Will Lithuania Accede To US and German Demands?
The mass-murder of the Holocaust began in Lithuania, well before Nazi Germany itself adopted a policy of mass murder, and most of the killings were done by “patriotic” Lithuanians. For decades, official Lithuania has denied the role of Lithuanians in the horror, and when denial was no longer tenable, the government has used a variety of arguments to try to blame the Nazi’s, the Soviets – and even Jews themselves. And they have dedicated an entire government agency of pseudo-historians to craft fanciful tales that transform perpetrators into saviors of Jews.
However, as John Adams stated, facts are “stubborn things.” After decades of witnesses, historians, and documentarians exposing the mountains of revisionist lies, even the American and German governments have condemned official Holocaust revisionism. With the gaze of an exasperated world staring starkly at Lithuania, what will be its next maneuver?
Lithuania could, of course, follow the example of post-war Germany, and admit that they have energetically led one of the greatest criminal cover-ups of the 20th Century. Or, Lithuania could try to mitigate the situation by conceding that perhaps a few ethnic Lithuanians were involved but otherwise persist in refusing to admit that thousands of ethnic Lithuanians led or directly participated in the murders and perhaps tens of thousands more profited handsomely by plundering Jewish homes and property.
Lithuania is certainly aware that Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the world’s “Last Nazi Hunter”, will not relent until the full truth is told, nor will I, and nor will Michael Kretzmer or Silvia Foti.
I predict Lithuania will try to mitigate the situation it is in by drawing upon organizations that are beholden to it. For three decades, Lithuania has groomed several ostensibly Jewish organizations, awarding funds, baubles, and acclaim in return for showing “friendship” without requiring any accountability for the deaths of two hundred thousand innocents. They will be called upon to repay Lithuania by providing public relations cover. But such enablers will be seen for what they are. And their words will hardly justify perpetuation of Lithuania’s stream of prevarications. Which is what the American and German governments now demand must end.
Avoidance by Lithuania is no longer possible. It will be interesting to see which organizations, and which leading Jewish figures seek to mitigate Lithuania’s public relations image, and how they do it. Nevertheless, they will not be the arbiters of whether Lithuania is taking sincere measures to undo the decades of lies and deception. They clearly have permanent conflicts-of-interest. The sole arbiter of whether Lithuania is truly pursuing the truth is the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
For many years, it has been obvious that Lithuania needs a truth and reconciliation commission to examine in an open, fair, and unlimited extent the only holocaust that ever occurred in the country in the 20th Century. This commission should, among other things, finally identify each and every perpetrator, state in detail what they did during and after the mass murders, and why the post-Soviet state has spent so much public money and gone to such extreme measures to cover up the truth in multiple forums.
