Olga Zabludoff: Reply to Donatas Januta re Holocaust in Lithuania

. . . it was the “lucky Jews” who were deported [to Siberia] since they accounted for many of the survivors. . . . Jews could not return from the mass graves.

Olga Zabludoff

Dear Donatas,

I send New Year greetings to you and your family.

In response to your article of 20th December, 2011, I regret to tell you that your lengthy sermon on serfdom was irrelevant to our discussion. Let me remind you that from its onset this debate has been rooted in modern Lithuanian history. It has been labeled a discussion on “Holocaust in Lithuania” and has frequently traveled into the arena of current Lithuanian-Jewish issues and attempts at reconciliation.

I have tried to play by the rules and have told you time and again that I find it difficult to relate to medieval times in Lithuania or even to the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – given the time frame of our topic. (Sure, sometimes one makes a reference to an earlier period but almost as a simple footnote.) So when I asked: “When were the Lithuanian people not allowed to have a hand in their country’s economy or barred from any particular occupations?” I was clearly not referring to the 18th century when most Lithuanians were indeed peasant serfs. I was talking about the period of Independent Lithuania (the interwar years), the era on which our debate is focused. Your digression into the earlier centuries makes about as much sense as if I would have cried to you that my Jewish ancestors had been Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt.

In one of my earliest responses to you I claimed that you twist your facts and figures to suit your arguments. Actually you go further than that. You constantly resort to periods in Lithuanian history that have little or no connection to our theme. Is this in order to deflect or distract from issues you would rather not address? You corrupt history by telling only half the story. For instance, in your 24th November, 2011 article, “Litvaks: Lithuania’s Warriors,” you state openly that Lithuanian Jews were a force in helping win an Independent Lithuania, fighting and dying alongside their Lithuanian brethren. In turn, the Jews were rewarded with rights and privileges for their participation in achieving their country’s freedom. But at that point you stop short, obviously preferring to omit the rest of the story:

After a few years of this “Golden Age,” all Jewish rights and privileges were harshly revoked, and the darkest period in the history of Lithuania’s Jews began to germinate: “Lithuania for Lithuanians!” Jewish signs on businesses had to be removed. Then they lost their businesses, their homes. Vitriolic Nazi propaganda was embraced in Lithuania. We all know the end . . .

Like an insidious drum beat you recycle and recycle your party line: Jews contributed “zilch” to the Lithuanian economy. Jews created a monopoly in the marketplace. Jews played no role in Lithuanian culture. Jews kept themselves distinct from the Lithuanians among whom they lived. Jews did not invite Lithuanians to dance with them. Jews did not communicate with Lithuanians in the same language. Jews did not worship the Lithuanian religion. Jews had separate schools and dressed differently from Lithuanians. Jews did not intermix with Lithuanians except in the marketplace. Their Litvak culture was totally separate and distinct from the ethnic Lithuanian culture.

In other words, you are chastising the Lithuanian Jews for not being ethnic Lithuanians. You are leading up in cunning fashion to the Nazi-inspired rhetoric that the Jews themselves were responsible for what happened to them, and that they deserved their fate. This is a devious Nationalist strategy to incite hatred and to rid Lithuania of guilt. And of course there is the eternal echo in your arguments that the Lithuanians were the victims of the controlling Jews. This is another diabolical tactic to reverse the roles of perpetrator and victim.

A prominent historian in the UK (a non-Jew) wrote me recently: “The double genocide argument is so fraudulent. Of course the word ‘genocide’ cannot be used exclusively for the Holocaust: there are other genocides as well. But the evidence set out clearly indicates that there was no such extermination of the Lithuanians – terrible suffering, yes, but not a genocide. You don’t have to look far for the reasons (not the reasoning) for the argument. It helps to reduce the sense of guilt. So instead of saying ‘Weren’t we terrible,’ they say, ‘We all suffered together.’ Which in turn reduces the need for a complete realignment of sensibility.”

I have read recent pieces in VilNews concerning the Soviet deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia. Among the responses to the articles are many which confirm that the deportees eventually returned to their home country – not all, but many. It is also important for readers to realize that the Soviets did not spare Lithuanian Jews from being deported to Siberia along with non-Jews. In fact, it was the “lucky Jews” who were deported since they accounted for a good number of survivors. Brutal as were the conditions of the deportees, the population statistics tell us that by 1951 more than 90% of non-Jewish Lithuanians had survived, after which year the population began to climb. In sharp contrast less than 5% of the pre-war Lithuanian-Jewish population remained alive at the close of 1941. Jews could not return from mass graves. The annihilation of more than 95% defines a true genocide. 

Donatas, I don’t believe we have made progress, however hard we may have tried. I cannot and do not want to keep repeating myself in reply to your cyclical charges of red herrings, Jewish monopolies, Jewishness, Zuroff & Co., and one-way streets. It is like a jingle you have created. We will not convince one another. I find it unfortunate that a man of your education has a distorted view of the very same facts that other educated Lithuanians or Lithuanian-Americans or historians in general see as historical truth. The seeds of reconciliation are probably sprouting in the minds and hearts of young educated Lithuanians who are able to confront their nation’s past with clarity and whose visions for their country’s future are not clouded by present-day Nationalist politics.

In closing, I wish you would read the articles I have linked below.

http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2012-01-02-prof-saulius-suziedelis-svarbu-ne-svari-o-teisinga-istorija/74448