‘Lithuanians still regarded as a Jew-killing nation’: book in US throws spotlight on Holocaust controversy
27
The restored memorial plaque to Jonas Noreika-Vėtra in Vilnius. / BNS
A controversial World War Two figure keeps dominating discussions about Holocaust memory in Lithuania, with a new book pointing at the country s alleged failure to acknowledge the role of its lionised figures in killing Jews.
In her new book The Nazi s Granddaughter: How I Discovered My Grandfather was a War Criminal, American journalist and publicist Silvia Foti details her discoveries about her grandfather Jonas Noreika. Revered by many in Lithuania as a resistance fighter against the Soviet occupation, Noreika has also collaborated with the Nazis during World War Two.
Rick Halperin is the director of the Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Ruins of the Great Choral Synagogue of Riga, Latvia, which was burned by Nazis with Jewish victims inside on July 4, 1941.
We’ve got a lot on our collective plates and minds, coping with a pandemic and the frustrating partisan politics that continue to mire progress.
It would be natural for us at this time to embrace the rites of Spring and avoid the haunting historical memories and anniversaries of the Holocaust that began to occur 80 years ago in Europe, and which continued beyond the end of World War II in 1945.
LRT English Newsletter: Don’t visit your grandma just yet
2
Quarantine in Lithuania. / D. Umbrasas/LRT
LRT English Newsletter – April 9, 2021.
Lithuania lifted the domestic travel ban as the measure has been “exhausted”, according to the health minister. Some restrictions, however, remain very much in force. Although there will be no more roadblocks, visiting your grandparents may not be such a great idea just yet – Lithuania has reported over 60,000 unused AstraZeneca doses as over-65s have been reluctant to get the AZ jab.
Lithuanian Police still set up a roadblock – this time, however, in front of the government’s building to protest the current vaccination plan. The force is the last in the priority list to receive the shot before mass vaccination is rolled out.
Holocaust victims to be commemorated at massacre site near Vilnius 2021-04-08 BNS/TBT Staff
VILNIUS – A symbolic commemorative event will be held in Paneriai, a suburb of Vilnius where tens of thousands of Jews were killed during the Holocaust, to mark the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day on Thursday.
Members of the local Jewish community, diplomats and Vilnius Ghetto survivors will lay pebbles and flowers at monuments and mass killing pits. All the required coronavirus safety precautions will be in place for the event at the Paneriai Memorial Museum, the community said. Traditionally on this occasion, we would hold a March of the Living along the same route the victims took from Paneriai Railway Station to the Paneriai Memorial, but the commemoration will not be massive this year because of the pandemic situation, Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC), told BNS.
Lithuania s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust at the Paneriai Memorial – NewsKitchen eu newskitchen.eu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newskitchen.eu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.