by Sergejus Kanovičius

The noise generated as soon as an excerpt from Rūta Vanagaitė’s book “Mūsiškiai” was published was phenomenal in the true sense of the word. The passage released is almost certainly a transcription of an interview Saulius Beržinis conducted almost two and a half decades ago, one of many he did with Holocaust perpetrators. It says nothing about the book or its worth.

A bit later several interviews with the author and several responses to the facts recited in those interviews appeared. Writers, historians, publishers and known and unknown public figures began immediately discussing and judging the unread book, some even compared to a great work of literature and mused upon questions of metaphysical guilt and the effect of the Holocaust on society. For some of the non-readers it was enough that famous Holocaust historian and Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff attended the presentation of the book and participated in its creation: right-wing non-readers immediately christened the unread book a provocation by the Kremlin intended to sow ethnic discord. One long-time Conservative Party member even fretted the book would ruin Lithuania and Israel’s wonderful relations, although she was unable to explain exactly the connection between Lithuania’s inability to come to terms with its past and foreign policy.

In an addendum to a piece on International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations around the world, the Jerusalem Post reported the publication of a new book by Efraim Zuroff, “co-authored” by Lithuanian Rūta Vanagaitė:

“Also on Tuesday, Zuroff launched his new book ‘Our People: Journey with an Enemy’ in Lithuania. Co-authored with Ruta Vanagaite, the writers accuse the current Lithuanian government of trying to ‘hide or minimize the role of Lithuanian collaborators during the Holocaust.'”

Full text here.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was marked at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius with a minute of silence and a reading of the names of Holocaust victims. Cantor Shmuel Yaatov offered song and prayer for those who perished. Students from the Vilnius ORT Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium, Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, deputy Lithuanian foreign minister M. Bekešius and may others took turns reading the names. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky addressed the audience, calling on them to pray for the Jews of Lithuania brutally murdered, and said there was a noticeable lack of an official reaction or even a minute of silence to remember the circumstances of the brutal mass murder of Jewish Lithuanian citizens by the leaders of the country.

Eye-witness Edmundas Zeligmanas, whose father was murdered as he watched by white armbanders, recalled the horrific mass murders in Šilalė during the first days of war in 1941. After his father’s murder, they murdered many members of the Jewish community the next day. The mass murders were so bloody and so swift there wasn’t time for the earth to absorb all the blood, and it flowed into a small stream which turned red.

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, has posted a set of testimonies by Holocaust survivors:

They Survived the Holocaust. Survivors’ Accounts

It is truly difficult to find words to describe the ultimate atrocities of the Holocaust. Therefore, the words of those who managed to survive the Genocide are all the more important. For the International Holocaust Remembrance Day we present the survivors’ accounts from the oral history collection of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Webpage here.

by Ellen Cassedy, author of We Are Here

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, teachers and students in Lithuania will launch a project called “The Rescue of Another is the Highest Human Virtue.”

Across the country, high school students and community elders will work together to seek out untold stories of rescue. The goal is to “encourage the younger generation to understand that everyone is responsible for his or her actions, that good deeds and noble actions reveal a person’s moral and spiritual value,” organizers say.

The vast majority of Lithuania’s Jews perished during the Holocaust. Some Jews were saved by neighbors who smuggled them out of ghettos, pulled them out of death marches, concealed them in barns and cubbyholes, and secretly passed them from home to home.

VILNIUS, January 27, BNS–Lithuania paid tribute to victims of the Holocaust Wednesday, reading names and recalling the stories of rescues of Jews during International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Vilnius synagogue is hosting a reading of the first and last names of Holocaust victims, followed by prayers and memories shared by Holocaust survivors.

Meanwhile, a gymnasium in Ariogala in the Raseniai district organized a national conference of school students to present dramatic rescue stories and share memories shared by representatives of Jewish communities from across Lithuania.

by Geoff Vasil

Rūta Vanagaitė presented her new book, Mūsiškiai [Our Own People], about Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, Holocaust complicity, Jewish victims and contemporary attempts to wriggle out of it to a packed room mainly filled with Lithuanian reporters Wednesday morning.

Rūta Vanagaitė (courtesy National Geographic Channel)

The venue was extremely strange: a small cafe called Submarine. Vanagaitė chose the location as the site where the murderous Ypatingasis būrys unit [Special Unit, often called simply Ypatingasis or Ypatingas in Holocaust literature in English] had their headquarters during the Holocaust. Vanagaitė said she would lead the audience up to the second floor after the book presentation to the main offices where Ypatingasis once planned the mass murder of the Jews of the region.