There is no basis for trust
In an interview with Peta Krost for the South African Jewish Report titled, Noreika plaque flies in face of Holocaust apologies, former Lithuanian Ambassador to USA and current Deputy chancellor of Lithuania and current advisor to the prime minister, Rolandas Kriščiūnas, told the SA Jewish Report that it was “impossible to sidestep these issues because of the horror of what was done to Jews in this country – the tragedy is mind blowing”.
He is correct. For the remainder of his statement, his manipulations are also “mind blowing”.
Words from Krost’s article are in italics, my explanations appear in regular script:
He said he was aware of only two such cases of plaques and statues commemorating such people, namely those of Noreika and Krikštaponis. With the latter, he said there was agreement about his involvement in the mass killing of Jews, but the government was yet to be convinced about Noreika, and awaited confirmation by its own historians.
There is absolutely no possibility that Kriščiūnas was being truthful in this statement. During his tenure as Lithuanian Ambassador to USA, the US Congress confronted the Lithuanian Prime Minister. Congress objected to the Lithuanian Government’s fraudulent positions; Lithuania manipulated US Congressional documents for Holocaust revisionism. Congress used the example of Lithuanian Prime Minister and Holocaust perpetrator – Juozas Brazaitis. Monuments to Brazaitis abound in Lithuania.
A letter from Congress was delivered to Kriščiūnas himself. For Kriščiūnas to be unaware of Lithuania’s historical revisionism, he would have had to be absent from work almost his entire tenure, or unconscious. Rather, he left USA with a stellar reputation. Kriščiūnas’s statement was quite simply, dishonest.
Streets and honors for Kazys Skirpa in Lithuania also continue to receive negative worldwide press.
It is required for an ambassador to read and understand what the press writes about their country. For Kriščiūnas to be unaware of the other monuments and honors, he would have had to have been sequestered in a closed and isolated cell. He was not.
Kriščiūnas says he is yet to be convinced of Noreika’s guilt. How is this possible? The only entity in the world who disputes Noreika’s clear and apparent guilt, is the Lithuanian Government. Even Lithuania’s own Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, affirms Noreika’s guilt. Kriščiūnas continues to dissemble and distort. As explained in the article – “Ask the question”, anything other than a straightforward “yes” response to the question of Noreika’s guilt, is a lie. Kriščiūnas, the Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania and Advisor to the Prime Minister just exposed his ethical positions.
However, Kriščiūnas said he and the government believed there shouldn’t be any statues or plaques to honor people involved in the killing of Jews.
Lithuania is littered with monuments for Holocaust perpetrators. The Lithuanian government has removed exactly one – Noreika. The removal is temporary, only for the duration of the NATO Summit, and then the Lithuanian Government promises to reinstall it.
As the Ambassador states, the plaques or monuments should be removed. In their place, should be monuments and plaques of equal size and prominence explaining the crimes of prior heroes. However, Kriščiūnas omits to mention the national registers where these Holocaust perpetrators are listed with official honors. Platitudes about removing the monuments from sight does not revoke the Holocaust perpetrator’s legal and national “hero” status. Removal merely disguises the true Lithuanian spirit – the glorification of Holocaust perpetrators.
But it wasn’t the jurisdiction of national government to order the removal of these statues and plaques as it fell in the ambit of municipalities or local government. “As for Krikštaponis, it won’t be long before his memorial comes down, and I believe the rest will follow. I don’t want to overpromise and under deliver, but it will happen, because people who were involved in killing Jews cannot be held up as heroes.”
This statement contradicts Kriščiūnas earlier assertion that the only Holocaust perpetrator monuments Lithuania has are Noreika and Krikstaponis. What of Landsbergis, Skirpa, Brazaitis, and so very many others, listed here? He cleverly omits these Holocaust perpetrators by design.
Lithuania is a microstate. There are only about 2.5 million people who have not yet left the country. i.e. the whole country is the size of a small neighborhood within my city of Los Angeles. Everyone in Lithuania virtually knows everyone else, and is merely one phone call or email away. Local city councilors in Los Angeles are responsible to bigger populations than the President of Lithuania. Their rationalizations of multi layers of government are silly, self-aggrandizing and a distraction. If the Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania wanted one monument in one miniscule village removed, this could be accomplished with a single phone call.
Kriščiūnas states “what was done to Jews in this country – the tragedy is mind blowing”, but immediately proceeds to distort and rationalize. His warm statement was intended to divert attention. These are practiced declarations by Lithuanian officials. Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania, Kriščiūnas is in queue to eventually become Prime Minister. Why would a man of his good reputation engage in Holocaust distortion? Is the Lithuanian nation really that enamored by their Holocaust heroes?
The American and German governments have been emphatic with Lithuania to stop their Holocaust deceptions. America and Germany called it “promotion of impunity for war criminals”. America and Germany state it normalizes antisemitism, racism, discrimination, and exclusion, increases tensions between countries, and undermines public support for democratic institutions and values-based international structures.
The European Commission has also had recent strong communication with Lithuania about their “historical accuracy” (or lack thereof).
President Biden has been educated about Lithuania’s choices of their national heroes. He will attend the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July. President Biden and his staff will intentionally avoid Lithuania’s Holocaust glorification monuments.
Lithuania has undermined its own courts and government agencies in order to protect their Holocaust perpetrators. Lithuania is the only country in the world to have gone to court in an attempt to burnish the reputation of a genocidal murderer.
Lithuanian diplomats have tried to silence the documentaries J’Accuse! and Baltic Truth. This shows us they are not willing to address facts. Their boycott of discussion, and refusal to accept questions about their government’s Holocaust fraud, informs us they have no intention of being truthful. Avoiding any meeting where they might be questioned or held to account for their lies reflects their fear of facing the truth.
Lithuanian deceptions have been exposed. Their choice of their heroes is now apparent even to the US President. Their emphatic refusal to accept the truth for so long, has placed them in a now untenable position. Their future identity will be defined by Noreika, Krištaponis, Skirpa, Brazaitis, Landsbergis and so many others. This fraud has continued for eighty years, their identity will be defined by their conduct for another eighty.
After so many decades of such monumental deceptions, Lithuania has no capacity to tell even one single additional lie. Lithuania’s future statements must be complete, actionable and exact. Mass murder followed by consistent, pervasive, comprehensive dishonesty proves there is simply no basis for trust between Jews and the Lithuanian Government.