COMMENTS TO OUR LAST WEEK ARTICLE:
“11 March marks the
restoration of
Lithuania's
independence – how
can the authorities
allow neo-Nazis to
dominate this important
day for the nation?”

Neo-Nazis marching in Vilnius
11 March 2010.

Click HERE to read the article
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How about a “turn your back in shame” campaign?
"It is probably too late to stop them marching but how about a " turn your back in shame as they pass by" campaign?... A totally non violent act that speaks volumes"

Richard Vitkauskas
New York

PS:
Just want you to know also what a great thing VilNews is.. like manna from heaven...it’s the first thing I go to with my morning coffee..

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Please read the link, share it, and sign the petition
Please read the link, share it, and sign the petition.

Arthur Hessel
Washington D.C.

Click HERE to see the petition
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I strongly protest granting neo-Nazis a permit to exploit Lithuanian Independence Day
As a Lithuanian citizen and the son of a woman who risked her life to smuggle food into the Kaunas ghetto, I strongly protest granting neo-Nazis a permit to exploit Lithuanian Independence Day so they can perpetuate and spread hatred in Lithuania and abroad. If the parade is allowed, my greatest wish is that it will be met with counter-protesters who will heap scorn on the neo-Nazis!

Dr. Boris Vytautas Bakunas, PhD
Chicago

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I object
Olga Zabludoff calls for signing her petition against the March 11 parade.  She has legitimate right to do so.

But I strongly object to her inaccurate, inflammatory statements like “...murder of about 95% of Lithuania’s Jewry during the Holocaust, largely by local collaborators...”  Her claim is not supported by facts.  Murdering largely was done by German SS and Gestapo.

My father was a short-lived mayor of Palanga, and when he openly objected to German inhumanity, he was removed at gunpoint from his position.

I was an 11 year old boy and I saw with my own eyes a group of Palanga’s Jews being led on the street to their death by uniformed Germans and not by any local “collaborators”.

Vytautas Sliupas
California

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Response to Mr. Sliupas

I would like to assure Mr. Sliupas that I do not cite facts or figures irresponsibly. I base my statements on the research findings of respected historians (Timothy Snyder, Dina Porat, to name just a few).

To address Mr. Sliupas’s assertion that “ Murdering largely was done by German SS and Gestapo,” let me refer to some events in Palanga. According to the Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas, published in Vilnius in 2011, the mass murder of 111 Palanga Jews on June 27, 1941 was indeed carried out by German units. That mass grave is at Vytauto Street (p. 94).

The mass murders of two to three hundred Palanga Jews carried out in Kunigiskiai between June 26th and October 12th was led by district police chief of Kretinga P. Jakys (Lukys) and the city police chief of Palanga J. Adomaitis in cooperation with German forces (p. 95). Please refer to the links below:

http://holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search/bendri=PALANGA.vietove=.aukos=.from_year=0.from_month=0.from_day=.to_year=0.to_month=0.to_day=.killers=/page/1/item/71

http://holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search/bendri=PALANGA.vietove=.aukos=.from_year=0.from_month=0.from_day=.to_year=0.to_month=0.to_day=.killers=/page/1/item/72/

While great credit is due to Vytautas Sliupas's father, there is no use being in denial about the massive level of collaboration and participation. A recent oral history project includes survivor memories of the Lithuanian "rebel" forces' actions toward the Jews as soon as war broke out in Palanga:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34RxJtf02gU&feature=channel_video_title (in Yiddish with summary in English in the description box)

Olga Zabludoff
Washington, DC