Lithuanian Citizenship & Restitution of property Adv. Joseph A. Melamed
The Lietuviu Aktivistu Frontas, or Lithuanian Activist Front (L.A.F.) was founded in Berlin on November 17, 1940 at the instigation of the Gestapo and other security services of the third Reich. Formed as an umbrella political grouping incorporating all Lithuanian political factions, except the communists and socialists, the LAF assisted their German mentors in plotting the genocide of Lithuanian Jewry and communists.
The organization’s ideological manifesto was drawn up by its ideologue Bronys Raila.
It referred among others, to the violation by the Judeo- Communists regime of the “eternal cornerstone of Lithuanian national aspirations” and praised the virtues of National Socialism and the German Reich drive to form a new Europe (in the spirit of Hitler’s speech regarding a “New World order”). The manifesto also envisaged a newly independent Lithuania that would expunge the “Jewish parasite” that “sucked the marrow out of the bones of the hard working Lithuanian nation and castigated the Jews that “took control of Lithuania’s towns and cities and contributed nothing to the culture and development of the homeland, preferring instead to line their pockets with the earnings of hard working Lithuanians.”
This organization subsequently formed armed underground cells in Lithuania. With the invasion by Germany in June 1941, these went on to form the partisan and “White Armband” militias that murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews in Lithuania and other countries.
Prior to the invasion the L.A.F. orchestrated a well-planned propaganda campaign. Leaflets were issued to activists in Lithuania instructing them, among other things, to inform the Jews that their fate was sealed and that they should leave Lithuania forthwith. Another leaflet instructed activists to “to seize their property at the opportune moment so that nothing remains unaccounted for.” The day before the invasion saw the release of another flier in which the L.A.F. declared, “on behalf of the entire Lithuanian nation that the traditional right of refuge granted the Jews by
Vytautas the Great is hereby terminally and conclusively revoked. All Jews are hereby warned to leave Lithuanian soil without further delay.”
It is clear that the Lithuanian legislators had these ideas in mind when they enacted the “Nationality Law” after regaining independence. Under its terms, Lithuanian “racists” were granted full citizenship.
The right of Jewish Lithuanian expatriates to citizenship was, on the other hand, subject to numerous qualifying requirements (even after the law was amended) one of which was the determination that such individuals would not qualify for citizenship if they left Lithuania to reside in their “homeland.” There are very few Lithuanian Jews left since the Lithuanians murdered most of them. And most of those who survived are willing to waive their right to Lithuanian citizenship. The problem is that the Lithuanian authorities have made all claims to restitution of the property they stole from the plaintiffs conditional on eligibility for Lithuanian citizenship. Under the new legislation, a person can only reclaim his property if he holds Lithuanian citizenship.
There surely could be no more fitting an example of the biblical adage “hast thou murdered and also inherited” than L.A.F. ‘s legacy of racism and xenophobia.