Heritage

Two Steps Forward, One Back

Two Steps Forward, One Back
by Geoff Vasil

Readers of the Lithuanian Jewish Community website might have been surprised yesterday by a news item appearing there in which Jonas Noreika was absolved, seemingly, of complicity in the Holocaust. Noreika is one of those names which lives on in infamy among scholars of the Lithuanian Holocaust but proffered as an anti-Soviet hero by Lithuanian nationalists. The intent of the LJC, of course, was merely to report the Lithuanian news to Jews here and abroad, and not to white-wash Noreika in any way. The news item would not have been surprising even a few years ago, but now it comes as a shock exactly because Lithuanian society has moved forward so rapidly in coming to terms with the horrible loss to the country known as the Holocaust.

In summary, a Lithuanian state institution, the Center for Research on the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania, charged with sorting out history, issued a politicized report claiming Noreika was only involved in isolating Jews during World War II, not murdering them. The report came in response to a joint call by well known figures in Lithuania, including Tomas Venclova, to remove a plaque honoring Noreika from the wall of the library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius, a move which the LJC has long championed.

The document released this week cautions Noreika’s actions “cannot be judged categorically.”

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Remembering the 74th Anniversary of the Large Action at the Kaunas Ghetto

The Kaunas Jewish Community plans to mark the 74th anniversary of the Great Action at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas at 12 noon on October 25, 2015.

Let’s remember and honor the memory of the victims.

The Large Action was the mass murder operation on October 28 and 29, 1941, during which about 10,000 people were murdered at the Ninth Fort in a single twenty-four hour period, including about 4,300 children.

Lithuanian President: Litvaks Played Special Role in Establishment of Lithuania and Israel

VILNIUS, October 21, BNS–Litvaks, or Jews originating from Lithuania, played a key role in establishing both Lithuania and Israel, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė said at the opening of the World Litvak Forum in Israel.

She said Litvaks are among the most active Israeli public, business, cultural and political figures who have worked effectively in all the parliaments of democratic Lithuania, both in the interwar period and after the country regained independence in 1990.

“Litvaks have always been among the most active Israeli public, business, cultural and political figures, they still are and will continue to be so,” the Lithuanian president said in a press release published by the presidential press service.

She applauded the Litvak contribution to the Lithuanian economy, culture and science.

President Grybauskaitė said Lithuania and Israel cherish democracy, human rights and a culture of tolerance, and that world-wide challenges including terrorism and aggression are problems the two countries share.

According to a census in 201ą, 3,000 Jews lived in Lithuania. In Israel the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry calculates there are about 200,000 Litvaks and their descendants, the world’s largest Litvak community.

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Lithuanian President Impressed by Patriotism Taught at Vilnius Jewish School

VILNIUS, October 5, BNS–Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė said she’s very happy with the way Lithuanian patriotism is being taught to students at the Vilnius Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium where many children of Lithuanian Jewish Community members attend.

“This school is also important because people of many ethnicities attend–there is much competition to enter–and it’s a high quality school. As we have seen and heard during our visit, the children are being given a sense of patriotism, as citizens of Lithuania, and that causes great joy,” president Grybauskaitė said Monday at the school. She chose to visit the school on International Teacher’s Day because of its multiethnic make-up, she told reporters, and because it was also Simchat Torah, the Jewish holiday for reading the Torah.

She said she appreciated not just that the school was modern and progressive, but also because it celebrates the traditions, culture and language of the ethnic community. “Today is truly a happy day. I am happy that this day this year coincides with your school’s joy, with the day of reading the Torah. It is a combined holiday for all us,” the president told the audience of students and staff. She also noted the school had scored very high marks in hard science tests of students going on to university, preparing the way for them to study hard science and technology.

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Monument to Gandhi and His Friend from Lithuania Unveiled

VILNIUS, October 2, BNS–A statue portraying Indian independence hero Mohandas Gandhi and his friend Jewish architect Hermann Kallenbach was unveiled Friday in Kallenbach’s hometown, Rusnė, located in the Šilutė region of Lithuania.

Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius was at the ceremony and called the bronze statue a monument to Lithuanian-Indian friendship and a testimony to the achievements of Litvaks. “Today is unveiled a monument to friendship, between two people and two peoples,” he said, standing next to the almost two-meter-tall statue of the two men on the banks of the Atmata River on the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. Gandhi and Kallenbach, who left Rusnė in his youth, became friends in South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century.

Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi attended the ceremony and said non-violent resistance unite India and Lithuania. He said Kallenbach was an important spiritual influence on his ancestor.

“Lithuania is still a little-known country in India,” Lithuanian ambassador to India Laimonas Talat-Kelpša told BNS. “This is a good opportunity to bring the attention of Indian society to Kallenbach and Lithuania.”

Lithuanian Holocaust Remembrance Day Marked in Batakiai

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Lithuanian Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed in the village of Batakiai, Lithuania, on September 23, 2015. A new monument to Holocaust victims was unveiled there.

The event at the Batakiai House of Culture began with a literary musical composition dedicated to the memory of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Batakiai High School students and teachers performed the composition which was a sensitive treatment of the Holocaust. Tauragė Regional Administration director Sigitas Mičiulis, deputy director Aušrinė Norkienė and Klaipėda Jewish Community chairman Feliksas Puzemskis spoke at the event.

Members of the audience at the event went to the mass murder site in Gryblaukis Forest. Regional administrator Sigitas Mičiulis and Klaipėda Jewish Community chairman Feliksas Puzemskis unveiled the monument to seven Jews of Batakiai murdered in 1941. A moment of silence was held, flowers were laid at the monument and candles lit. Another nearby mass murder site was visited after the ceremony where about 1,800 Jewish women and children were murdered. A moment of silence was held there, too, and flowers and candles were placed by the second monument.

Klaipėda Jewish Community News

On September 25 the Klaipėda Jewish Community visited Švėkšna for the “Let’s Save the Švėkšna Synagogue” event. A guide provided an excellent tour and told of Švėkšna, its history and important sites. Volunteers took members to the old Jewish cemetery and mass murder sites. The Klaipėda delegation met with the group from Kaunas and were treated to the songs of Vitalijus Neugasimovas.

Members of the Klaipėda Jewish Community along with the rest of the audience were much impressed with the visual presentation on the history of the Švėkšna Synagogue.

Even so, members on the return trip wondered if the money hadn’t been better spent repairing the synagogue roof.

Snapshots here:
https://www.facebook.com/klaipedajewish

Important and Needed Right Now: You’re Invited to Volunteer

The Pavilniai Regional Park administration directed by Vida Petiukonienė is currently clearing growth, brush and trees at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Užupis on Olandų street in Vilnius. Those who drive by can already see how the appearance of the cemetery has changed, it looks like a real cemetery again with clear borders and headstones and fragments of headstones visible. This is only the beginning

We are calling for volunteers to help in this important work.

The regional park director has informed us volunteers are needed to help bring the cut trees and brush to the road. There’s still a lot of work to do, so we’re suggesting not a single day of volunteer clean-up, but a whole season’s worth! Please tell your friends and family and figure out when your group might be able to come and help out. School groups are more than welcome. The director says they are ready to take on volunteers every day.

Everyone is invited. It would be best to have groups of volunteers organized and ready to lend a hand by October 10.

Pavilniai Regional Park director may be contacted directly by email at vida.petiukoniene@gmail.com

or you may contact the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s representative for heritage protection Martynas Užpelkis at paveldas@lzb.lt or by telephone at 8-615 13257

Thank you for your help.

Lith Formin: Lithuanians Discovering Rich Jewish Legacy

VILNIUS, Oct 2, BNS–The people of Lithuania keep discovering more of the rich legacy of the Lithuanian Jews, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius said in New York Friday at a meeting with representatives of American Jewish organizations.

“The people of Lithuania keep discovering more of the rich Lithuanian Jewish heritage, understand the need to preserve it and take pride in the remarkable contributions Lithuanian Jews have made to world culture,” the foreign minister said in a press release Friday evening.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry reported the meeting at the Lithuanian consulate in New York discussed anti-Semitism, Iran policy, the Middle East peace process and news about preserving Litvak culture.

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Dita Shperling: Germans Did Not Distinguish Lithuanians from Jews

“During the first days of the war the Germans who came to Kaunas couldn’t tell the difference between Jews and Lithuanians, but Lithuanians helped them to do,” Kaunas ghetto prisoner Dita Shperling recalled, citing the words of the German soldiers themselves.

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Dita (Yehudit) Schperling and her husband Yuda Zupowitch

Dita Schperling tries to travel every summer to Vilnius from Israel where she lives. She agreed to discuss her experience in the ghetto with staff from the LJC webpage.

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