Swatikas fly in the Lithuanian capital

From The Simon Wiesenthal Center, March 13, 2011:

Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center has labeled a neo-Nazi march of approximately 1,000 participants held this past Friday in the heart of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius “the worst type of anti-Semitic and xenophobic incitement against Lithuania’s minorities” and harshly criticized the failure of the country’s political, intellectual, and religious leadership to condemn the march unequivocally.

In a statement issued here today by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called upon Lithuanian elected officials to denounce such demonstrations and upon the leaders of the ruling Homeland Union party to sanction their MP Kazimieras Uoka who was among the marchers.

According to Zuroff:

“Such demonstrations are an affront to all members of the minority groups living in Lithuania, and especially insulting to the country’s Jewish citizens, many of whom are Holocaust survivors. To see hundreds of young people marching with Lithuanian flags and swastikas down the main avenue of the capital of a member of the European Union and NATO is enough to send shivers down the spine of any person with a knowledge of Lithuanian history during the years 1941-1945 and any sense of morality.”

Lithuania: ignoring and repeating the past

From The Simon Wiesenthal Center, August 11, 2008:

Wiesenthal Center to Lithuanian Ambassador: Ignoring Past and Present Anti-Semitism Paved the Way for Yesterday’s Vandalization of Vilnius Jewish Community

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today demanded prompt action from the Lithuanian government to identify and punish those responsible for the vandalization yesterday of the offices of the Jewish community in central Vilnius.

In a letter sent today to the Lithuanian ambassador in Israel Mrs. Asta Skaisgiryté-Liauskienè, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, accused the Lithuanian authorities of failing to adequately respond to recent several anti-Semitic provocations as well as to protecting local Nazi war criminals from prosecution and instead harassing Jewish anti-Nazi Soviet partisans, all of which paved the way for yesterday’s attack on the Vilnius Jewish community

According to Zuroff:

“Given the woefully inadequate response by the government to the neo-Nazi march through the center of Vilnius less than half a year ago, I believe that the time has come for unequivocal, resolute and immediate action to identify and punish those responsible for this anti-Semitic attack.

“There is no doubt in my mind that these outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence are the direct result of Lithuania’s failure to punish its Nazi collaborators, the recent campaign against Soviet Jewish partisans and the ongoing efforts to minimize the role of Lithuanians in the mass murder of their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust. Today’s anti-Semitic violence is the direct result of ignoring the crimes of the past.”