Exporting National Holocaust Distortion

Lithuanian Genocide Center Exporting National Holocaust Distortion Propaganda Calendar to English Speakers in the West

The Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania (Genocide Center) has a section on the English portion of their web pages called Memorable Dates and Anniversaries. It is significantly shorter than the Lithuanian version called “Atmintinos datos ir sukaktys“.

Let’s examine this brief course on the history of Lithuania in English “for export” (the modern equivalent to the famous brief Stalinist course on the history of the All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party). It contains forty five entries, twelve of which commemorate partisans and eight for commemorating Holocaust and other Nazi victims. Eight more are for dates commemorating Soviet deportations and uprisings in Soviet prisoner camps. There are also state holidays such as January 13, February 16, March 11, etc.

In eight entries we find what is known as Holocaust denial and distortions of history.

We will take a closer look at these entries. None of the commemorative dates come as a surprise and their connections with the Holocaust are well known and not in dispute. The only novelty here might be listing them together with dates for commemorating Holocaust victims.

The Genocide Center proposes celebrating:

“11 February. On 11 February 1953, partisan colonel Juozas Šibaila-Merainis, signatory of the LLKS (Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters) Council Declaration of 16 February 1949, member of the LLKS Council Presidium, head of the LLKS public section, and editor of the newspaper ‘Prie rymančio rūpintojėlio’ (‘By the Leaning Cross’) was killed in the forest of Dovydai, Ramygala District.”

What they omit is that Juozas Šibaila contributed significantly to the mass murder of the Jews of Balninkai and personally participated in their removal to the Želva ghetto. It’s also highly likely he is responsible for the murder of people deemed “Soviet activists” in the Valai Forest (see Evaldas Balčiūnas’s article here: and Enrika Kripienė’s article here.

The Genocide Center continues:

“30 May. On 30 May 1953, using sleeping gas, partisan general Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas, signatory of the LLKS (Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters) Council Declaration of 16 February 1949, Chairman of the LLKS Council Presidium, and fourth Lithuanian President was arrested in a bunker in the forest of Šimkaičiai, Jurbarkas District. 1953 – the end of organised partisan resistance in Lithuania.“

and:

“26 November. On 26 November 1954, partisan General Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas, signatory of the LLKS (Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters) Council Declaration of 16 February 1949, Chairman of the LLKS Council Presidium, and fourth Lithuanian President was shot at the Butyrka prison in Moscow.“

What they again suppress is the fact that this alleged president, only called such in the 21st century, was himself much more critical of the path he chose, and his service record shows the facts that he collaborated with Soviets as much as Nazis. The most horrific fact is that he served in the police battalions formed in Vilnius from June 29 to July 26, 1941 (Lithuanian Special Archive file LYA F K-1 ap. 58 b. 44618-3 T. 1 12 l.84-88). During interrogation by the Soviets he said he didn’t have any specific duties but served on the general staff of the police battalions being created. We should remember here that this was exactly the period during which the soldiers in these battalions were going berserk in Vilnius, kidnapping Jews, the Jewish population calling them khapunes, “grabbers.” The Jews they took prisoner they sent to Lukiškės Prison, whence the Ypatingasis būrys or Special Unit (Lithuanian for Sonderkommando) sent them to their slaughter by firing squad at Ponary. When his heroization began, it was perfectly clear there was no possibility his culpability in Holocaust crimes would ever be examined by the Lithuanian government.

The Genocide Center lists commemorative days for the end of June: 

“22 June. On 22 June 1941, the Germany-USSR war and Nazi occupation of Lithuania started.

“23 June – Day of the June Uprising. The June Uprising took place on 22–28 June 1941.

“On 24–26 June 1941, a mass massacre of civilian Lithuanians took place, in which approximately 1,100 people were killed.

“On 26–27 June, a mass massacre of political prisoners, among them Lithuanians, took place in Cherven (Belorussia).

“End of June 1941 start of the genocide (Holocaust) of Lithuanian Jews, in which almost 200,000 Jews were killed.”

They suppress the so-called June Uprising’s connection with the Holocaust and fail to specify the responsibility of members and leaders of that Uprising for the pogroms and the onset of the shooting Holocaust.

One of the most disgusting entries:

“28 September – Day of Commemoration for the Victims of Tuskulėnai. On 28 September 1944, the first victims were killed in the KGB building in Vilnius. Their remains were buried in the territory of the former Tuskulėnai Estate.”

The Tuskulėnai manor estate site is one of the largest mass graves of Nazi officials responsible for the Holocaust. It contains more than 200 burials, of whom about 10% are dubbed “victims.” They include Emil Just, the military commandant of Lithuania, concentration camp commandant Elisabeth Seeling, etc. According to their biographies these people are murderers, not victims. Why does the Republic of Lithuania claim these mass murderers are victims?

Another similar entry:

“2 October. On 2 October 1969 in the vicinity of the villages of Menčiai and Liepkalnis, Akmenė District, the KGB killed Kostas Liuberskis-Žvainys, partisan of the Duke Žvelgaitis Squad of the Prisikėlimas Command. He was the publisher and editor of the underground newspaper ‘Partizanų šūviams aidint’ (‘Echo of partisan shots’) published until 1957. He was the last Lithuanian partisan to be killed.”

After the war, Kostas Liuberskis was “in hiding” until 1950. In fact he was working at the St. Jacob (Šventas Jokūbas) Hospital in Vilnius. Incidentally at the same hospital Nazi collaborator Jonas Noreika from Šiauliai was also temporarily employed at the same hospital in 1946. We believe they met and were in communication at that hospital. But returning to Liuberskis, his role in selecting elderly and ill people for execution at the Šiauliai ghetto is detailed specifically in the “Šiauliai Ghetto Chronicle” by L. Lipshitz in the book “The Šiauliai Ghetto: Lists of Prisoners” (Vilnius 2002, p. 207) published by the History Department of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum (recently renamed the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum):

“On September 8, 1941, both ghetto neighborhoods were populated and the territory was completely isolated. It was forbidden to enter or exit without special permits, and only as part of a column of workers. There were no Jews left in the city. On Monday, September 8, 1941, the city municipality commission led by Liuberskis and the former Soviet activist and inspector of the People’s Education Department of the City of Šiauliai, Liolys, examined all residents of both ghetto neighborhoods and compiled lists of those who were unable to work and who were infirm.

“On September 11, 1941, a brigade of German battle field police arrived in the ghetto, under the command of lieutenant Poczalski, with an LAF unit under the command of V. Ivanauskas (the commander of the LAF), and arrested about 100 Jews according to the list made by Liuberskis. They transported them by trucks to the Normančiai section in the Gubernija Forest and shot them all to death.

“On September 12, 1941, an LAF unit commanded by that same Ivanauskas arrived in the ghetto with a list of 300 Jews. Some of the condemned hid, but the others were transported to and shot in the Gubernija Forest.

“On September 15, 1941, Liuberskis and Pimpa together with a large contingent of Lithuanian police arrived in the ghetto. They examined all residents of the ghetto and in place of the ‘blue pass’ (which was given to those moving into the ghetto) they issued ‘yellow passes.’ At that time the yellow pass meant life. Those who didn’t get one were condemned to death. These were again taken to the Gubernija Forest and shot.”

So this person hid after the war. When the KGB attempted to arrest him in 1950, he fled to the forest. Although the anti-Soviet partisan movement had already been defeated, it was still possible to hide for a time. When all of the partisans had been killed, Liuberskis continued in hiding by himself, and died when they tried to arrest him. Why his death should be remembered isn’t really clear. We should think it were more important to remember the selection he conducted in September of 1941 leading to the victims killed in the Gubernija Forest and at the Bubiai mound, thousands of innocent civilians including men, women and children murdered for no reason other than being Jewish.

Here’s another entry dedicated to commemorating a figure deemed heroic without any critical assessment:

“29 November. On 29 November 1957, partisan colonel Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, signatory of the LLKS (Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters) Council Declaration of 16 February 1949, deputy Chairman of the LLKS Council Presidium, Commander of the Defense Forces, and Commander of the Southern Lithuania Partisan District, was shot in Vilnius.”

Ramanauskas, nicknamed Vanagas or “Hawk,” was responsible for the persecution of the Jews of Druskininkai and for imprisoning them in a ghetto in the summer of 1941. Ramanauskas wrote a diary during his period as a partisan and said he was the commander of a unit of “white arm-banders” from June 23 till August of 1941. He reiterates this in his service record written when he was a partisan and later in the criminal case against him. In the criminal case compiled by Soviet interrogators, he starts claiming he had been the head of a “security unit” made up of Druskininkai residents for just a couple of weeks. More likely he knew and was attempting to hide his involvement in the crimes committed at that time. During that period Jews were kidnapped and publicly derided and humiliated. They were ordered to destroy statues to Soviet leaders. They were imprisoned in a ghetto. In early July 28 Jews were also murdered. The public derision and bullying would have continued, except that the Germans, whether based on complaints from the local ethnic Poles or for reasons of their own, drove the Lithuanian forces out of Druskininkai in early August. At this time Ramanauskas also quit Druskininkai. Several years ago, best-selling Lithuanian author Rūta Vanagaitė attempted to raise the issue of Ramanauskas in the Lithuanian parliament, which resulted in a mass denunciation of Vanagaitė and the removal of her books from retail sales points, not just her Holocaust book, but her formerly best-selling self-help books as well, and the blackening of her name in Lithuanian society.

Lithuania has been trying for some time to press Ramanauskas on the West as some sort of national hero. There was a plan to erect a statue in his honor in New Britain, Connecticut, but it was thwarted when local residents protested. The statue was later erected in a backyard in Chicago belonging to the Lithuanian-American Community.

This is the calendar of commemorative dates Lithuania’s so-called Genocide Center is pushing on the West. Next to dates of national significance, the cult of the partisans, deportations, Holocaust commemorative dates and just as many days dedicated to denying the Holocaust and distorting history. Maybe they think that if they repeat the lie a hundred times, people will start to believe it’s true.

We expect only lies from Lithuania. What confounds me are the Jews that assist and enable Lithuania to perpetrate these frauds.

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This article was co-authored by Grant Gochin and Evaldas Balčiūnas.