The Latvian legionnaires hold annual marches in downtown Riga, and the Latvian authorities permit heroization of the Nazi and present former SS members as national heroes.

“We understand the tragedy of average Latvian boys drafted to the Waffen SS in 1943 in violation of their will and international legal norms, but many of the draftees were volunteers. What we cannot understand is how one may be proud of that fact and even set it as an example for the younger generation. We have even more questions to politicians, who estrange themselves from the Nazi march organizers by words but try to make SS members national heroes by deeds,” the local media quoted World without Nazism leader Boris Spiegel.

The human rights organization recalled that parliament deputies of All For Latvia – For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK, a member of the ruling coalition, and Lutheran priest Guntis Kalme took part in the March 16 action of the Latvian SS veterans and their young supporters. “The priest described the SS legionnaires as heroes and called for making the date the National Resistance Day. Instead of making appeals for peace, the cleric calls for armed confrontation with the Russian-speaking community and [Latvia’s] close neighbor – Russia,” the organization said.

It urged the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to discuss heroization of the Nazi in Latvia at their soonest meetings and supported the proposal of the State Duma International Affairs Committee to impose economic sanctions on Latvia.

The Riga Duma declined all the requests for holding events on March 16 in order to prevent provocations, which might have led to disturbances. Yet the Administrative District Court overruled the decision. More than 2,000 Waffen SS Latvian Legion veterans and their radical supporters marched to the Freedom Monument under state flags to commemorate the SS members. Russian-speaking antifascists met them by the monument. The square around the monument was fenced and the police made a live chain in order to prevent clashes.

The international Human rights movement «The World without Nazism» grieves and presents condolences to relatives of victims and hopes for an absolute recovery of the wounded teenager, which life still in danger.

We express confidence that terror on ethnic and religious soil is a severe reality of modern Europe. As show latest developments, from violence and aggressive xenophobia anybody is not insured.

We consider that the careful analysis of an event on the European continent and consolidation of all forces, capable to break a dangerous tendency is necessary. The international organizations and institutes, such as the Council of Europe, OSCE, the United Nations and others should play a crucial role in opposition to Neo-Nazism.

Drama events occurring before our eyes prove that time for drastic measures in struggle against the general for all Europeans harm came.

We urge all people of good will to tell  hard “no” to those,  that who tries to return the world by terrible times of Nazism and xenophobia.

Chairman of the International Human Rights Movement

“World Without Nazism” Boris  I. Shpigel

 Despite recommendations of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance to forbid “any meetings or processions, legitimizing Nazism in any kind”, the Latvian court resolved demonstration in the centre of the Latvian capital – near by the monument of Freedom, and the president of the country in on the air urged all to incline a head before the people who were at war up in arms on the party of Hitler Germany.

Before the beginning of procession neo-Nazis desecrated a wreath to victims of Nazism which the day before, in coordination with the authorities, was assigned to a monument by delegation of anti-fascists led by the chairman of human rights organization “Latvia without Nazism”  Joseph Koren.

From a wreath mourning tapes have been torn off, and it has been closed by a board with an emblem of the Latvian legion Waffen SS. Attempts of anti-fascists, including deputies of Euro Parliament to prevent desecration, have been physically stopped by neo-Nazis with support of the head of police of the law and order of Riga colonel Alexander Bukevicha.

This filthy action was accompanied by Anti-Semitic and Nazi shouting from crowd of the demonstrators, promising to repeat the Holocaust in Riga on July, 4th, 2012 when the country will mark 71 anniversary of the beginning of Accident of the Jewish people in Latvia. The police did not stop these excesses. Actually it bears responsibility for them!

10 deputies of a Parliament from the radical nationalistic fraction Visu Latvijai!  (Everything to Latvia!) took part in Nazi procession, entering into ruling coalition. Apogee of procession was the sermon of the priest of Lutheran church Guntisa Kalne which equated legionaries SS to heroes and urged to proclaim this day as the of national resistance. Instead of appeals to the peace this priest called gathered for power opposition with a Russian-speaking community and with the nearest the neighbor of their country – with Russia.

The official position of Latvia sounded by foreign policy department of this country the day before SS march, is attempt to prove with norms of democracy glorification of Waffen SS legion.

Today, however, is known to everyone, that the Latvian Waffen SS legion was created on the basis of groups of the Latvian auxiliary police – voluntary groups, guilty in mass murders of peace citizens on the territories of Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Poland, including participation in “the Jewish problem final decision”. Besides, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia should know that soldiers of 15th division of the Latvian legion of Waffen SS are directly guilty in fulfillment of crimes against prisoners of war of the Army Polish in Podgae. And it is not necessary to be the historian to understand – fighting parts of Hitler army also bear responsibility for the crimes made by a Nazi mode as these crimes occurred in the territories occupied by these fighting parts.

As to democratic norms, than Latvian diplomats are perfectly informed that the requirement of freedom of meetings are not connected  in any way to a place and time. Hence, the persevering desire to spend Nazi procession near to a symbol of the Latvian statehood – Freedom monument – and on March, 16th, in day of the first fighting collision of the Latvian legion of Waffen SS with parts of an AntiHitler coalition – is politically motivated decision. And is the motive for glorifications of Nazi.

The day before the Ministry of Education of Latvia spent at the Latvian schools so-called “patriotism lessons” which in practice were lessons of glorification of Waffen SS. Whether it is necessary after that to be surprised to hundreds young men in ranks of neo-Nazis?

Still the big cynicism is that on March, 16th nationalists from the governmental coalition submitted to a Parliament the bill of equating of veterans of Waffen SS to fighters for freedom!

We understand tragedy of the simple Latvian guys called violently to Waffen SS in 1943 in infringement of all norms of international law (though much among them was also volunteers), but we do not understand, how these can be proud, and we do not understand, how on their example it is possible to bring up rising generation! Even more questions politicians who, in words dissociating themselves from organizers of Nazi procession, and in practice try to make from SS-men national heroes.

The international human rights movement “The World without Nazism” declares in this connection the resolute protest and considers, that last days  events  in Riga as absolutely not compatible to stay of Latvia as a part of the European Union. For Modern Europe, which was  created on fragments of the third Reich under the motto “Never again”, is non-acceptable  those values which Latvia today tries to impose it.

We call members the PACE, and also Committee of ministers of the Council of Europe to consider at the nearest session a question about glorification of Nazism in this country, we urge Euro Parliament to state the estimation to these events, we support the offer of Committee on the international affairs of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on introduction of economic sanctions against Latvia, in particular about an interdiction of transit of cargoes through this country.

We call the private corporations having business contacts to Latvia, to freeze them.

We also call a management of Christian churches and other religious organizations to express the relation to an event.

Chairman of the International Human Rights Movement

“World Without Nazism” Boris Shpigel

The ongoing campaign by some East European governments to repackage far-right ultranationalist politics and policies (with concomitant antisemitic, racist and Nazi-glorifying undertones) as a wholesome British-conservative-style “center right” has suffered a major blow.  The battleground of ideas has in recent weeks shifted to the annual Waffen SS commemoration ceremony held at Liberty Monument, the symbolic heart of the capital of Latvia, with the blessing of some of the nation’s top leaders.

This year, it seemed as if the highest figures in Latvian politics had abandoned any semblance of disassociating themselves from the internationally discredited annual event that does palpable harm to Latvia’s international standing, and particularly within the European Union and NATO communities.

The Latvian president told the world that he believed people should “bow their heads” in respect to his country’s Nazi-established Waffen SS. And then, the Latvian ambassador to the United Kingdom wrote a curiously detailed letter to anti-march campaigner Monica Lowenberg, whose petition against the march amassed over six thousand signatures by today.

Less then a month before the march, the European Commission released its report condemning the Waffen SS marches as incompatible with European values. To some outside observers it had seemed that this alone this year tipped the balance, invalidating the argument that if a group of pro-Nazi combatants, who had sworn an oath to Adolf Hitler and fought for Nazi Germany did not necessarily comprise war criminals, it was therefore appropriate for a European Union and NATO country to glorify that group in a state-sanctioned center-of-the-capital-city ceremony blessed by the leaders of the land.

The positioning of police relative to the entirely peaceful anti-Nazi demonstrators seemed at times startling today. The only acts of forcefulness came from the event’s organizers and the police themselves.

Before the start of the event, a protesting delegation laid a wreath at Liberty Monument in memory of the victims of the Latvian Holocaust. Just before the actual ceremony got underway, officials covered over the wreath with the Latvian Waffen SS emblazoned sign, seeming to use the wreath as a kind of stand to keep the sign upright.

Later, during the ceremony, Joe Koren, a leader of Latvia Without Nazism, and Latvian member of the European Parliament Tatyana Zhdanok moved the wreath from under the Waffen SS sign to separate it from the Nazi-era emblem.

Mr. Koren and MEP Zhdanok were rapidly and roughly removed by police and a scuffle ensued, with a mass of photographers closing in on the scene.

For many years, state-supported pro-Nazi demonstrations throughout Eastern Europe and beyond have been unnerved by the determined and morally compelling presence of Holocaust historian, justice seeker and Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel office. Today’s march was no exception. Dr. Zuroff gave a large number of interviews to local and international media, persuasively countering the official line that honoring the Waffen SS was merely a matter of respect to some fallen soldiers.

Perhaps the most vocal condemner of the march and the phalanx of state-supported Nazi-glorifying activities was Joel Rubinfeld, co-president of the Brussels-based European Jewish Parliament. Here (at right), he is telling one of the senior police officials on hand that the event is a disgrace to the European Union and civilized society (DefendingHistory.com video in preparation).

The inimitable Joe Koren handed out concentration camp uniforms to protesters.

One of the first to don the uniform was petition organizer Monica Lowenberg of London, whose uncle, Paul Theodor Loewenberg (Levenbergs), was a German Jew who sought refuge in Latvia in 1940 and was then, after the Nazi invasion, incarcerated in the Riga Ghetto in 1941, and killed along with much of Riga Jewry at the nearby Rumbula mass murder site.

Ms. Lowenberg played a prominent role in confronting pro-fascists throughout the event. Here, arguing with a young nationalist who said he was a lawyer, she is flanked by fellow demonstrator Algirdas Paleckis, a controversial Lithuanian politician who has steadfastly combated state efforts to obfuscate the Lithuanian Holocaust and rehabilitate the local killers as supposed national heroes.

For what seemed a considerable expanse of time, Ms. Lowenberg seemed to be guarded by a designated policewoman who tried, without success, to prevent her from entering the pro-fascist area.

To add to the forces protesting the glorification of Nazism in Latvia, the Latvia without Nazism organization, led by Valery Engel and Joe Koren, held an International Roundtable on the march and on the rise of neo-Nazism in the region to coincide with the March 16th event (with a long morning coffee break to enable participation in the anti-Nazi effort).

The Roundtable was attended by a number of international participants, including Leonid Bard, executive vice president of the American Section of the World Congress of Russian Jews; Joel Rubinfeld, Co-President of the European Jewish Parliament (Brussels); Helmut Scholz, Austrian member of the European Parliament (Brussels); Masha Girshin, program director of Blue Card (New York City).

www.defendinghistory.com

Monica Lowenberg in front of Freedom Memorial with flag bearers from the National Alliance Party.

This morning, 16 March, a 47-year-old British woman, Monica Lowenberg, placed a wreath at the foot of the Freedom Monument in Riga, Latvia. She was dressed in the ghetto garb the Nazis forced Riga’s Jews to wear. Many of her family died at the hands of Germans and their Latvian collaborators.

She stood in silent witness as marchers arrived to celebrate the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS, the biggest Jew-killing machine in world history. Latvians pushed Ms Lowenberg to one side to place their own large insignia of the Latvian Waffen-SS in front of the Freedom Monument.

Below is an open letter that Ms Lowenberg wrote to the government and parliament of Latvia to explain why in 2012 she believes, rightly, that no EU member state should be honouring members of the Waffen-SS in an open public ceremony in a European capital city.

Denis MacShane

Open letter to the government and parliament of Latvia on the eve of the Waffen-SS commemoration

My name is Monica Lowenberg and I am the only child and daughter of Ernest Lowenberg, a German Jewish refugee who managed to leave Nazi Germany five days before the outbreak of war in 1939. He was 16. His mother, my grandmother Marianne Loewenberg (née Peiser), born in Leipzig, a violinist and opera singer, managed with the help of the Hinrichsens, owners of the music publishing firm C F Peters, to leave Germany in April 1939 on a domestic’s visa.

Tragically, the rest of the immediate Peiser and Loewenberg family did not manage to escape in time and were brutally murdered in the various camps or shot. My grandfather David Loewenberg or Levenbergs, born in 1877 in Libau in Latvia, was one of eight children, as I discovered only last year in the Latvian Historical State Archives in Riga. His two elder twin brothers also left Latvia, like himself, Moishe for Paris (his children worked in the French Resistance and were murdered by the Gestapo) and Abraham for Tehran. My grandfather was, from what I could gather, the only Levenberg who went to university and studied in Dresden, later making a life for himself in Berlin. He was an engineer and an inventor whose factory was taken away from him by the Nazis in 1935, forcing him to place his two sons in an orphanage.

His other brother and three sisters stayed with their parents, Minna and Lazzers (Lazzers had been a soldier), in Libau and most likely helped them out in their furniture shop. From what I have read, I must conclude that my Levenberg family who stayed in Libau were all murdered by Latvian Arajs commandos and auxiliary police in the Libau massacres of 1941.

After many years of searching for family members and even devoting ten years of my life to studying the Holocaust formally at MA and then DPhil level, working at Sussex university and the Wiener Library as an academic and education officer, I decided to go to Riga for the first time last year and try to establish what had happened to my uncle Paul, my father’s brother born in Halle, Germany, 20 January 1922.

Paul, who was a year older than my father, had not managed to get out of Nazi Germany and therefore found himself trying to leave for Palestine with the help of a Jewish youth movement. He worked first of all on a farm in Denmark before going to Riga to work in 1940. The last letter my grandmother received from him was dated 8 September 1940. In the Riga archives, I discovered that Paul had been sent to the Riga ghetto on 4 October 1941. There are no records of what happened to him. I must assume that he was killed, aged 19. In 1941 and 1942, 90 per cent of Latvia’s pre-war 62,000 Jews were killed, Latvian commandos and auxiliary police taking a leading role in their extermination.

As I am sure you can appreciate, discovering these facts has been exceptionally distressing. However, it was equally distressing to discover that the men actively involved in the mass murders of Latvia’s Jews joined the 15th and 19th Divisions of the Latvian SS in 1943. The 15th Division was the most decorated out of all Himmler’s SS divisions. In an EU country, these men are today held as “heroes” by many Latvians.

The current Latvian prime minister feels we should “bow” our heads to these Waffen-SS klillers. I also find it of deep concern that British Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament work with the Latvian MEP Roberts Zile and have made an unholy alliance with the party to which he is connected.

Last year two Latvian politicians, Dzintars Rasnacs and Raivis Dzintars, participated in the march to honour the Waffen-SS, the greatest Jew-killing machine in world history. Raivis Dzintars belongs to the national association “All For Latvia!” and was a member of the ultranationalist For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK party, to which Mr Zile is still linked.

I must also add that another party comrade of Mr Zile told the Latvian parliament that LNNK has always been against the trial of Konrads Kalejs and other Latvians accused of Nazi crimes. Kalejs was a close assistant of Viktors Arajs, chief of the bloody Arajs Commando, responsible for guarding and finishing off those Jews who were still alive in the ditches into they fell after mass shootings. Some survived and tried to escape but the Latvians were on hand to kill them.

To raise concern about these Latvian politicians and the Waffen-SS, I launched a petition, started on the anniversary of my uncle’s birthday – 20 January 2012 – 70 years to the day of the Wannsee conference when the Final Solution of exterminating the Jews was planned. The petition was called “Stop the 16 March Marches in Riga and Latvians Revising History”, as I sincerely believe glorification of pro-Nazi armed forces during the Second World War has no place in a country that is a member of the European Union, Nato, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.

In little over a month, the petition has gained over 5,500 votes from around the world, indicating that I am not alone in believing that such glorification is terribly wrong. One should add that the ECRI, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, had already in 2008 explicitly stated: “All attempts to commemorate persons who fought in the Waffen-SS and collaborate with the Nazis should be condemned. Any gathering or march legitimising in any way Nazism should be banned.” The ECRI reiterated the same in its most recent report about Latvia, dated 21 February 2012.

The Latvian apologists and their friends in British politics who refuse to dissociate themselves from Mr Zile should consider the following:

1. Many of the worst Latvian killers served in the Latvian Security Police prior to joining the SS Legion. Honouring such persons would be a travesty of justice and a whitewash of their heinous crimes.

2. The Legion fought under the Nazi high command for victory of the Third Reich. They do not deserve to be honoured for fighting for a victory of the most genocidal regime in human history. Ironically, such a victory would have been a disaster for Latvia because the Nazis had no intention or plan to grant Latvia independence.

3. About one-third of those who served in the Legion were volunteers (two-thirds were drafted) and many of them had served in Latvian Security Police units that actively participated in the mass murder of Jews in Latvia and in Belarus, such as the infamous Arajs Commando squad.

4. When Latvian SS killed Soviet soldiers, they allowed Nazis on the western front to kill British and American soldiers in turn and thus made it possible for Auschwitz and other concentration camps to continue their heinous crimes against humanity.

5. Democratic Latvia should not glorify those willing to give up their lives for victory of the Third Reich. The Latvian Righteous Gentiles would make much better role models.

6. The ultranationalists who support the march are the ones who are seeking to rewrite the accepted narrative of the Holocaust in Latvia. Their efforts will help hide the crimes of local Nazi collaborators and promote the canard of equivalency between communist and Nazi crimes.

7. Ceremonies in churches and cemeteries are also forms of honouring the deceased (whether they deserve it or not). Witness the masses held in Zagreb and Split, Croatia, last December in honour of the Croatian mass murderer and leader of the Ustashe Ante Pavelic.

As these men march from the main Latvian Lutheran Church towards the symbol of Latvian independence – Freedom Monument in Riga’s central square on 16 March – will any of these men and politicians spare a thought for their Latvian murdered compatriots who happened to be Jewish? Will they remember how 25,000 of them, in the autumn of 1941, over two weekends, were marched down Riga’s streets from the ghetto to Rumbula, shot and thrown into pits using the “sardine method”? Will they say a prayer for them?

With kind regards,

Monica Lowenberg

Denis MacShane is MP for Rotherham and a former Europe minister

The New Statesman rolling blog

“This is a state-sponsored legitimization of fascism,” said Dovid Katz, a Yiddish scholar based in Vilnius, Lithuania, pointing to some lawmakers’ support of the ceremony. “The worst of European history is being glorified here.”

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2012/03/16/latvians_pay_annual_tribute_to_waffen_ss_fighters/

Right-wing radicalism is increasingly rooted in ethnic politics where requirement of the ultra-right politics for the preferential conditions for the representatives of the majority ethnic group are being realized.

We point out the inaction of the authorities in regard to public statements about superiority of one ethnic group over another, including anti-Semitic slogans. Thus, Latvia’s security police refused twice to initiate criminal proceedings against the local nationalist, U. Freymanis, who, a year ago, on March 16, 2011 on a television program “Without censorship” and later, on July 1 of the same year at a rally, publicly called for the massacre of Jews.

Annual parades of the veterans of Waffen SS, the neo-Nazis and radical nationalists became a symbol of growth of far-wing radicalism in the Baltic countries. In Latvia and Estonia, these processions coincide with historic dates of battles of Waffen SS legions with the Red Army divisions that were liberating Europe from Nazism as part of Anti-Hitler Coalition. These events are attended not only by the veterans of the military forces of Nazi Germany, but also by political and public figures of the aforesaid countries, SS veterans, representatives of neo-Nazi groups from abroad, and parliamentarians, including members of the ruling coalition. Earlier, representatives of Latvian and Estonian governments as well as its defense agencies participated in these processions.

Despite the recommendations of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) to prohibit these activities as glorifying Nazism, despite attempts by the municipal authorities to prevent these marches under the pretext of security threats, judicial authorities, with tacit support of governments and ruling parties of the aforementioned countries, allow these annual Nazi demonstrations to proceed.

Participants of the “Roundtable” welcome the position of the authorities of Estonia and Latvia, according to which, the days of the Waffen SS legionnaires are not officially celebrated in these countries. At the same time, while aware of the tragic history of the Baltic states, recognizing everyone’s right for freedom of assembly, participants of the “Roundtable” believe that holding marches of the SS veterans on days marking military clashes of Hitler’s army with Allies’ forces, and choosing a center of a European capital as a place to conduct commemorative events is glorification of Nazism. It is also an insult to the memory of Nazi victims and all citizens of the countries-members of anti-Hitler coalition.

Active support of these activities on the part of some media makes them attractive to young people. Modern interpretation of the events of those years in the Baltic States’ schools not only does not disprove the view of Waffen SS veterans as heroes, but further enhances the misconceptions of students.  All this is not only unacceptable from the standpoint of Paris Charter of the Council of Europe, the EU fundamental rights Charter and international norms, but also poses a serious threat to the modern world community.

Glorification of Nazism as well as recent attempts in Eastern Europe to impose equal responsibility of the outbreak of the World War II on German y and theSoviet Union, not only leads to the revisions of its results and the Nuremberg Tribunal decisions, but also contributes to de facto legitimization of Nazism as an ideology and practice. We turn down any attempt to justify the past of collaborators from Latvia with Nazi Regime and contemporary policies discriminatingnational minorities whom right-wing radicals are trying to “paint” as occupants for over 20 years.

All this greatly increases the risk of inter-ethnic clashes in the Baltic states and also contributes to the revival of fascism and Nazism, the spreading of this threat to other European countries, and represent a threat to European values and fundamental principles of democracy and human rights. Responsibility for this lies with the authorities of Baltic countries.

We draw the attention of the governments of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to the fact of strengthening influence of the right-wing forces in these countries. We urge these governments and Parliaments as well as the Public to implement the recommendations the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance as well as the Framework Convention for Protection of national minorities with respect to human rights and glorification of Nazism.

We further believe that the international community should take a more active stance on these issues, and we appeal to the European and American institutions, Parliaments, governmental and public organizations of the United States and EU countries to give their assessment to the public processes taking place in these countries.

To American ears, this has the sound of hysteria and impossibility. Nazism was defeated and repudiated, it is the unforgivable insult not just because it’s so extreme but because it’s incredible. The American post-war experience of Nazis ranged from the nuttiness of the American Nazi Party and its crazed head, George Lincoln Rockwell, to some of the militia groups, skinheads, Holocaust deniers and Aryan Nation types that pop up occasionally. They’re annoying and angering, but they’re clearly on the fringes of American society, a cost of our commitment to free expression.

That is not the case in many Eastern European nations. Numerous political parties and social movements have sprung up that support former and current Nazis and Nazi causes. This March 16 will see the emergence of the worst of this onto the world stage. Since the mid-’90s, in Latvia, there have been organized and growing demonstrations celebrating the Latvians who served in German Waffen-SS legions. Their activities included opposing the advancing Red Army, last-ditch fighting in Berlin, and for some of them liquidating ghettos and murdering Jews across Eastern Europe.

For about a decade a variety of Latvian right-wing parties have been seeking to provide government pensions to the Latvians who served Hitler. The explanations range from the apologist to revisionist to ideological. The central thesis is that most of the Waffen-SS soldiers were drafted, not volunteers and that they were fighting against Russian invaders, “Freedom Fighters” as a proposed Parliamentary resolution calls them. On March 16, In Riga, there will be another set of demonstrations and marches by SS veterans, with supporters from Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and elsewhere.

What to make of all this? There will always be elements in society that actually want to resurrect Hitler, and others that use it for their own ends. But until recently there’s been almost unanimity from governments and “responsible” political leaders that denied them any legitimacy or place of honor. Indeed, the German and French ambassadors were early and outspoken in their concern and opposition. March 16 has meaning beyond the event. It is the breaking of a taboo that has lasted since the War. If Europe agreed on nothing else, it agreed that Nazism was so repellant that any manifestation would be condemned and smashed before it could flourish. That United States is eroding. The lack of public concern from Western governments is upsetting and very short-sighted. It remains to be seen what, if anything, they will do as the SS assembles and marches again next week.

There are some that suggest we ignore these feral stirrings of hate and violence. In America, there are few who take this as a serious development. That’s not good enough. One doesn’t have to be Winston Churchill to remember how Nazism took hold the first time around. It may be that these are fringe developments. But we are better off, much better off, overreacting now and recreating the moral and political unity that defeated Hitler than we would be by yawning and hoping it all goes away. The U.S. State Department ought to lead this effort.

About a dozen Israeli demonstrators gathered Monday in front of the Tel Aviv hotel where the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Audronius Azubalis, was staying. Holding signs, they protested Vilnius’ policy vis-à-vis the memory of the Holocaust, which they claim marginalizes the murder of six million Jews.

“Israel is purposely ignoring the systematic campaign being waged by the Lithuanian government to distort the history of the Shoah and to turn it into just another tragedy among many tragedies, which would have horrific consequences for Holocaust education and commemoration,” says Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, who co-organized the protest. “The Foreign Ministry under Lieberman has basically adopted a policy whereby countries that have no interest in the Palestinians are given a free pass when it comes to issues related to Jewish history.”

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem. (photo credit: Yossi Zamir/Flash 90)

Some Jewish groups accuse the Lithuanian government of likening the crimes of the Holocaust to those of the Soviet regime, which occupied Lithuania after the War. For instance, critics say Lithuania was instrumental in passing the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, which states that “both the Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes … should be considered to be the main disasters, which blighted the 20th century.”

While it was also signed by some European Parliament members, the late Václav Havel and Joachim Gauck (who is slated to become Germany’s next president), many Jewish groups have expressed outrage at the attempt to equate Nazism and Communism.

About 95 percent of prewar Lithuanian Jewry was wiped out during the Holocaust, the highest percentage in Europe. The local population was heavily involved in the massacres.

Azubalis – who during his visit this week also met with Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin and visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum – made headlines earlier this year when he slammed a group of Lithuanian parliamentarians who spoke out against equating the Third Reich with Soviet regime. “It isn’t possible to find differences between Hitler and Stalin except in their moustaches (Hitler’s was shorter),” Azubalis announced through his spokesperson. “The legal status of the crimes they committed are totally the same: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.”

The Association of Lithuanian Jews and the Leivick House, a major Yiddish culture institution Tel Aviv, which co-organized Monday’s protest, also criticized Jerusalem for hosting Azubalis. “It is incredible that the foreign minister of a government that is leading an assault on the memory of the Holocaust through the noxious notion of double genocide should be honored as guest of honor in Israel,” it said in a statement. “Azubalis should be ostracized and pressured for the outrageous and offensive policies his government is pursuing and the insulting statements he has personally made.”

Some Israelis are also angry at Vilnius’s policy regarding Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivors in Israel. Fueled by hatred for the Soviet occupiers, Lithuania has recently started glorifying those who fought them during World War II – and as part of this campaign has asked Israel to investigate Holocaust survivors. Several Jewish-Lithuanian partisans were suspected of committing “war crimes” because they allegedly collaborated with the Soviets while fighting the Nazis.

Last year, Yad Vashem protested against these actions by disinviting Lithuania’s culture minister, Arunas Gelunas, and the country’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, Darius Degutis, from a conference about the prewar Jewish communities of Lithuania.

Asked for comment about this week’s visit by Azubalis, a Yad Vashem spokesperson said that while Lithuania has shown willingness to confront its Holocaust era past – including granting the museum more accessibility to Lithuanian archives – there are still worrisome trends.

“We remain concerned about public expressions in Lithuania emanating from anti-Semitic or nationalist circles, obscuring or distorting the Lithuanian role in the Holocaust, and recent neo-Nazi marches, as well as a troubling trend of equating Holocaust remembrance with otherwise legitimate commemoration of Soviet-era misdeeds in Lithuania,” the spokesperson said. “The general blurring of what happened, and who was responsible is problematic, to say the least, if one is going to try to confront one’s history honestly.”

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, however, seems unfazed by these accusations.

According to The Baltic Times, the two foreign ministers this week signed cooperation agreements in the fields of culture, education and science. “Relations between Lithuania and Israel reached a new qualitative level and our bilateral agenda has expanded considerably,” the paper quotes Azubalis as saying.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said Israel is able to entertain fruitful diplomatic relations even with countries that have a troubled history. Regarding the current accusations against Lithuania, he said that “there has to be separation between their experience with Communism and ours with anti-Semitism. We would hate to see anti-Semitism manifest itself under the guise of something else.”

He did not say whether the issue of equating Nazism with Communism came up during the talks.

Times of Israel