the second world war that is long overdue by Efraim Zuroff published in The Guardian 14 October, 2009
15. http://www.neweasterneurope.eu/node/579 Lithuania Behind the EU Wheel (with criminals in power?) by Linas Jegelevicius 19 December 2012 published by New Eastern Europe
| 16. Instead of Truth about the Holocaust – Myths about Saving Jews by Pinchos Fridberg 15 January 2013 Algemeiner However, my opinion will hardly be of interest for Mr Zingeris, a Lithuanian politician of Jewish descent. To my mind, the authorities are using his Jewish ... 17. Efraim Zuroff's 15 February 2013 Vilnius Press Conference on the Eve of State-Sanctioned City-Center Neo-Nazi Marches Kaunas 16.02.2013, Vilnius 11.03.2013 http://defendinghistory.com/
18. Newsletter der Botschaft des Staates Israel 15.02 2013
Der Kampf des Enkels eines SS-mannes um die Renten fuer die Ueberlebenden der Ghettos von Ofer Adret, first published in Haaretz 15.02.2013 http://newsletter.cti- Article regarding Uri Hanoch, survivor of Kovno ghetto that held the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas
by Jennifer Lipman Jewish Chronicle 14.02.2013
21. Bernard Dichek's article in the Jerusalem Report
on Lithuanian issues 22 April 2013:
http://defendinghistory.com/
|
Related Web Sites and Books:
Hitler's Foreign Executioners by Christopher Hale British non-fiction writer and documentary producer.
Simon Wiesenthal Centre
3. http://vimeo.com/38155215 A mesmerising film (a full-length documentary) about the Vilna Yiddish Institute.
4. http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/
Additional research by Graeme Atkinson, Steve Silver and the
HOPE not hate international network
see page 49 regarding Lithuania
5. The UN Human Rights Committee Calls on Lithuania for More Answers, More Action”
Geneva 11 July 2012
The United Nations Human Rights Committee finalised the examination of the 3rd periodic report of Lithuania, which took place on 10 and 11 July 2012 in Geneva.
“The Human Rights Committee expressed grave concern about past demonstrations led by neo-Nazis, who openly displayed swastikas. The State referenced the freedom of assembly, but was reminded by the Committee that freedoms of assembly and expression are not absolute rights – they must be managed by the State when they are in violation of human rights.”
[Excerpt from the 11 July 2012 UN Human Rights Report, Geneva] full text: http://www.ccprcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/LITHUANIA-11-July.pdf
6. In view of the fact that in July 2013 the Lithuanian government will be
honoured with the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, please consider voting on all three petitions listed :
Lithuania
1. Petition to ban this year's neo-nazi march in central Vilnius,
http://www.change.org/petitions/lithuanian-ambassador-to-the-united-states-ban-neo-nazis-from-desecrating-the-dignity-of-lithuania-s-independence-day
2. To remove monuments to Nazi war criminals throughout Lithuania
3. To mark progress across an array of issues the Lithuanian government could easily make progress on.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee finalised the examination of the 3rd periodic report of Lithuania, which took place on 10 and 11 July 2012 in Geneva.
“The Human Rights Committee expressed grave concern about past demonstrations led by neo-Nazis, who openly displayed swastikas. The State referenced the freedom of assembly, but was reminded by the Committee that freedoms of assembly and expression are not absolute rights – they must be managed by the State when they are in violation of human rights.”
[Excerpt from the 11 July 2012 UN Human Rights Report, Geneva] full text: http://www.ccprcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/LITHUANIA-11-July.pdf
6. In view of the fact that in July 2013 the Lithuanian government will be
honoured with the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, please consider voting on all three petitions listed :
Lithuania
1. Petition to ban this year's neo-nazi march in central Vilnius,
http://www.change.org/petitions/lithuanian-ambassador-to-the-united-states-ban-neo-nazis-from-desecrating-the-dignity-of-lithuania-s-independence-day
2. To remove monuments to Nazi war criminals throughout Lithuania
3. To mark progress across an array of issues the Lithuanian government could easily make progress on.
Video links first published by Defendinghistory.com
Links to articles first published by Defendinghistory.com
Update 02.01.2013
Endorsement of Neo-Nazi March in Vilnius, Lithuania 2013, coming from a high official of a state sponsored institution on genocide!
The neo-Nazis response to the gentle municipality's suggestion that they move their march to the parallel street by the river (frankly itself prestigious, central, salient etc) now appears on their website:
They refuse to move, will congregate at the Cathedral Square as always. This is signed by Ric[h]ardas C[h]ekutis, ( http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=213523 )who continues to be officially employed as a 'senior specialist' on war crimes issues [!] for the state sponsored Genocide Center (which maintains close ties with with the red-brown commission) and which runs the state funded Genocide Museum.
Video Clip of
Joe Koren, chair of Latvia without Nazism, meeting up with Neo Nazis in Latvia who also attend the Neo Nazi March in Vilnius, See in particular 6.52
Update on February 16, 2013 March in Kaunas
If there were any lingering doubts that the “patriotic youth movement” is inspired by Nazism and obsessed with the Holocaust (if the sign featuring Ambrazevicius was somehow not enough), such doubts were dispelled by the number of young men who flaunted, as if it were a flag, the Lithuanian translation paperback edition of Norman Finkelstein’s The Holocaust Industry.
The Jewish Community of Lithuania on Saturday slammed a march organized by the Lithuanian National Youth Union to mark the Day of Restoration of the ...
3. Efraim Zuroff's 15 February 2013 Vilnius Press Conference on the
Eve of State-Sanctioned City-Center Neo-Nazi Marches
Kaunas 16.02.2013, Vilnius 11.03.2013 http://defendinghistory.com/
Kaunas 16.02.2013, Vilnius 11.03.2013 http://defendinghistory.com/
Update on 11 March 2013 march Vilnius
Lithuanian Prime Minister's comments on yesterday's march:
3. Anna Shepherd's eyewitness report of the event:
The fourth episode of the Lithuanian feminist show Žibutė is the first one accessible in English. It is our first attempt to make sure some of our local and troubling issues come out of the Lithuanian closet so that local feminists and activists find solidarity with allies abroad.
This episode is based on the show we did a few months ago in response to a wave of internet bullying and police investigation, which targeted a group of local feminists. The reason for this vengeful campaign of terror was the participation of these feminists in an antifascist protest on the 19th of January in Vilnius (Lithuania). The protest was part of a global antifascist response in solidarity with Greek antifascists. Eventually, the police investigation was terminated, but a campaign of bullying continues to this day and is no longer limited to the internet.
This episode is based on the show we did a few months ago in response to a wave of internet bullying and police investigation, which targeted a group of local feminists. The reason for this vengeful campaign of terror was the participation of these feminists in an antifascist protest on the 19th of January in Vilnius (Lithuania). The protest was part of a global antifascist response in solidarity with Greek antifascists. Eventually, the police investigation was terminated, but a campaign of bullying continues to this day and is no longer limited to the internet.
7. Lina Zigelyte's new essay on women in Lithuania who have stood up to the neo-Nazis and sometimes found themselves harassed both by the neos as well as the prosecutors and police..... published 13 May 2013
Reading List
first published by Defending History.comThe Holocaust in Lithuania
NEW:Map; Holocaust Atlas by Milda Jakulytė-Vasil; David Bankier’s Holocaust Testimonials from Provincial Lithuania (Yad Vashem); Video clips.
Materials in English for Holocaust Studies Educators and Students
VERSION OF 1 JANUARY 2013
———
I: ONLINE RESOURCES
Note: This list does not include translations from the Yizkor Book or memoir literature on individual towns. Many can be accessed by town name on JewishGen, via the Holocaust Map of Lithuania (using prewar residence as point of departure) or the current Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas project that documents the mass graves of Lithuania and their history.
Konrad Kwiet, “The Onset of the Holocaust: The Massacre of the Jews in Lithuania in June 1941” in Andrew Bonnell, Gregory Munro and Martin Travers (eds), Power, Conscience, and Opposition, Peter Lang: New York 1996, pp 107-121.Konrad Kwiet, “Rehearsing for Murder: The Beginning of the Final
Solution in Lithuania in June 1941” in Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
12.1 (Spring 1998), pp. 3-26.
Joseph Levinson, “The LAF [Lithuanian Activist Front] and the First Acts of the Provisional Government” in his The Shoah in Lithuania, Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum and Vaga: Vilnius 2006, pp 163-224.
II: BOOKS AND PAPERS
Yitzhak Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union. University of Nebraska: Lincoln & Yad Vashem: Jerusalem 2009, 701 pp.
Yitzhak Arad, Ghetto in Flames. Holocaust Publications: Washington DC 1983.
Christoph Dieckmann, “The Role of Lithuanians in the Holocaust” = pp. 149-168 in Beate Kosmola and Feliks Tych (eds), Facing the Nazi Genocide: Non-Jews and Jews in Europe, Berlin: Metropol, 2004.
David Gaunt, Collaboration and Resistance during the Holocaust: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Peter Lang: Bern 2004.
Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy. Fontana / Collins 1990 [and other editions]. On Lithuania: pp. 51, 78, 154, 182, 234-5, 281, 339. 620, 722, 798-9, 799. On Vilnius: pp. 22, 39, 60, 91, 92, 168, 170, 177, 185-6, 192-5, 206-8, 216-7, 219, 228, 233, 234, 246, 339, 486, 544, 559, 568-9, 583, 590, 592-3, 595, 598, 606-7, 608, 620, 699, 703-4, 735, 777, 788. On Kaunas: pp. 51, 117-8, 124, 153, 155, 157, 161, 168, 178, 180-1, 189-90, 196, 199, 208, 222-7, 229, 234, 235, 323, 520, 554, 593-4, 640-1, 645-6, 664, 678. 702, 741, 783, 786, 799.
Martin Gilbert, Atlas of the Holocaust. William Morrow 1993 [and other editions]. On Lithuania: Maps 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 25, 26, 33, 36, 42, 74, 75, 87, 88, 98, 99, 182, 214, 274, 316. On Vilnius: 1, 2, 4. 11, 14, 28, 3, 71, 73, 75, 83, 86, 87, 94, 96, 98, 170, 176, 185, 186, 195, 202, 208, 209, 210, 215, 219, 224, 226, 244, 247, 260, 261, 267, 272, 274, 308, 311, 313, 314.
Martin Gilbert, Never Again. Universe Publishing [and other editions; also available in Lithuanian translation]. On Lithuania: pp. 12, 13, 19, 20, 22, 49, 62, 63, 64, 64, 71, 99, 105, 109, 147, 151, 153, 158, 160, 177. On Vilnius: pp. 17, 38, 40, 41, 44, 48, 56, 68, 69, 70, 79, 81, 119, 125, 163, 167, 168, 175. On Kaunas: pp. 7, 17, 49, 63, 68, 69, 78, 96-9, 100, 101, 109, 119, 124, 125, 148, 152, 161, 171, 174.
Sara Ginaite, Resistance and Survival: The Jewish Community in Kaunas, Lithuania, 1941-1944. Mosaic Press: Oakville, Ontario 2006. [also available in Lithuanian]
Masha Greenbaum, “The Bloodbath” = pp 302-339 in her The Jews of Lithuania. A History of a Remarkable Community 1316-1945. Gefen Publishing House: Jerusalem & Hewlett, NY 1995.
Dovid Katz, “On three definitions: Genocide, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Obfuscation” in Leonidas Donskis (ed), A Litmus Test Case of Modernity. Examining Modern Sensibilities and the Public Domain in the Baltic States at the Turn of the Century [= Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe 5], Peter Lang: Bern 2009, pp 259-277. At: http://www.
Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen & Volker Riess (eds), “Pogroms in Kaunas and elsewhere in Lithuania” = pp 23-58 in their ‘The Good Old Days’. The Holocaust as Seen by its Perpetrators and Bystanders. Foreword by Hugh Trevor-Roper [Oxford University]. Free Press (Macmillan): New York 1991.
Herman Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Edited and introduced by Benjamin Harshav. Translated by Barbara Harshav. Yivo and Yale University Press: New Haven & London 2002.
Dov Levin, “World War II, the Holocaust and the Jewish Survivors” = pp 187-247 in his The Litvaks. A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania. Yad Vashem: Jerusalem 2000.
Joseph Levinson (ed), The Shoah (Holocaust) in Lithuania. Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum: Vilnius 2006. [Note: original edition in Lithuanian].
Rachel Margolis, Partisan from Vilna[memoir]. With an introduction by Professor Antony Polonsky. Afterword by Marjorie Margolis. Academic Studies Press: Boston 2010.
Ephraim Oshry, The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry. Judaica Press: New York 1995. [original Yiddish edition: Khurbn Lite, NY 1951].
Dina Porat, “The Holocaust in Lithuania. Some Unique Aspects” = pp. 159-174 in David Cesarani (ed.), The Final Solution. Origins and Implementation, Rutledge: New York 1996.
Joshua Rubenstein and Ilya Altman (eds), “Lithuania” = pp 277-315 in their The Unknown Black Book. The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories.Indiana University Press: Bloomington & Indianapolis 2008.
Kazimierz Sakowicz, Ponary Diary 1941-1943. A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder. Edited by Yitzhak Arad. Preface by Rachel Margolis [rediscoverer of the manuscript and publisher of the original Polish edition of 1999]. Yale University Press: New Haven & London 2005.
Michael Shafir, Between Denial and “Comparative Trivialization”: Holocaust Negationism in Post-Communist East Central Europe. Hebrew University: Jerusalem 2002 [= The Vidal Sasoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, ACTA no. 19].
N.N. Shneidman, Jerusalem of Lithuania: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Vilnius. Mosaic Press: Oakville, Ontario 2002.
N.N. Shneidman, Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto. Mosaic Press: Oakville, Ontario 2002.
Sara Shner-Neshamit, “Jewish-Lithuanian Relations during World War II: History and Rhetoric” = pp 167-184 in Zvi Gitelman (ed), Bitter Legacy. Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR. Indiana University Press: Bloomington & Indianapolis.
Lyn Smith, Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust. Carroll & Graf: New York [memoir by Juozas Aleksynas, member of the 12th & 13th Lithuanian police battalion, on pp 96-98].
Karen Sutton, The Massacre of the Jews of Lithuania. Lithuanian Collaboration in the Final Solution 1941-1944. Gefen Publishing House: Jerusalem & New York 2008.
Abraham Tory, Surviving the Holocaust. The Kovno Ghetto Diary. Edited with an introduction by Martin Gilbert. Textual and historical notes by Dina Porat. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass 1990.
Tomas Venclova, “Jews and Lithuanians” in his Forms of Hope. Sheep Meadow Press: 2002.
Sima Ycikas, “Lithuanian-Jewish Relations in the Shadow of the Holocaust” = pp 185-213 in Zvi Gitelman (ed), Bitter Legacy. Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR. Indiana University Press: Bloomington & Indianapolis.
Isaac Zibuts et al, The Sounds of Silence. Traces of Jewish Life in Lithuania. R. Paknio Leidykla: Vilnius 2009. [Note: parallel, concurrent edition in Lithuanian].
Efraim Zuroff, Operation Last Chance: One Man’s Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice. Palgrave Macmillan: New York & Basingstoke 2009.
When Cassedy Came to London Town
O P I N I O N / E Y E W I T N E S S A C C O U N T
by Emily Sheinbaum
On a rainy London evening, Thursday the 7th of March, six protesters met at University College London (UCL), for Cassedy had come to town. Her public talk initially scheduled to take place in the Garwood lecture theatre was unexpectedly changed to the Medawar Lankester lecture theatre two days prior. People on the Hebrew department’s Institute of Jewish Studies email list were notified of the change in venue but the details were, curiously enough, not updated on UCL’s website.
Nevertheless, despite such last minute logistical alterations, protesters against Cassedy’s book tour that is underway “in association” with the Lithuanian government met at 6:30 PM in the narrow corridor leading to the Lankester theatre. By a small table they strategically positioned themselves ready to warmly greet the 45 odd attendees who politely walked past and eagerly took handouts concerning the Lithuanian government’s recent actions since 2006, Ms. Cassedy’s association with the government, petitions, letters and book reviews.
Nervous and horrified at the welcome committee, Cassedy and Professor Berkowitz (a lecturer at UCL and coorganizer with the Lithuanian Embassy in London of the scandalous “No Simple Stories” Part Two conference in December 2012) took a leaflet and swiftly walked past. In total 63 leaflets were handed out and 40 rather large press packs, each approximately 20 pages long, and with the full text of the book reviews by Allan Nadler, Dovid Katz, Olga Zabludoff and Efraim Zuroff.
At seven sharp, handouts on desks, pens to the ready, Cassedy’s talk commenced. A talk supposedly meant to cover her journey back to Lithuania to retrace her Lithuanian roots. An eclectic mix of memories conveyed in a Mills and Boon style, coupled with a smattering of (very Americanized, parody sort of) Yiddish, a few photos and recollections of conversations with Lithuanians she had serendipitously met in the Lithuanian woods, cloaked in Hollywoodesque sentiment were presented. The only thing the Lithuanian man’s yellow cottage with marigolds around it did not have was a yellow brick road leading to it and a rainbow. However, I forget that rainbow colored balloons were shown after pictures of current day Nazi marches in the center of Vilnius.
One thing that was particularly striking about the talk was not only its lack of historical knowledge but the inordinate amount of time that Ms. Cassedy devoted to not talking about her actual personal journey to Lithuania but addressing all the various issues campaigners have been asking the Lithuanian government to address in recent years. As if PR for the government is the underlying purpose, as some reviewers had felt was the case with parts of her book. Photos of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park were shown and she admitted that it was a “sad place” for there lay the bones of many people, “difficult to identify who,” not mentioning once though that the Tuskulėnai Peace Park had had, only last year, thousands of dollars pumped into it by the Lithuanian government to glorify hundreds of Jew shooters. Pictures of Nazi marches on Independence Day were shown and swiftly afterwards photos of “wacky” people carrying brightly colored balloons at a tolerance march. What were they tolerating? The neo-Nazi marches?
The reburial of Juozas Ambrazevičius Brazaitis by the Lithuanian government little over half a year ago? This was actually mentioned by Cassedy. Ambrazevičius Brazaitis was the puppet prime minister who was responsible for signing the order the Germans gave for Jews of his city, Kaunas (Kovno) to be sent to a concentration camp (it was actually a torture and murder camp), and a few weeks later signed another ordering all of Kovno’s Jews to be locked up in the ghetto within four weeks.See also: UK page; section on UCL’s Hebrew Dept. and the Lithuanian Embassy & Foreign Ministry
However, in the same breath Cassedy spoke of all the kind people who are involved in admirable initiatives today. They apparently ask Lithuanians important questions, they ask them to engage with their Jewish past and in so doing hope to create an “active civil society” that is intolerant of ”intolerance of tolerance … and stops future genocides.” But perhaps the most interesting admission was that concerning the Lithuanian government’s criminalization of Holocaust survivors. Not easy to justify something like that but Cassedy attempted to find a way. Apparently it was “not good” that they had been criminalized and it “was good” that campaigners (who?) had placed pressure on the government and apparently all was “well now.”
Question time arrived and in the interest of free speech the six protesters allowed others to ask questions first. At the fourth question, Irena Fick diplomatically asked Cassedy what she thought of Holocaust survivors such as Yitzhak Arad, the former director of Yad Vashem and Joseph Melamed, head of the major survivor organization of Lithuanian Jewry, two survivors who like Margolis and Brantsovsky were effectively criminalized by the Lithuanian government’s “pre-trial investigations” (Arad in 2006, Melamed in 2011; the campaign against Brantsovsky and Margolis started in 2008).
True to form, Cassedy bemoaned the fact that this had happened, and concluded that despite this having occurred all was now well. At this juncture Monica Lowenberg contradicted the speaker: “That is not true, Ms. Cassedy, that truly is not the case, no public apologies have been given, these elderly people are still defamed as war criminals at home and on the web.” Ms. Lowenberg, as fate would have it, was prevented by Dr. Berkowitz from reading out her international petition for a five minute slot at the December conference. But now poetic justice had come into things, and suddenly, anxious to let the sounds of silence reign, Berkowitz abruptly concluded the evening and question time was no more.
Throughout the 50 minute talk many of the attendees read with great interest the handouts, some from cover to cover.
On reflection perhaps the only genuine statement uttered throughout the entire talk would be Cassedy’s admission that her uncle had been part of the Jewish police in the Shavl (Šiauliai) ghetto. Cassedy was correct in stating that one should not judge him, his position as a Jew at such a time must have been terrible and the man over the years had kept his integrity by never denying his role, never diminishing it, never justifying it, simply accepting that that had been the case. How tragic that his niece had not learnt anything from his example. Unable to cope with the realities that the Holocaust inflicted on the individual then and now, Cassedy opts for a supposedly postmodern world where in the spirit of “tolerance” one is asked to not judge but ask questions, ask questions to a degree where Hollywood meets history. Questions become answers and the lines of reality blur to the point where wishful thinking becomes reality and fact fiction.
No longer is there a divide between perpetrators and victims and collaborators are demoted to being mere “bystanders.” In this red-brown fog which is supposedly meant to help Lithuanians forge a brighter future for themselves, a fog (and a future) based on gross historical inaccuracies and deception, all I could think of by the end of the talk was a song (melody follows Gene Pitney’s “Liberty Valance”). For when in Hollywood…
- A rainy evening in London Town
- T’was when Cassedy came around
- Had me low and had me down
- I viewed the morning with alarm
- UCL had lost its charm
- How long, I wondered, could this thing last?
- But the age of miracles hadn’t passed,
- For, suddenly, I saw that all the handouts had gone
- Cassedy had sold three books and she was done
- And through rainy London Town
- The moon shone everywhere.
