The Russian Jewish community has reacted with outrage to news of last week’s Lithuanian state reburial of its controversial former leader. Juozas Brazaitis was head of a short lived WWII-era government accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany after it ousted the Soviets from power in the Baltic state.
The state last week financed an official ceremony to honour the former leader, who was seen by some as a proponent of Lithuanian sovereignty, following the year-long brutal Soviet occupation of the country.
Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors, however, allege Brazaitis was a Nazi colluder whose cabinet did little to stop a wave of anti-Semitic pogroms that erupted at the time.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia waded into the row over the planned reburial last week, describing it as “blasphemous a week after celebrations of the 67th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (of 1941-1945)”, in an official statement.
The Federation recalled extermination of the Jewish community began at the very start of German occupation of Lithuania, during which 95% of the country’s Jews perished. It also called on the leaders of Russia, the EU and the US to give a frank estimation of “the dreadful actions of the Nazis and their abettors in the war years and revision”.
“If Lithuania and the European Union do not make such statements, we may speak about rehabilitation and Nazism in Europe”, it warned.
B’nai B’rith International added to the Russian Federation’s condemnation in a statement from its President Allan Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel Mariaschin, in which they deplored “the glorification and reinterment – with full honours – of a man who headed Lithuania’s Nazi-backed regime during the Holocaust”. The statement continued to denounce “any ideology or movement that glorifies Nazism and minimises the tragedy of the Holocaust (which) must be forcefully opposed”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry described the move by the Lithuanian government as “deeply hurtful to the families and memory of thousands of Jewish victims”.
“We (the foreign ministry) hope for the strong reaction from international partners and responsible organisations about this whitewash of fascist criminals in Lithuania”, it continued.
Today, some 5,000 Jews live in Lithuania, which has seen its total population rise to three million people, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990.

by: Shari Ryness

EJP