A master class in deception

A good liar knows that the most efficient lie is always a truth that has a key piece removed. The Lithuanian government has mastered the art of lying, with a specific focus on their role in the slaughter of 96.4% of their Jewish population during the Holocaust.

A monument to Petras Cvirka, a prominent Soviet-era author and political activist, was removed from a square in central Vilnius almost two years ago. The removal continues to have positive echoes in Lithuania, as reported this week in the Lithuanian press:

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2090175/removed-monument-to-lithuanian-writer-moved-to-soviet-era-sculpture-park

Statue of Petras Cvirka
Source: https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=ST&record=lt048
Additional source: https://www.trip.com/toplist/topexperience/vilnius-monuments-1011100383950004483/?locale=en-XX&curr=USD

A Lithuanian Government special commission of experts stated that Cvirka was a member of the Lithuanian Communist Party and an active participant in “the electoral farce” organized by the Russian occupation authorities. He served as Secretary of the Presidium of the People’s Seimas, a puppet parliament installed to legitimize the country’s occupation by the Soviet Union.

From the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940 onwards, Cvirka supported and glorified the Soviet government, its army, and its leader Joseph Stalin. He remained a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union until his death in 1947.

Cvirka also served as Chairman of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union between 1945 and 1947.

Cvirka was an ethnic Lithuanian who served Soviet authorities. Lithuania assessed his conduct and applied the characterization of “collaborator” as formulated by Dr. Vytautas Tininis and Dr. Oleksandr John Motyl. Therefore, the government of Lithuania was able to posthumously review his record, recognize his ideological crimes, and remove his monuments and honors.

Jonas Noreika

The genocidal murderer of Jews, Jonas Noreika was responsible for the slaughter of about 14,500 Jewish citizens of Lithuania. A comparison of Cvirka and Noreika yields how masterfully history can be re-written, and justice subverted.

The Government of Lithuania stated that someone can not be tried after his death, therefore, Noreika MUST receive the Constitutional guarantee of “complete innocence”. This is diametrically opposed to their ability to assess Cvirka’s crimes posthumously.

George Orwell wrote in 1984: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.”

The Lithuanian Government’s Genocide Center manufactures the national methodology for historical research in the sphere of occupational regimes in the 20th century. The Government applied an entirely different standard for assessing the characterization of “collaborator” in the case of Jonas Noreika. This time, their assessment? “Noreika was NOT a collaborator”.

Regarding Cvirka, the government of Lithuania determined that an act leading to the deportation of Lithuania’s affluent and intellectuals is equated with collaboration with the Soviet regime, while at the same time, for Noreika, an act leading to the extermination of Jews is not considered collaboration. In both cases, Cvirka as much as Noreika acted resolutely and intentionally against the inhabitants of Lithuania, carrying out the orders of the political regime, and in Noreika’s case, his own rabidly, annihilationist genocidal agenda.

In both cases, neither of these collaborators acted according to their own concepts, but rather in carrying out the political will of the regime in power. In both cases documents were signed and executed leading to the death of Lithuanian residents.

The Genocide Center, in its historical finding, calls an order signed by Cvirka for deporting residents, an order. The Genocide Center, in its historical findings characterizes Jonas Noreika’s order for establishing a ghetto in Žagarė, in which he writes “I order …,” as simply, “a letter regarding the isolation of Jews”. The Genocide Center also officially calls further orders by Noreika for liquidating Jewish property “letters.” Why is one an order and the other, a letter?

In its finding of history, the Genocide Center says Cvirka “published propaganda articles glorifying the U.S.S.R., called the occupation of Lithuania a ‘liberation’ and glorified Stalin and Lenin.” The Genocide Center underlines this propagandistic popularization and publishing effort as a factor which demonstrates Cvirka’s intentions and involvement in the political activity of Russia.

Jonas Noreika was also active in popularization publishing and enjoyed writing. He was in command of the Telšiai Lithuanian Activist Front whose press operation published the newspaper Žemaičių žemė, which beginning in July 1941, referred to itself as “the newspaper of the Lithuanian Activist Front.” In the summer of 1941 this newspaper published passages from Hitler’s Mein Kampf translated into Lithuanian. The newspaper featured antisemitic articles alongside articles on Lithuanian independence.

The Genocide Center emphasized their finding of history wherein Cvirka intentionally worked against the inhabitants of Lithuania. He led a delegation which travelled to Moscow “to bring home the sun of Stalin,” i.e., to request Lithuania’s incorporation into the U.S.S.R.

The diary of Lithuanian Nationalist Party secretary Zenonas Blynas contains an entry stating Jonas Noreika left Telšiai to travel to Kaunas on July 29, 1941, as head of a delegation bearing the same name as the newspaper, Žemaičių žemė. His purpose was to congratulate the Lithuanian Activist Front government in Kaunas, and to present the latter with a declaration. The delegation, confirmed by a crowd of thousands of residents of Telšiai, was the subject of issue no. 5 of the Žemaičių žemė newspaper, which published the whole text of the declaration. The declaration was written on the day of the mass murder of the Jews of Telšiai.

As stated in Blynas’s diary, Telšiai Lithuanian Activist Front commander Jonas Noreika led the delegation, whose members were:

Telšiai district chief of police Bronius Juodikis,

Telšiai district head Ramanauskas,

Telšiai district TDA leader (commandant) Major Svilas,

Plungė district leader and head of the TDA battalion Lieutenant Alimas,

Telšiai district hospital director Dr. Plechavičius and

Director of the Telšiai branch of the Bank of Lithuania Jurkus.

Bronius Juodikis, who was Noreika’s deputy commander of the Telšiai LAF, was accused of being one of the people in charge of the extermination of the Jews of Telšiai.

Lieutenant Alimas was accused of being in charge of the extermination of the Jews of Plungė. Major Svilas, along with Alimas, commanded paramilitary organizations including the TDA and police agencies which the Genocide Center has named as having “played a large role in the Holocaust.”

Half of the members of the delegation led by Jonas Noreika are implicated in violence against Jews and the mass murder of Jews in Telšiai and Plungė.

Both Noreika and Cvirka and those in their inner circles acted to carry out the political agendas of the occupying powers. Both men were active purveyors and authors of propaganda, both led delegations supporting the incorporation of Lithuania into the countries of the occupational regimes, and both made decisions to use force leading to the death of Lithuanian residents.

The facts and circumstances are adjoining and similar in both cases, but the Lithuanian Government’s official assessment of both are radically different. Why? The answer: they consider crimes against Christian Lithuanians to be national crimes, but consider crimes against Jewish Lithuanians to be a public benefit. This is antisemitism at its extreme.

The Lithuanian Government established a formulaic set of lies about their history, agreed between themselves how to apply it, and intimidate those who oppose their frauds. Thus, I have pending criminal and constitutional charges against me in Lithuania, for “slandering their heroes”.

Henceforth, when the Government of Lithuania lies to our faces and claims that antisemitism is prohibited in Lithuania, we will merely view the difference in their treatment of Cvirka versus Noreika.

The Lithuanian Governments words are usually lies, the only path to understanding their intentions is to examine their actions. Their lies are corrosive; there is no basis for trust between Jews and Lithuania.

Lithuania cannot escape the truth. Truth is a prerequisite for reconciliation.

In the words of the Lithuanian Government, historical disinformation is a war weapon. Lithuania has rewritten their past in order to present themselves as righteous. This gambit will fail. They believe that by pointing fingers at others for their own conduct, they will prevail.

This Twitter X screenshot from October 5, 2023, shows Lithuania’s own master class in distraction, disinformation and distortion.

The Lithuanian Government’s words can not be trusted.