5th anti-Holocaust activist imprisoned by Lithuanian regime

Political scientist and blogger Giedrius Šarkanas is already the 5^th anti-Holocaust activist sentenced to prison by the Lithuanian regime. On 15 September 2020, the Vilnius City Court gave him 3 months of prison for his article “Lithuanian freedom fight: the end of another myth” where he criticizes Lithuanian Nazi criminals for murdering innocent and unarmed civilians from 1941 to 1952.

By the order of the court, the article has already been deleted, but one may still read its content in the very judgment on merits dated 25/04/2018. According to this judgment, the anti-Holocaust blogger made the following statements:

1. The Lithuanian Nazi military forces entered World War II on 22 June 1941 on the side of Adolf Hitler, and they were terrorists.
2. The Lithuanian Nazi military forces were fighting together with the German army from 1941 to 1945, and then continued their terrorist activity in underground from 1945 to 1952.
3. The Lithuanian Nazi military forces murdered thousands of innocent and unarmed civilians, and we should rather commemorate their victims instead of glorifying the Nazi criminals.

According to the judgment on merits, the article had a “negative emotional attitude towards” the Nazi terrorists.

The court concludes that the blogger failed to underline that not all members of the Lithuanian Nazi military forces were terrorists, and therefore the blogger is sentenced to 3 months of prison.

There is no surprise that the Lithuanian judicial system follows the general neo-Nazi line of the contemporary Lithuanian regime.

Neo-Nazi judge Egidijus Kūris sitting at the European Court of Human Rights describes the Lithuanian Nazi military forces active from 1941 to 1952 as “the body and the spirit of the Lithuanian ethnic nation.” How could a lower judge deviate from this ideological line?

List of imprisoned and murdered anti-Holocaust activists

Let’s keep in mind the full list of anti-Holocaust activists who got a prison sentence from the Lithuanian regime:

1. Viačeslav Titov criticized a monument of Nazi Adolfas Ramanauskas (Hawk) and got an option: payment of a fine of € 10,000, or imprisonment. He chose to pay the money.
2. Human rights lawyer Prof. Dr. Stanislovas Tomas smashed the memorial plaque of Nazi Jonas Noreika with a sledgehammer, and was sentenced to 3 months of prison. Left the country before the arrest.
3. Journalist Giedrius Grabauskas wrote many articles criticizing Holocaust. The Lithuanian court ordered his coercive psychiatric examination. Technically, a mental hospital is not a prison, but I count it as a prison.
4. Spanish lawyer Miquel Puertas made many anti-Holocaust posts on Facebook. He was initially imprisoned for 1 month. However, due to pressure from Israeli journalists, he was released on the 9^th day of detention. It is prohibited for him to return to Lithuania for the rest of his life.
5. Political scientist Giedrius Šarkanas is imprisoned for 3 months for his article “Lithuanian freedom fight: the end of another myth”.

Unfortunately, there is also a list of murdered anti-Holocaust activists of Lithuania:

1. Žilvinas Šumskis,
2. Julius Vedeckis,
3. Igoris Krinickis,
4. Skaista Rakauskienė.

Those people were murdered by Neo-Nazi gangs ideologically supported by the Lithuanian regime, and allegedly by the State Security Department (former KGB).

List of Lithuanian Nazi heroes.

Let’s take a look at the list of leaders of the Lithuanian Nazi military forces from 1941 to 1952, at “the body and the spirit of the Lithuanian ethnic nation” as neo-Nazi judge Egidijus Kūris glorifies them:

1. Captain Jonas Noreika (aka General Storm) is responsible for murdering about 14,500 Jews from 22/06/1941 to 17/03/1943. He signed the orders to establish the Zagare Ghetto in Northern Lithuania, and to imprison all Jews and Half-Jews there. He signed the orders to nationalize Jewish property, the orders organizing slavery labor of Jews, lending them to different businessmen before killing them. He wrote a letter to the Lithuanian Minister of Interior (General Counsellor) asking to provide him 1,181,660 rubles in order to establish the Skaistgiris death camp. The Noreika’s death camp project included 40 ovens to burn people.
2. Adolfas Ramanauskas (aka Hawk) was the military commander of the Nazi Druskininkai company from 22 June to August 1941. The Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel defines him as “one of the most brutal Jew murderers” in South Lithuania. Contemporary Lithuania awarded him the title of its President of the Republic after death.
3. Kazis Škirpa was a Prime Minister of the Lithuanian Nazi Government in 1941. He is famous for addressing Adolf Hitler with a proposal to expand the World War II to the Eastern Europe. Škirpa was the key advocate of Holocaust in Lithuania.
4. Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis was a Minister of Communal Economy at the Lithuanian Nazi Government in 1941. This Ministry was responsible for administration of ghettos.
5. Juozas Krikštaponis was a military commander in the 12^thLithuanian National Socialist Battalion that murdered about 46,000 Jews during Holocaust.
6. Antanas Impulevičius was the head of the 12^thLithuanian National Socialist Battalion that murdered about 46,000 Jews during Holocaust.
7. Povilas Plechavicus was the chief commander of the Lithuanian Nazi military forces in 1944. It is true that, in May 1944, Plechavicius decided to run away, but this was not related to change of his Nazi vision of the World. His pants were wet due to the approaching Soviet Army. Lithuanian Nazis were used to murder unarmed civilians, and the very idea of facing the regular Soviet Army forced them run away.
8. Antanas Baltušis was the head of security at the Majdanek death camp.
9. Jonas Misiūnas joined the Nazi military forces in June 1941, participated in the Vilnius and Trakai massacres of Jews. He chose a nickname “Green Satan”, because he was proud of murdering unarmed civilians.
10. Vytautas Gavėnas was a member of the chief-commandment of the Lithuanian Activists Front in 1941. In order to underline his desire of blood, he chose a nickname “Vampire”.
11. Viktoras Vitkauskas-Saidokas is famous for cutting off the head of rabbi Zalmanas Osovskis on 26 June 1941 in Vilijampole.
12. Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis was working at the Majdanek death camp.

13. Antanas Starkus –Montė joined the Nazi military forces in June 1941 and participated in the Šiauliai massacre of Jews.
14. Slučka-Šarūnas joined the Nazi military forces in June 1941 and participated in the Utena massacre of Jews.
15. Sergijus Staniškis-Litas was a soldier of the Lithuanian National Socialist Battalion during the massacre of 5,000 Jews in the 7^th Kaunas Fort and of 2,555 Jews at the 4^th Kaunas Fort. He even became a head of finance of the Lithuanian National Socialist Battalion.
16. Juozas Barzda-Klevas was the commander of the 3^rd unite of the Lithuanian National Socialist Battalion during the massacres of thousands of Jews at the 7^th, 6^th and 9^th Kaunas Forts.
17. Justinas Lelešius-Grafas participated in the massacres of Jews in the 9^th Kaunas Fort.

These are the heroes of the contemporary Lithuania admired and glorified by President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis. All those “heroes” were decorated with the Knight’s Cross, promoted to the ranks of “colonel”, “general” or “President of the Republic” after death within the last 30 years. They are “the body and the spirit of the Lithuanian ethnic nation” according to the European judge Egidijus Kūris. There are streets and schools named in their honor.