Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Lithuanian Nazis become partisans?

Lithuanian Nazis become partisans? 
22:07 | 02/ 10/ 2008 
 
 
VILNIUS (Vladimir Beskudnikov for RIA Novosti) - Where the Nazi henchmen
of World War II are concerned, most Lithuanians hurry to set themselves
apart from their Baltic neighbors, Latvians and Estonians. They keep
saying: "There was no SS division recruited in Lithuania," but their
actions prove the contrary. 
Although there was no Lithuanian SS division, there were auxiliary police
units, battalions, whose ill fame spread far beyond Lithuania's borders.
Lithuanian police slaughtered both the Jewish population of Lithuania,
which was being confined and killed in ghettos, and Red Army servicemen
taken prisoner. Twelve Lithuanian police battalions, totaling 485 men, led
by Maj. Antanas Impulyavichius, left a trail of blood in Belarus as well,
having burned down several dozen villages. 
Over 200 villagers from Khatyn, which became a symbol of tragedy of the
Belarusian people, were burnt alive on Impulyavichius' order. The Genocide
and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania has officially acknowledged
that this unit is responsible for the murder of over 20,000 Belarusian
civilians, who were in no way connected with combat actions. 
After gaining independence in 1991, Lithuanian authorities tried to partly
admit liability for atrocities committed by their fellow countrymen.
Algirdas Brazauskas, former First Secretary of Lithuania's Communist Party
and then President of the independent Republic of Lithuania, during his
visit to Israel in 1995, offered apologies on behalf of the Lithuanian
people. Lithuania's ambassador to Belarus was always present at the events
commemorating the burnt Belarusian villages. 
In recent few years, however, the political environment in Lithuania has
seen a major shift. Although Ceslovas Jursenas, Speaker of the Lithuanian
Parliament, delivered a speech on Holocaust Memorial Day on September 23
in Panerai outside Vilnius, the authorities' attitude towards Jews is
gradually changing from repentance to threats and insults. 
It is no secret that Lithuania's current President Valdas Adamkus
collaborated with the Nazis during WWII, enlisting in one of the
"auxiliary units." It is not by accident that in 1944 he emigrated to
Germany, and after a while to the United States. 
After the Nazis launched an attack on the U.S.S.R. in June 1941, right
after the Red Army withdrew from Lithuania, Lithuanian voluntary militia
units started the extermination of the Jewish population. In Kaunas alone,
over 9,000 Jews were tortured to death in just one day. By the end of
1941, thanks to "high efficiency" of Lithuanian volunteer units around 80%
of the country's 200,000 Jews were killed, accused of being "Bolshevik
henchmen." 
Today, there are 2,800 Jews left in Lithuania. Still, the country's
government is unable to ensure their security. In recent years, many
friends turned into enemies. Since last September, Lithuania's
Prosecutor's Office has been demanding extradition of a former member of
Lithuanian NKVD (former Commissariat for Internal Affairs), Yitzhak Arad,
from Israel, to sue him for killing Nazi collaborationists, who are now
proudly called "partisans." The government is making every effort to put
together the crimes committed by the Soviets and the Nazis, and have
eventually made "Soviet" a synonym for "Nazi." 
In 2000, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus signed a decree to establish
a commission for the investigation of Nazi and Soviet crimes. In 2005, he
refused to attend the 60th anniversary of Victory Day in Moscow to pay
tribute to the memory of the fallen in the fight against Nazism. 
Several months ago a law forbidding the use of Nazi and Soviet symbols was
passed in Lithuania. The authorities' attitude towards World War II
veterans also seems inexplicable. Everyone who took part in the war was
put together in a single category, no matter on which side they fought,
and therefore a former Nazi could easily go marching through Lithuanian
streets. Marches of Nazi "veterans," however, haven't become a regular
event in Lithuania yet, unlike in Latvia and Estonia. 
The Simon Wiesenthal Center's investigation in Lithuania to identify
absconding former Nazi collaborationists, was confronted with the
opposition of the country's official authorities. The center's director
Efraim Zuroff, who has collected data on over 360 suspects, says
Lithuanian politicians refuse to prosecute the Nazi criminals, claiming
that many Lithuanians were victims of war crimes, and not criminals. 
Although they (the Baltic states) talk a lot of their suffering during the
Soviet era, they do nothing to punish the murderers who collaborated with
the Nazis. The government is reluctant to reveal the true number of the
country's citizens who were involved in atrocities, Efraim Zuroff said. 
Currently, Lithuania is included in the organization's black list as a
country taking no substantial action to identify Nazi collaborationists,
despite the existing legal base for that. Along with Lithuania, this group
also includes Croatia, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. 
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not
necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti. 
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 Lithuanian Nazis become partisans?
se combatti contro i barbari russi sei partigiano ad honorem, ti
abbuonano pure gli ebrei massacrati. Viva la UE!