The Blogs: Lithuanian Government responds on Noreika

J’Accuse! has now been viewed by approximately 150,000 people. Baltic Truth will be broadcast in Israel on Yom Hashoah, reaching seventy percent of Israeli television viewers. It will be shown at 5pm New York time, which is prime viewership. By the end of April 2023, it is likely that combined viewership of the documentaries will educate in excess of one million people. To date, the Government of Lithuania has refused to acknowledge either documentary and rejected all invitations to view them – worldwide.

The Lithuanian Government continues to assiduously avoid addressing their ongoing public exposure of their rampant Holocaust fraud. Until now.

On March 15, 2023, New York students held a demonstration outside the Lithuanian Consulate. They were protesting the government’s rampant rewriting of history. Jewish schoolchildren objected in unison in order to give voice to their families murdered in Lithuania. The protest was widely reported in the media.

The focus of the protest was Jonas Noreika; the murderer of approximately 14,500 Jews in Northern Lithuania. Noreika’s own granddaughter, Silvia Foti, exposed his crimes in her book Storm in the Land of Rain: A Mother’s Dying Wish Becomes Her Daughter’s Nightmare. The Lithuanian Government, Courts, Parliament, Public Prosecutor, Prime Minister and President of Lithuania have colluded to falsely rewrite Noreika into a “Righteous Gentile”.

Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, Dean of Rambam, was invited into the Lithuanian Consulate during the demonstration. He was told by Consulate staff that Silvia Foti is “misguided”, and that Noreika was innocent. The Consul told Rabbi Friedman that Lithuanian Courts have adjudicated Noreika’s case and found Noreika “Not Guilty”. This is a complete and total lie. In fact, every Lithuanian Court colluded NOT to review any of the facts of the case, and dismissed all cases on legal technicalities. It is Lithuania’s own refusal to address facts, which forces moral people to object, and take to the streets demanding adjudication. Lithuania seeks out careerists, commercial opportunists, or those with self interest to stand by their side and tolerate their deceptions. Rabbi Friedman and his school are not amongst those enablers. Nobody should be.

Cleveland Jewish News has since reported on the demonstration and has received and conveyed an official response from a representative of the Lithuanian Government. The statement is genius in its deflections, substitutions and evasions. To fully comprehend the dishonesty in their statements, one must understand what they are actually saying.

Counselor Jurgita Bilvaisienė told JNS “The background is important because Lithuania has a very unfortunate past of 50 years of Soviet occupation and experience of Soviet Russia propaganda and, consequently, blank spots and pieces of distortions of history which were substituted by Soviets,”. In fact, the Soviet occupation ended over thirty years ago. Since then, the Government of Lithuania has exceeded the dishonesty of the Soviet Union, and created official bodies to rewrite Lithuanian Holocaust history into a national fraud. This response of the Counselor is meant to distract, abdicate responsibility, and place blame for their own fraud onto Russians. Nowhere here did she respond to anything about Noreika. Additionally, she failed to acknowledge that Soviets did punish some Holocaust perpetrators by sending them to Siberia (alongside many additional innocent victims), while Lithuania to date has never punished a single Holocaust perpetrator.

Bilvaisienė claimed that after its independence in 1990, Lithuania “moved forward profoundly and recovered many facts of the history of Lithuania including [the] Holocaust and painful loss of our citizens and community members. Actually, we were shocked by uncovering the historical facts, and today we are still in mourning and [a] healing process.”

This is a misrepresentation, convolution, and a complete distortion. Nowhere does she refer to the rampant Holocaust fraud by her government and again evades the question about Noreika. She claims to be in “mourning” while her government festoons murderers of Jews with national honors. The hypocrisy and inversions are blinding.

When JNS pressed her further for a specific comment on Noreika, the consulate shared a 303-word statement, which read, in part:

“Today public debates usually center on the role that several individuals known for their merit to anti-Soviet resistance played in the Holocaust. Such debates sometimes get to a political level and, as a result, sometimes lead to the decisions taken by non-governmental organizations or municipal politicians regarding the commemoration of specific individuals. The position of the Lithuanian Government, however, is clearly expressed—the truth must be established with the help of impartial and independent academic research … Regretfully, there have been examples in Lithuania, when recommendations of the central government have not been implemented yet by the local government. … This controversy needs additional attention and could be possibly solved by improving legislation. New legal regulation is on the way, at a moment.”

This statement does not refer to Noreika. It is avoidance and substitution. Her response is designed to make the interviewer think they are receiving a response, while in fact, the question is not addressed in any way, shape or form. She hopes for unfamiliarity about minutiae of the Holocaust, to distinguish that her response is simply an evasion, not an answer. Her comeback requires explanation, sentence by sentence. Her words are in italics, my explanation is in regular type:

The position of the Lithuanian Government, however, is clearly expressed—the truth must be established with the help of impartial and independent academic research – This statement is a complete lie. The government has worked very hard to evade truth. See my 30+ legal actions in which I have been able to get almost every government department on written record participating in Holocaust denial, revision, distortion and triumphalism. Many times I have called for an impartial “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” of foreign academics to objectively assess truth, as the Lithuanian government approved research is usually just lies. I have prepared a four point plan for the government to redeem themselves from their revisionist dishonesty. I am delighted they now agree with one of my points. I have zero belief they will carry through with this plan, I imagine it is a statement intended only as a delaying tactic.

Regretfully, there have been examples in Lithuania, when recommendations of the central government have not been implemented yet by the local government. – could she please be specific? Her statement does not apply in the case of Noreika, Skirpa, Baltusis, Brazaitis and so many other Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrators. In her response phrase, she is probably transposing the case of the Krikstaponis monument, where even the government of Lithuania has not been able to deny his murders of Jews.

This controversy needs additional attention and could be possibly solved by improving legislation. New legal regulation is on the way, at a moment.” – Legal regulation of what? The Krikstaponis monument? The question asked of her was about Noreika. She deflects the question onto another subject completely.

When finally confronted by independent journalists, the government of Lithuania responded with distractions, misrepresentations, insults, and more lies. Their Holocaust fraud is clear. Their intention not to reply is also clear. For their part, it is a brilliant strategy as few fully understand the complexity of their dishonesty tactics. For Jews, it is yet one more display of contempt towards us, and contempt for Holocaust victims.

Unless the Government of Lithuania is willing to tell full truth, they should not insult us on Yom Hashoah, or any other day, by spewing more deceptive misrepresentations. They and we would be better served if the Lithuanian government just remains silent. We know the truth. The world knows the truth. Lithuania’s citizens deserve to know the truth. It’s time the government of Lithuania told the truth. Truth would be a novel experience for them.