The following open letter appeared on the delfi.lt website. It is called “Reacting to Linkevičius’s Reply on Request to Review Positions on Jonas Noreika, aka General Storm.” Linas Linkevičius is the Lithuanian foreign minister. The two authors of the open letter were Audronius Ažubalis and Laurynas Kasčiūnas, members of parliament in the Homeland Union/Conservatives-Lithuanian Christian Democrats faction. Ažubalis was also a foreign minister in a previous government.
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On April 6 we contacted foreign minister Linas Linkevičius and Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius asking them to review their earlier positions regarding Jonas Noreika, aka General Storm, in light of the final and unappealable decision of the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court on April 1. We got an answer from the minister, and thank you for following the law, but from the mayor there was the usual silence, but we’ll talk about the lack of political culture [sic] another time…
Replying to the minister by open letter, we want to raise again respect for decisions by the Lithuanian courts and recall a few essential details which have been forgotten in this discussion of history policy.
It seems as if it’s clear to everyone that officials of a state under the rule of law should not ignore court decisions and laws in their activities. Especially not the fact the Lithuanian Supreme Court rehabilitated Jonas Noreika of the full extent of the Soviet accusation, that is, for cooperating with the Germans.
Minister, are those significant facts that the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court stated the courts cannot take over the functions and authorizations of the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania; that under the law on the Center the Center is a state agency to which the state has delegated investigating genocide, other crimes against humanity and war crimes and “to set state policy for research in this area as defined in this law” (law on founding and functioning of the Center, article 5, part 1a) not sufficient for you to recognize the Center’s competency in the aforementioned issues, because the law does not provide for the Foreign Minister or the International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes you mention, or individual historians, to set state policy in this area?
Minister, you said you are “well acquainted with the Center’s opinion of Jonas Noreika,” based on the Center’s finding of 2017 which says Noreika’s actions cannot be viewed as wholly this or that, but you haven’t taken into account the latest discoveries and findings by the Center, and they say: “Jonas Noreika actively contributed to the rescue of Jews; Jonas Noreika should be considered a member of the anti-Nazi resistance right from the time he began in the post of head of the Šiauliai district; in 1941 Lithuanians, Jews and the majority of Germans didn’t know ghettos were one of the stages of the Holocaust.” So again we ask of you that this official finding by an institution setting state policy on these matters–the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania–be sent to all Lithuanian diplomatic representations so that if be followed, if need be.
Reading your answer we can only feel sorrow over your statement “Noreika shouldn’t be lionized because of his participation in the process of forming ghettos” which, it appears, directly witnesses to an inaccurate understanding of the history of that time-period and in effect regurgitates Soviet propaganda against Jonas Noreika spread in propaganda publications prepared by the KGB, for example, Masinės žudynės Lietuvoje [Mass Murders in Lithuania], part 2, Vilnius, 1973, pp. 8-10. It is appropriate here to mention an historical episode as well: German courts rejected accusations of Holocaust culpability against the real instigators and commanders of the ghettos in the Šiauliai military district, Hans Geweckei and his deputy Evaldas Bubas, and also against the later commander of the Šiauliai ghetto/concentration camp Herman Shflöf [sic], because the ghettos at that time was the only place of survival provided to Jews. Gewecke presented evidence to the court showing in 1941 the Jews of the Šiauliai ghetto only survived because they lived in the ghetto, and that he was able to oppose Karl Jėger’s [sic] directives to exterminate the Jews.
Minister, in your reply you confirmed that “Noreika’s achievements for Lithuania cannot be denied” and yet right here you do deny them, leveling against him accusations many times debunked by the Center of forming ghettos and seizing the property of Jews. It is especially significant here that the priest Stasys Yla who was imprisoned with Noreika at the Stutthof concentration camp testified in his memoirs Noreika and his comrades were supposed to have been shot under charges laid by Karl Jėger, the main murderer of the Jews of Lithuania and the head of the SS and SD in Lithuanian territory (Yla, Stasys. “Žmonės ir žvėrys Dievų miške” [People and Beasts in the Forest of the Gods]).
Your letter also makes appeal to the position of a subcommittee of the [International] Commission on the Center’s finding of March 27, 2019, “On Accusations against Jonas Noreika (General Storm),” but it must be stressed that it is not the Commission but the Center which as directed by law “to set state policy,” and also that members of this Commission have not investigated Noreika’s actions in detail, especially in the anti-Nazi underground, so its position should be viewed as a political statement rather than a finding by researchers. Finally, the position itself was expressed before the testimony of the priest Boreika, an important rescuer of Jews, in Noreika’s favor was discovered.
Minister, we unconditionally agree with the information presented in your letter that the Foreign Minister in the near future will begin an information campaign dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II which will remind the foreign audience the end of the war did not bring freedom for Lithuania and other states in Central and Eastern Europe, but 50 years of occupation. We have no doubt researches from the Center who have over 30 years accumulated gigantic expertise in researching the occupations of Lithuania will be included in preparing the Foreign Ministry’s campaign.
Minister, for our part we hope to receive an invitation to become active participants in this campaign, together with our colleagues from parliament, to inform the audience abroad about historical memory of such importance to Lithuania and Central and Eastern Europe.
Full text in Lithuanian here.