We, Holocaust survivors from Lithuania, join the Jewish and Litvak communities, and lovers of good poetry everywhere, in honoring the centenary of the birth of our beloved late member, the great Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever (July 15th 1913 – January 20th 2010). As is well known, Sutzkever served as a partisan in the underground during the Holocaust where he courageously participated in the war to liberate Europe from Nazi domination.

Though aged in years we are robust of spirit, and wish to take this opportunity to publicly express our opposition to the opportunistic and hypocritical events in Vilnius this summer to honor Sutzkever, while Lithuanian prosecutors have yet to issue public apologies to those of Sutzkever’s comrades-in-arms, fellow Jewish anti-Nazi partisans, who have been defamed by Lithuanian government organs in a series of shambolic “pre-trial investigations” designed to smear for history the names of the Jewish resistance fighters of World War II.

In the absence of public apologies to Dr. Yitzhak Arad, Ms. Fania Yocheles-Brantsovsky, Dr. Rachel Margolis and attorney Joseph Melamed, these “Sutzkever events” constitute a cunning component of a Lithuanian government sponsored campaign to deflect attention from its massive distortion of the Holocaust by way of professing adulation of a Jewish poet who would himself have been subject to these kangaroo investigations had he lived.

Those who participate in these events, and who judge or accept Sutzkever prizes, will go down in history as opportunists, lackeys and abusers of Holocaust memory and of Sutzkever’s name, unless they use the occasion to issue public written statements calling for official apologies to the defamed Jewish partisan veterans, comrades of Abraham Sutzkever, before any ceremonies, events and spectacles in Vilnius.

We feel confident that this would without a doubt be the sentiments of our dear Abrasha – the great Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever.

http://historyfoundation.ru:80/ru/news_item.php?id=2663

Article in Russian published electronically 9 October 2012

The Vilnius University has recently published an anti-Semitic file (article) created by the Lithuanian artist Antanas Shakalis. This article deals with events in Kaunas between the dates of 23-26 of June 1941 and that justifies the mass murder of Jews committed by Lithuanian nationalists even before the establishment of the German occupation authorities. This article appears in “defending history.com” In an accompanying letter regarding the article while preparing the publication Vilnius University stressed the authors’ cherished democratic and humanistic traditions

We should remember that Lithuania was under German occupation during the first days of the Great Patriotic War and that the Soviet government agencies forced to leave Kaunas. Following on the 23rd of June the LAF ( Lietuvos aktivistu frontas) started a revolt against the Soviet Government and immediately started the ethnic cleansing. From 25 to 29 of June Lithuanian nationalists led by Algirdas Klimaitis carried out the massacre the Kaunas Jews that murdered about 4000 people. Mass murder took place also at the Lietukis garage, a pre war cooperative. This mass murder was the beginning of the mass extermination of Jews in Lithuania. During the 4th and 6th of June thousands of Jews were murdered in the Ninth Fort Mass executions also started in Ponar near Vilnius.

On October 29th there was a another major massacre in the 9th fort near Kaunas where 9200 Jews including 2007 men, 2930 women and 4273 children were murdered. People were shot, beaten to death with clubs, pipes were pipes were forced into their mouths and the pressure of the water tore the internal organs apart. All were subjected to various kinds of torture and humiliation.

However in the commemorative file text related to those events, the University of Vilnius presents it as a product of “democracy and humanism” and appears in a completely different light.

According to Mr. Shakalis the June 23rd 1941 uprising began in Kaunas. It sought to recover the independence of Lithuania. Patriots in other cities also rebelled. The last NKVD officials fled From Kaunas (most of them were Jews and Russians) They hurried to the former Lietukis garage where the mechanics repaired vehicles and demanded that they be transported to Russia. Part of the mechanics ran and asked the people to protect them from the communists and they were filled with madness. Now there is a lot of talk about the pogroms that began in Lithuania and that have never happened but there is no explanation on who is most responsible for the genocide and carnage of our people, Tolerance and humanism of our people are so great that actually tens of thousands of our people rescued Jews during the German occupation. And where is a Jew who served in the NKVD that saved us from the hell of the Gulags? Finally the Jews could often be found at the highest levels of the NKVD.

It should be noted that Mr. Shakalis has repeatedly used anti Semitic and even pro Nazi rhetoric.

In 2008 he published articles with anti Polish slogans, accusing the government of pre war Poland “in the genocide of the Lithuanian people”. Commemorative articles with his illustrations caused outrage in Poland and on the 27th of this year, under pressure from the international community the University of Vilnius was forced to remove the Antanas Shakalas commemorative files from the exhibition because all of them had anti Semitic content.

In one of his publications he accused the Israeli historian and director of the Holocaust museum in Israel, Yad Vashem Mr. Yizhak Arad of murder. Under the caption “expert with bloody hands” he states that that he served in the NKVD and murdered forest brothers “who fought for the freedom of Lithuania from Soviet occupation”

Interestingly the file includes a picture of Alexander Lileikis a Nazi collaborator who took part in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and states the contribution of this “great son” of Lithuania to the statehood of Lithuania is undervalued.

One of the other files Shows a rabbi and underneath a caption: “We will live like brothers and pay like the Jews” The explanation of this exhibit was meant that the Jews evade paying taxes.

The director of the Institute of Human Rights Monitoring Henrikas Mickevicius commented on the exhibition: “There is no art, no value in it. This is tasteless in terms of content and in terms of esthetics. Obviously the use of stereotypes no doubt is gross; I will be honest and say that this is the result of mentally dwindling and senile mans imagination” He was also surprised that the University of Vilnius even intended to open the exhibition

Distribution of such printed material by a leading university of the country within the European Union is extremely strange although it fits into the Lithuanian authorities’ pursued policy of silence regarding the crimes committed by the Lithuanian nationalists during World War II and the post war period.

Translated to English by Abe Lawre with the following comment, "an overwhelming majority of the local population agree with Shakalis' anti-Semitic ranting but would not express themselves in public". The actions of the Lithuanian Governments since regaining independence, the unwillingness to face the truth, to deal with the mass murderers confirms this fact. Suffice to read the occasional comments in the Lithuanian press to understand that little has changed, that intolerance, hate and greed are still as prevalent as ever.and are at the basis of this behavior.”

Lithuanian Jews in Israel are living witnesses to the terrible Holocaust and destruction of the majority of Lithuanian Jewry. We have important messages to the world, to the Lithuanain people and most importantly to our future generations. We represent a magnificent Jewry, which, during its existence, developed a unique heritage, spiritual tradition and moral ethos which we have a duty to commemorate and perpetuate. At the same time we have to do our utmost to prevent the distortion and falsification of the history of the Holocaust of Lithuanian Jewry, in particular the role played by Lithuanians in its execution.

In the contemporary arena, we have to fight against the wave of anti-semitic propaganda and anti-semitism in general rampant in Lithuania, the refusal of the Lithuanian Government to bring war criminals to justice, to restore citizenship rights and return or compensate for robbed property to Lithuanian Jews living in Israel or their descendents