Olga Zabludoff: Reply to Donatas Januta re Holocaust in Lithuania
I love and respect Lithuanians no less than I do my American friends, both Jews and non-Jews

Olga Zabludoff
Washington, DC, USA

Dear Donatas,

Thank you for your gracious opening paragraph to our discussion. I will try to comment on the points you raise in your letter.

I do not dispute Dina Porat’s finding that 99.5% of the Lithuanian population was neither directly nor indirectly involved in the killing of Jews. I would not dispute the findings of any reputable researcher/historian. But what I wish to point out is that one-half of 1% of the 1941 Lithuanian population equaled about 15,000 persons. Looking at the Jewish population of about 200,000 at the time, the ratio between killers and victims was 1: 13.
That can account for high efficiency. The real problem was that the other 99.5% of the population chose to close their eyes.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."  This quote from Edmund Burke is the painful truth in the story of the Holocaust as well as other major tragedies.

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