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The Holocaust in Lithuania

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The Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Lithuania resulted in the near total destruction of Lithuanian Jews[a] living in Nazi-controlled Lithuanian territories that would become (from July 17, 1941) the Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland. Out of approximately 210,000[1] Jews (208,000 according to the Lithuanian pre-war statistical data)[2] estimated 195,000 - 196,000 perished before the end of the Second World War (wider estimates are sometimes published); most in the short period of June-December 1941.[3][1] The events that took place in the western regions of the USSR occupied by Nazi Germany in the first weeks after the German invasion (including Lithuania - see map) marked the sharp intensification of The Holocaust.[4] [5][6][b]

A factor important to the Holocaust in Lithuania was that the occupying Nazi German administration cleverly fanned anti-Semitism by falsely connecting the earlier Soviet regime's annexation of Lithuania to the Jewish community. Another significant factor was the extent to which the Nazis' design drew upon the physical organization, preparation and executions of the murders by local Lithuanian auxiliaries of the Nazi occupation regime.[1][7]

The Holocaust of Lithuanian Jewry can be considered the worst tragedy in history of Lithuania - never before or after in Lithuania have so many people died in so short of a time.[8]

Background

Prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (the Soviet Union had annexed Lithuanian in 1940), some people in Lithuania believed Germany would grant the country independence and in order to appease the Germans expressed significant anti-semitic sentiments.[9] Nazi Germany which has seized the Lithuanian territories in the first day of the offensive used this situation to its advantage and indeed in the first days permitted a Lithuanian government to be established (see Lithuanian 1941 independence and Lithuanian Activist Front). However, when the territory was fully occupied, the Lithuanian Provisional Government was disbanded and banned (around August and September 1941), and some of its supporters ended their days in concentration camps.

The destruction of Lithuanian Jewry

Map titled "Jewish Executions Carried Out by Einsatzgruppe A" from the December 1941 Jager Report by the commander of a Nazi death squad. Marked "Secret Reich Matter", the map shows the number of Jews shot in Reichskommissariat Ostland. The estimated numbers of Jews killed in Lithuania according to this map is 136 421.

Estimated number of victims

Before the German invasion, the Jewish population was estimated at about 210,000.[1] (According to data from the Lithuanian statistics department, on 1 January 1941 there were 208,000 Jews.)[2] The estimation based on the officially accounted for prewar emigration within the USSR (approx. 8,500 thousand), number of escapees from Kaunas and Vilnius Ghettos (1,500-2,000) as well as the number of the survivors in the concentration camps when they were liberated by the Red Army (2,000-3,000) puts the number of Lithuanian Jews murdered in the Holocaust at 195 to 196 thousand.[2] It is difficult to estimate the exact number of casualties of the Holocaust and the latter number cannot be final or indisputable. The numbers given by historians differ much more significantly and the estimates range from 165,000 to 254,000 (the higher number likely includes non-Lithuanian Jews killed in Lithuania).[2]

The Holocaust events

Chronologically, the genocide in Lithuania can be divided into several phases: 1) summer to end of 1941 2) December 1941 - March 1943 3) April 1943 - mid July 1944.[10]

The German killing squads, the Einsatzgruppen, followed the advance of the German army units and immediately begun organizing the murder of Jews.[5] Most Lithuanian Jews perished in this first phase, in the first months of the occupation, before the end of 1941.[1][3] About 80,000 Jews were killed by October;[3] about 175,000 by the end of the year.[3] Majority of Jews in Lithuania did not wait in ghettos[c] nor were they sent to the Nazi concentration camps which by then were just in the preliminary stages of operation; they were shot in pits near their places of residence with the most infamous mass murders taking place in the Ninth Fort near Kaunas and the Ponary Forest near Vilna.[5][11][12] By 1942 about 45,000 Jews survived in Lithuanian ghettos and camps.[c] In the second period the Holocaust slowed, as Germans decided to use the Jews as forced labor to fuel the German war economy.[13] In the third period the destruction of Jews was again prioritized; it was in that period that the remaining ghettos and camps were liquidated.

The significant support for the "de-Jewification" of Lithuania coming from the Lithuanian populace has contributed to the quick destruction of Lithuanian Jewry.[14][13] Another factor is that the Germans, in accordance with their Generalplan Ost, planned to colonize Lithuania - which shared a border with German East Prussia - as quickly as possible; hence the extermination of relatively small Lithuanian Jew community was given a very high priority.[13]

Participation of local populace

File:Nazi Lithuanian poster.JPG
1941 Nazi propaganda antisemitic "Jewish Bolshevism" poster in Lithuanian language equating Stalinism and Jews[d]

While the Nazi German administration allowed and supported the organized killing of Lithuanian Jews, most of the logistics in preparation and executions of the murders was carried out by local Lithuanian auxiliaries of the Nazi occupation regime.[1][7][15] Nazi SS Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker arrived in Kaunas on June 25 and held agitation speeches in the city, to instigate Jews murder, firstly in the former State Security Department building, but officials there refused to take any actions. Later he held speeches in the the city. In the October 15th report Stahlecker wrote that they succeeded in covering up their vanguard unit (Vorkommando) actions, and it was made to look like it was initiative of local population.[16] Groups of partisans, civil units of nationalist-rightist anti-Soviet affiliation, initiated contact with the Germans as soon as they entered the Lithuanian territories.[7] A rogue unit of insurgents headed by Algirdas Klimaitis and encouraged by Germans (from Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst) started anti-Jewish pogroms in Kaunas (Kovno) on the night of June 25-June 26, 1941 (the Kaunas pogrom); 1500[5]-3800 (with further 1200 in other towns of the region)[17][improper synthesis?] Jews perished over the next few days in Kaunas and nearby settlements in what became the first pogrom in Nazi-occupied Lithuania.[16]

On June 24, 1941 the Lithuanian Security Police (Lietuvos saugumo policija), subordinate to Nazi Germany's Security Police and Nazi Germany's Criminal Police, was created. It would be involved in various actions against the Jews and other enemies of the Nazi regime.[18] At least some of the civil German commanders thought that the zeal of the Lithuanian police battalions surpassed their own by far.[14] The most notorious Lithuanian unit participating in the Holocaust was the Lithuanian Sonderkommando Squad (Ypatingasis būrys) from the Vilnius (Vilna, Wilno) area which killed tens of thousands Jews, Poles and others in Paneriai (the Ponary massacre) and other places.[18][11][12] Another Lithuanian organization involved in the Holocaust was the Lithuanian Labor Guard.[7] Many of Lithuanian supporters of the Nazi policies came from the fascist Iron Wolf organization.[1] Overall, the nationalistic Lithuanian administration was interested in the liquidation of the Jews as a perceived enemy and potential rivals of ethnic Lithuanians and thus not only did not oppose Nazi Holocaust policy but in effect adopted it as their own.[13]

Combination of several factors serves as an explanation for participation of some Lithuanians in genocide against Jews.[9] Those factors include national traditions and values, including anti-antisemitism, common throughout contemporary Central Europe, and more Lithuanian-specific desire for "pure" Lithuania - the incompatibility of the Jewish population within the perceived model of the Lithuanian nation-state,[1]), religion (Orthodox Catholic, in this case), severe economic problems (leading to killing of Jews over personal property) and tragically opposed political orientations (Lithuanian Jews supported the Soviet regime in Lithuania during 1940-1941[d]).[9][1]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).), only a small part - a few tens of thousands[9] - took active part in the killings[9] while at least one thousand risked their lives sheltering the Jews (Israel has recognized 723[19] Lithuanians as “Righteous Among the Nations” for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust).[9][20][1]

Comprehension and remembrance

File:Panieri2.jpg
Lithuanian Army honor guard laying wreath at memorial for Jewish victims of Ponary massacre

The genocide in Lithuania was one of the earliest large-scale implementations of the Final Solution, leading some scholars to express an opinion that the Holocaust have begun in Lithuanian in summer 1941.[5][6]^ However other scholars state that the Holocaust started in September 1939 with the onset of the Second World War[21] or even earlier with the Kristallnacht (1938) [22] or, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, with Hitler's becoming the Chancellor of Germany (1933).

Since Lithuania regained independence in 1990, Lithuanian government has on a number of occasions stated a commitment to commemorating the Holocaust, combating anti-Semitism, and bringing Nazi-era war criminals to justice.[20] NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia have declared that "Lithuania has made slow but significant progress in the prosecution of suspected Lithuanian collaborators in the Nazi genocide".[20] Lithuania was the first of the newly independent post-Soviet states to legislate the protection and marking of Holocaust-related sites.[20] On the sixtieth anniversary of the Holocaust in Lithuania, on September 20, 2001, the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) held a session during which Alfonsas Eidintas, the historian nominated as the Republic's next ambassador to Israel delivered an address dealing with an accounting of the annihilation of Lithuania's Jews.[23]

There have however been criticism that Lithuania is too slow to deal with that issue; in 2001 Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Wiesenthal Center, criticized the Lithuanian government on its unwillingness to persecute Lithuanians involved in the Holocaust.[24] In 2002 the Simon Wiesenthal Center declared its dissatisfaction with the Lithuanian government’s efforts and launched a controversial "Operation Last Chance" offering monetary rewards for evidence that leads to the prosecution of war criminals; this campaign has encountered much resistance in Lithuania and the other Baltic countries.[20]

There has also been a debate about the place of the Holocaust in the Lithuanian national memory; Lithuanians have historically denied their willing national participation in the Holocaust or labelled the Lithuanian participants in genocide as fringe extreme elements.[25][23] The memories of that time and the discussion of those events in Jewish and Lithuanian historiographies are quite different,[23] although Lithuanian historiography in the past two decades has improved (especially when compared to the Soviet historiography), with the works of scholars such as Alfonsas Eidintas, Valentinas Brandišauskas and Arūnas Bubnys, among others, being positively reviewed by the Western and Jewish historians.[23][26][10] The issue remains controversial to this day[26][23] The contentious issues involve the role of the Lithuanian Activist Front, the Lithuanian Provisional Government and participation of Lithuanian civilians and volunteers in the Holocaust.[23] an occasionally surfaces in media: in February 2008 Chairman of Yad Vashem has alarmingly stated that "destructive historical revisionism seems to be taking place in Lithuania".[27]

Notes

a ^ While this article discusses the Holocaust on the Lithuanian territories, which primarily affected and resulted in the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry, tens of thousands of non-Lithuanian Jews also died on Lithuanian territories. This included primarily: 1) Polish Jews from Vilna and others who sought refuge in Lithuania escaping the German invasion of Poland of 1939 and 2) Jews from various Western countries shipped to extermination sites in Lithuania.[28]

b ^ Several scholars have noted that the Final Solution and the Holocaust begun in Lithuania after the German invasion.
Dina Porat: "The Final Solution - the systematic overall physical extermination of Jewish communities one after the other - begun in Lithuania.[5]
Konrad Kweit: "Lithuanian Jews were among the first victims of the Holocaust [...] The Germans carried out the mass executions [...] signaling the beginning of the "Final Solution." [6] See also, Konrad Kwiet, "The Onset of the Holocaust: The Massacres of Jews in Lithuania in June 1941." Annual lecture delivered as J. B. and Maurice Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on December 4,1995. Published under the same title but expanded in Power, Conscience and Opposition: Essays in German History in Honour of John A Moses, ed. Andrew Bonnell et al. (New York: Peter Lang, 1996), pp. 107-21

c ^ Three major ghettos in Lithuania were established: Vilna ghetto (with the population of about 20,000), Kaunas Ghetto (with 17,500) and the Shavli Ghetto (with 5,000); there was also a number of smaller ghettos and labor camps.[3]

d ^ The propaganda line of Jewish Bolshevism was used intensively by Nazis in instigating antisemitic feelings among Lithuanians. It built upon the pre-invasion antisemitic propaganda of anti-Soviet Lithuanian Activist Front (which seized upon the fact that more Jews than Lithuanians supported the Soviet regime) and helped to create an entire mythos of Jewish culpability for the sufferings of Lithuania under the Soviet regime (and beyond). A LAF pamphlet read: "For the ideological maturation of the Lithuanian nation it is essential that anticommunist and anti-Jewish action be strengthened [...] It is very important that this opportunity be used to get rid of the Jews as well. We must create an atmosphere that is so stifling for the Jews that not a single Jew will think that he will have even the most minimal rights or possibility of life in the new Lithuania. Our goal is to drive out the Jews along with the Red Russians. [...] The hospitality extended to the Jews by Vytautas the Great is hereby revoked for all time because of their repeated betrayals of the Lithuanian nation to its oppressors." An extreme faction of the supporters of Augustinas Voldemaras, a group which also worked within the LAF, actually envisioned a racially exclusive "Aryan" Lithuanian state. With the start of German occupation, one of Kaunas newspaper - 7 Laisve (Towards Freedom) commenced a spirited antisemitic crusade, reinforcing the identity of the Jew with communism into popular consciousness: "Jewry and Bolshevism are one, parts of an indivisible entity."[1][23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Michael MacQueen, The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 12, Number 1, pp. 27-48, 1998, [1]
  2. ^ a b c d Arūnas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuania: An Outline of the Major Stages and Their Results in Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504, Google Print, p.218
  3. ^ a b c d e Dina Porat, “The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspects”, in David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415152321, Google Print, p. 161
  4. ^ Christopher R. Browning, with contributions by Jürgen Matthäus, "The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942", University of Nebraska Press, 2007, ISBN 0803259794, section 7 by Jürgen Matthäus, "Operation Barbarossa and the onset of the Holocaust", pp. 244-294
  5. ^ a b c d e f Dina Porat, “The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspects”, in David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415152321, Google Print, p. 159
  6. ^ a b c Konrad Kwiet, Rehearsing for Murder: The Beginning of the Final Solution in Lithuania in June 1941, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 12, Number 1, pp. 3-26, 1998, [2]
  7. ^ a b c d Dina Porat, “The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspects”, in David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415152321, Google Print, p. 162
  8. ^ Arūnas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuania: An Outline of the Major Stages and Their Results in Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504, Google Print, p.219
  9. ^ a b c d e f Dina Porat, “The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspects”, in David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415152321, Google Print, p. 166
  10. ^ a b Arūnas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuania: An Outline of the Major Stages and Their Results in Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504, Google Print, p.205-206
  11. ^ a b Template:Pl icon Śledztwo w sprawie masowych zabójstw Polaków w latach 1941 - 1944 w Ponarach koło Wilna dokonanych przez funkcjonariuszy policji niemieckiej i kolaboracyjnej policji litewskiej (Investigation of mass murders of Poles in the years 1941–1944 in Ponary near Wilno by functionaries of German police and Lithuanian collaborating police). Institute of National Remembrance documents from 2003 on the ongoing investigation]. Last accessed on 10 February 2007.
  12. ^ a b Template:Pl icon Czesław Michalski, Ponary - Golgota Wileńszczyzny (Ponary — the Golgoth of Wilno Region). Konspekt nº 5, Winter 2000–2001, a publication of the Academy of Pedagogy in Kraków. Last accessed on 10 February 2007.
  13. ^ a b c d Arūnas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuania: An Outline of the Major Stages and Their Results in Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504, Google Print, p.215
  14. ^ a b Dina Porat, “The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspects”, in David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415152321, Google Print, p. 165
  15. ^ Arūnas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuania: An Outline of the Major Stages and Their Results in Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504, Google Print, p.214
  16. ^ a b Template:Lt icon Arūnas Bubnys. Lithuanian Security Police and the Holocaust (1941–1944) F. W. Stahleckeris, pasitelkęs žurnalisto A. Klimaičio tariamą partizanų būrį (iš tikrųjų A. Klimaičio būrys nebuvo pavaldus nei LAF’ui, nei Lietuvos laikinajai vyriausybei), birželio 25 d. Kaune pradėjo kelti žydų pogromus. Tame pačiame 1941 m. spalio 15 d. raporte generolas atvirai ir išsamiai aprašė savo suorganizuotas žydų žudynes: „[…] Netikėtai paaiškėjo, kad suorganizuoti didesnio masto žydų pogromą išsyk gana nelengva. Čia visų pirma pasitelkėme anksčiau minėtų partizanų vadą A. Klimaitį, kurį tuo reikalu instruktavo veikęs Kaune mūsų nedidelis priešakinis būrys. A. Klimaičiui pavyko taip parengti pogromą, kad aikštėn neiškilo nei mūsų duoti nurodymai, nei mūsų iniciatyva. Pirmojo pogromo metu, naktį iš birželio 25-osios į 26-ąją, lietuvių partizanai likvidavo daugiau kaip 1500 žydų, padegė arba kitaip sunaikino keletą sinagogų ir sudegino žydų kvartalą, kuriame buvo apie 60 namų. Sekančiomis naktimis tuo pačiu būdu buvo padaryti nekenksmingais 2300 žydų. Kauno pavyzdžiu panašios akcijos, tik mažesnio masto, vyko ir kituose Lietuvos miestuose, jos palietė ir likusius tose vietose komunistus“ Cite error: The named reference "Bubnys-Hol" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  17. ^ Zvi Gitelman (ed.), Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR, ISBN 0253333598. Indiana University Press, 1998, p. 97.
  18. ^ a b Template:Lt icon Arūnas Bubnys (2004). Vokiečių ir lietuvių saugumo policija (1941–1944) (German and Lithuanian security police: 1941-1944). Vilnius: Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras. Retrieved 2006-06-09. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  19. ^ Righteous Among the Nations
  20. ^ a b c d e NCSJ Country Report: Lithuania. Last accessed on 13 March 2007
  21. ^ André Mineau, The Making of the Holocaust: Ideology and Ethics in the Systems, Rodopi 1999, ISBN 9042007052, page 117
  22. ^ Joseph Freeman, Job: The Story of a Holocaust Survivor, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0275955869
  23. ^ a b c d e f g Saulius Sužiedėlis, The burden of 1941, Lituanus, Volume 47, No. 4 - Winter 2001
  24. ^ Can Lithuania face its Holocaust past? - Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem, excerpts from lecture at the conference on "Litvaks in the World," August 28, 2001.
  25. ^ Michael MacQueen, Lithuanian Collaboration in the “Final Solution”: Motivations and Case Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Lithuania and the Jews: The Holocaust Chapter, Symposium Presentations, 2005, Washington DC
  26. ^ a b Alfred E. Senn, REFLECTIONS ON THE HOLOCAUST IN LITHUANIA: A NEW BOOK BY ALFONSAS EIDINTAS, Lituanus, Volume 47, No. 4 - Winter 2001
  27. ^ Yad Vashem protests Lithuanian investigation of Holocaust survivor, Associated Press, 02.28.08
  28. ^ Katy Miller-Korpi, The Holocaust in the Baltics. Encyclopedia of Baltic History. University of Washington. Last accessed on 13 March 2008.
  • Foreword by Paul A. Shapiro and Carl J. Rheins
  • Lithuanian Collaboration in the “Final Solution”: Motivations and Case Studies by Michael MacQueen
  • Key Aspects of German Anti-Jewish Policy by Jürgen Matthäus
  • Jewish Cultural Life in the Vilna Ghetto by David G. Roskies

Further reading

  • Arūnas Bubnys, The Holocaust in Lithuania between 1941 and 1944, Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, 2005, ISSN 9986-757-66-5 abstract
  • Alfonsas Eidintas, Jews, Lithuanians and the Holocaust, Versus Aureus, 2003, ISBN 995596
  • Alfonsas Eidintas, A “Jew-Communist” Stereotype in Lithuania, 1940-1941, Lithuanian Political Science Yearbook (01/2000), pp. 1-36, [3]
  • Harry Gordon, The Shadow of Death: The Holocaust in Lithuania, University Press of Kentucky, 2000, ISBN 0813190088
  • Rose Lerer-Cohen, Saul Issroff, The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945: A Book of Remembrance, Gefen Booksm, 2002, ISBN 965229280X
  • Dov Levin, Lithuanian Attitudes toward the Jewish Minority in the Aftermath of the Holocaust: The Lithuanian Press, 1991–1992, # Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 7, Number 2, pp. 247-262, 1993, [4]
  • Don Levin, On the Relations between the Baltic Peoples and their Jewish Neighbors before, during and after World War II, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 5, Number 1, pp. 53-6, 1990, [5]
  • Dov Levin, The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania, Berghahn Books, 2000, ISBN 9653080849
  • Josifas Levinsonas, Joseph Levinson, The Shoah (Holocaust) in Lithuania, The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 2006, ISBN 5415019022
  • Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504
  • Alfred Erich Senn, Lithuania 1940: Revolution from Above, Rodopi, 2007, ISBN 9042022256