Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today responded with dismay and consternation to a communication from EU Ambassador to Afghanistan Vygaudas Ušackes to its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, following his criticism of an op-ed by Ušackes in the Wall Street Journal in which the ambassador referred to the Nazi occupation of Lithuania as “a few years’ respite from the Communists.” In a statement issued here today, the Center noted that rather than rectifying his grossly insensitive remark about the Holocaust, Ambassador Ušackes has again insulted its victims, especially those murdered in his homeland.

According to Zuroff:

“All Ambassador Ušackes was expected to do was to admit that his original comment was inappropriate and apologize for his lack of sensitivity to the fate of Lithuanian Jewry during the Holocaust. Instead, he chose to defend his callous indifference to the murder of some 212,000 Lithuanian Jews during the Nazi occupation, by complaining about the imbalance in public opinion between “Nazi crimes which have been universally condemned by all civilized humanity,” and “the crimes of Stalin’s regime…and the tragedy of its victims,” which only received recognition more recently, as if this justifies ignoring the Holocaust. And while he did condemn Holocaust crimes in general, he did not say a word about those committed by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators.

“Ušackes’ reluctance to honestly deal with his country’s bloody Holocaust past raises serious doubts about his ability to properly represent the European Union.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon EU Ambassador to Afghanistan, Lithuania’s former Foreign Minister Vygaudas Ušackas, to apologize or retract his grossly insensitive comments regarding the Nazi occupation of his country in his December 2011 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. In an article entitled “My Long, Strange Journey to Afghanistan,” Ušackas categorized the Nazi occupation of Lithuania (1941-1944) during which over 96% of the country’s Jewish community was murdered, in many cases by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, as “a respite from the Communists while the Nazis were in control.” In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center termed the comment “a grave insult to the victims of the Holocaust and especially to those murdered in Lithuania.”

According to Zuroff:

“It is incomprehensible that an individual who represents the European Union can refer to the mass annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry in such grossly insensitive terms, which fail to reflect the historical reality of that period. We urge Ambassador Ušachas to apologize and retract his statement and call upon the European Union to take appropriate measures should he refuse to do so.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the recent decision of Yad Vashem to rescind its original invitation to Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel Darius Degutis and visiting Minister of Culture Arunas Gelunas to participate in tomorrow’s annual memorial assembly to commemorate the Jews murdered in Lithuania during the Holocaust. The decision was made in the wake of the refusal of Yosef Melamed, Chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, to attend the event in the light of a recent attempt by the Lithuanian government to prosecute him for “libeling”
so-called “Lithuanian heroes,” whom he exposed as participants in Holocaust crimes. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the significance of Yad Vashem’s decision in the context of the ongoing battle being waged against the Lithuanian government’s energetic efforts to hide and/or minimize the active complicity of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, as well as its promotion of the Prague Declaration which seeks to establish a historically-false equivalency between Holocaust and Communist crimes.

According to Zuroff:
“Yad Vashem, which serves as the primary custodian of Shoa remembrance and the key guardian of the accuracy of the Jewish narrative of Holocaust history, is to be commended for fulfilling its historic function in a very courageous manner. Its decision is a crucial blow against the ongoing efforts of the Lithuanian government to distort the history of the Shoa in Lithuania and the role played by local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of local and foreign Jews in Lithuania, as well as Jews in Belarus and Poland.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the Lithuanian government for trying to hide or minimize the highly-significant role of local Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes and attributed last weekend’s desecration of the memorial at Ponar, the site of the mass murder of 70,000 Jews during the Holocaust, to the falsification of World War II history by local historians with governmental sponsorship and support. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center pointed to the denial at a recent international conference sponsored by the government at the Seimas [Lithuanian Parliament] of the lethal violence launched by Lithuanians against Jews in at least 40 different locations before the arrival of Nazi troops, as an example of the continuing efforts by the authorities to try and conceal the active participation by Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews during World War II.

According to Zuroff:
“The ongoing government-sponsored and financed distortion, minimization, and downplaying of the critical role played by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes has created an anti-Semitic atmosphere in which slogans such as “Hitler was right,” which was scrawled on the Ponar memorial, seem natural. After all, if as was claimed at the recent historical conference held at the Seimas, Jewish historians such as eminent Hebrew University professor Dov Levin purposely lied about the scope of Lithuanian criminality during the Shoa, such desecrations of Holocaust memorials become almost understandable. The time has come for the European Union to make clear to the Lithuanian authorities that membership obligates them to refrain from distorting the history of World War II for political reasons and to stop the resultant incitement against the local Jewish community

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian authorities to refrain from honoring the “Lithuanian Activist Front” which sought to reestablish Lithuanian independence following the Nazi invasion of the country launched seventy years ago on June 22, 1941. In a statement issued here today by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the vicious incitement against the Jews of Lithuania by the Lithuanian Activist Front prior to the invasion and their appeal for Lithuanians to take measures on their own against Jews considered suspect of betraying the country. These calls, it should be noted, led to widespread physical violence which claimed the lives of at least hundreds of Jews by local vigilantes, before the arrival of the Nazis in at least forty different locations.

According to Zuroff:

“Any attempt to glorify the Lithuanian Activist Front is not a tribute to Lithuanian patriotism, but rather a ringing endorsement of the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and a horrific insult to the numerous victims of the Holocaust murdered by Lithuanians. The seventieth anniversary of the Nazi invasion should be an occasion for repentance and reflection on the role of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes, and a day to honor those brave Lithuanians who risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors. They were the true Lithuanian patriots, not the anti-Semites of the Lithuanian Activist Front .”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian authorities to make every possible effort to apprehend and punish the individuals who last night vandalized the site of the “Ninth Fort,” one of the most important sites of Holocaust mass murder in general, and in Lithuania, in particular. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center expressed grave pain and indignation that a place which currently commemorates, and during World War II had been the site of, such horrific Holocaust crimes in which tens of thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators, was vandalized with swastikas and inscriptions calling for the expulsion of Jews, and memorial plaques were forcibly removed from their places.

According to Zuroff:
“The disgusting desecration of one of the most important sites of the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry is a clear message of implacable hatred for the Jews living in Lithuania and a insult to the memory of the innocent Jewish victims brutally annihilated by the German and Austrian Nazis and their Lithuanian helpers, who carried out most of the killing at this site of infamy. It is high time that Lithuanian students and children will be taught the truth about the role of their countrymen in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and many thousands of Jews outside the country, and that the government stop trying to minimize local collaboration with the Nazis and promote the canard of equivalency between Communist and Holocaust crimes.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center has labeled a neo-Nazi march of approximately 1,000 participants held this past Friday in the heart of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius “the worst type of anti-Semitic and xenophobic incitement against Lithuania’s minorities” and harshly criticized the failure of the country’s political, intellectual, and religious leadership to condemn the march unequivocally. In a statement issued here today by its Israel Director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called upon Lithuanian elected officials to denounce such demonstrations and upon the leaders of the ruling Homeland Union party to sanction their MP Kazimieras Uoka who was among the marchers.

According to Zuroff:
“Such demonstrations are an affront to all members of the minority groups living in Lithuania, and especially insulting to the country’s Jewish citizens, many of whom are Holocaust survivors. To see hundreds of young people marching with Lithuanian flags and swastikas down the main avenue of the capital of a member of the European Union and NATO is enough to send shivers down the spine of any person with a knowledge of Lithuanian history during the years 1941-1945 and any sense of morality.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the dismissal of the case against
Holocaust denier Petras Stankeras and the failure of the Lithuanian prosecutors to publicize the decision. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the constant failure since independence of the Lithuanian judiciary to punish Lithuanians who commit crimes related to the Holocaust.

According to Zuroff:
“While the crimes of Holocaust denial is not comparable to the terrible Holocaust war crimes committed by Liliekis, Gimzauskas and Dailide, the Lithuanian judiciary has once again demonstrated its total inability to punish locals who commit crimes related to the annihilation of European Jewry. I have no doubt that a Lithuanian who committed Communist crimes or tried to deny them would never be treated with such leniency. Perhaps those accused of Holocaust crimes have to be prosecuted elsewhere?”

Background: The November 16 issue of the popular news weekly Veidas published an article by Interior Ministry specialist Petras Stankeras in which he called the Holocaust a "legend." The Wiesenthal Center called for his prosecution under a Lithuanian law which makes the denial of Holocaust crimes a criminal offence. An investigation was initiated against him, but we recently learned that no charges had been filed against him, and Stankeras, who had resigned from his post under pressure from the Center and seven European ambassadors who had also protested against his denial of the Shoa, had applied to be reinstated to his original job.

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the decision of the Vilnius Municipality to permit a march by local neo-Nazis and ultranationalists through the center of the Lithuanian capital this coming March 11, to mark the restoration in 1990 of Lithuanian independence. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted the racist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic slogans and signs of the participants in last year’s march on the same day, and called upon the local authorities to change their misguided decision.

According to Zuroff:

“Freedom of speech does not include the right to incite hatred of Lithuania’s minorities and foreigners. The fact that racist and anti-Semitic slogans could be shouted with impunity on the main avenue of a capital of a member state of the European Union is incomprehensible. One of the primary factors for the rise of ultranationalist sentiments in Lithuania has been the abysmal failure of successive governments to teach the truth about the extensive complicity of Lithuanians in Holocaust crimes and to punish local Nazi war criminals. Had the truth been admitted, there would be virtually no support in Lithuanian society for racism and anti-Semitism, but instead the government is spending hundreds of thousands of euros on falsifying the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania and seeking support for the lie that Communist crimes were just as terrible as those of the Nazis.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Lithuanian government to prosecute Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior senior specialist Petras Stankeras, who called the Holocaust a “legend” and denied the murder of six million Jews in an article he published in the November 14 issue of the news weekly Veidas. In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff , the Center welcomed Stankeras’ resignation today, but noted that Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Lithuania and urged the implementation of the law in this case for the first time ever.

According to Zuroff:

“As shocking as the article by Stankeras was, it is hardly surprising to see Holocaust denial in a popular mainstream publication, in a country in which the government itself is actively promoting Holocaust distortion by seeking to gain recognition that Communist crimes are equivalent to those of the Nazis. If we add the abysmal failure to punish a single Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrator and the tendency to minimize or hide the role of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, Stankeras’ article is only the tip of a very dangerous iceberg of lies and distortion.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today sharply criticized comments made by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Andronius Ažubalis late last week at a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the Homeland Union and Christian Democratic parties. In a presentation regarding proposed legislation which would permit individuals of Lithuanian origin living elsewhere to obtain Lithuanian citizenship in addition to their current citizenship, the Foreign Minister claimed that the bill was being promoted primarily by “Jews who seek citizenship to press compensation claims against the state.” In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center categorized Ažubalis’ remarks as “unabashedly anti-Semitic and totally divorced from reality.”

According to Zuroff:
“The Foreign Minister’s outrageous comments expose the insidious duplicity of Lithuania’s attitude toward foreign Jews of Lithuanian origin. On the one hand, the government recently announced its intention to establish a “Litvak Forum” to enlist the support and assistance of overseas Jews, yet at the same time, one of its leading ministers openly expresses his disdain for the same people. The Center therefore fully supports the stance of Lithuania’s brave local Jewish community, which has openly demanded an apology from Minister Ažubalis, whose comments ‘sow discord between Lithuanians and Jews.’”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon Jews of Lithuanian descent (Litvaks”) the world over to boycott a new initiative announced late last week by Lithuanian Prime Ministry Andrius Kubilius to create a “Litvak heritage forum.” In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center accused the Lithuanian government of trying to enlist Jewish support for its ongoing campaigns of Holocaust distortion and promoting a false equivalency between Communist and Nazi crimes.

According to Zuroff:
“The creation of a new “Litvak Forum” is merely the latest in a long line of Lithuanian governmental initiatives to promote a false narrative of the events of World War II, which minimizes the extensive role of local Nazi collaborators in the mass murder of Jews and promotes the canard that Communist crimes were equivalent to those of the Nazis. Such an initiative is the equivalent of forming an Armenian support group for Turkish efforts to deny the Armenian genocide.

“The Center will continue its efforts to thwart Lithuanian Holocaust distortion and is already in contact with the “Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel,” the world’s largest Litvak organization to ensure the failure of the latest governmental tactic to hide the truth about the Holocaust in Lithuania and to prevent naïve Litvaks from helping destroy their own historical legacy.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a strongly-worded protest against the decision yesterday by a Lithuanian court in the port city of Klaipeda to regard swastikas as symbols of Lithuania’s historical heritage rather than of Nazi Germany. In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center called the decision “outrageous” and likely to lead to a tremendous increase in the use of Nazi symbols by Lithuania’s ultra-nationalist fascists.

According to Zuroff:

“Such a decision is certain to encourage Lithuania’s fascists to increase their activity throughout the country. Allowing the use of swastikas sends a clear message to those local residents harshly victimized by the Nazis, that they are no longer welcome in their country of birth. Once again, Lithuanian judges show their obvious bias in favor of the perpetrators of Holocaust crimes rather then their victims. We urge the Lithuanian courts to overturn this outrageous and contemptible decision as quickly as possible.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today praised the critical comments made by Norwegian ambassador to Lithuania Steiner Gil regarding the failure of Lithuanian leaders and members of parliament to denounce a neo-Nazi march held earlier this month in the center of Vilnius. Ambassador Gil spoke at a seminar on “European and Lithuanian Values: Identical or Different?” held late last week in the Lithuanian Parliament. In a statement issued here by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center labeled the march “a horrifying spectacle of hatred, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism which brings back memories of dark days in Vilnius.”

According to Zuroff:
“Such neo-Nazi demonstrations have no place in European society, which suffered unprecedented losses at the hands of the Nazis and their local collaborators. The fact that no public figure had the courage to speak out against this manifestation of lack of tolerance is a strong indication of the weak foundations of Lithuanian democracy. Ambassador Gil’s criticism should serve as a dire warning to Lithuanian society.”

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Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today blasted the current campaign conducted by the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to grant Communist crimes equal recognition to the crimes of the Holocaust . In an op-ed article featured in the Israeli English-language daily Jerusalem Post, the Center’s Israel director Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff severely criticized the recently-intensified campaign by the Baltic republics and other post-Communist governments to mark August 23 as a joint remembrance day for the victims of Nazism and Communism, and to establish an “Institute of European Memory and Conscience” as a museum, research and educational center on totalitarian crimes in order to “reunite [European] history [and] recognize communism and Nazism as a common legacy.” According to Zuroff: “While one can sympathize with the legitimate desire of the victims of Communism for recognition, there is nothing innocent about this declaration which clearly seeks to undermine the current status of the Holocaust as a unique historical tragedy and relativize it to divert attention from the extensive collaboration of Balts with the Nazis and the abysmal failure of all their governments since independence to adequately deal with these issues. “It is clear that the time has come to start paying attention to this insidious campaign being conducted primarily by Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to alleviate their guilt for Holocaust crimes and displace the Shoa from its unique status. If not, we are likely to soon find ourselves facing the cancellation of the numerous important achievements of the past decade in Holocaust commemoration and education and forced to fight an uphill battle against a new and distorted World War II historical narrative.”

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According to Zuroff:

“This is only the latest in a long series of farces produced by Lithuanian prosecutors and judges who are clearly incapable of punishing local Holocaust criminals. Despite the presence in Lithuania since independence of numerous Nazi war criminals, not a single one has ever been punished, a fact which clearly shows the total inability of Lithuanian society to face its bloody past of extensive participation in the mass murder of Jews. It is high time that the international community start paying attention to the serious judicial and educational failures of Lithuania.”

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According to Zuroff:
“The case against Dr. Arad is only the tip of an ugly iceberg created in Vilnius by government officials and institutions determined to hide the truth about the critical and extremely significant role played by local Nazi collaborators in the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry and the mass murder of Jews in Belarus and Poland. Thus the Lithuanians did everything possible to avoid prosecution of their own Nazi war criminals, and when pressured to prosecute the three cases brought to trial [Lileikis, Gimzauskas, and Dailide], made sure by devious legal tactics that none of the three would ever be punished, thereby reinforcing the myth propagated by the authorities that only a few local hooligans mistreated Jews. The latest campaign to prosecute Soviet anti-Nazi Jewish partisans was merely another link in this chain of historical duplicity and distortion. It’s high time that the truth about the Shoa will finally be told in Vilnius and the investigations of Jewish partisans Rachel Margolis and Fania Brantsovsky be closed as well.”

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According to Zuroff:

“Given the woefully inadequate response by the government to the neo-Nazi march through the center of Vilnius less than half a year ago, I believe that the time has come for unequivocal, resolute and immediate action to identify and punish those responsible for this anti-Semitic attack.

“There is no doubt in my mind that these outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence are the direct result of Lithuania’s failure to punish its Nazi collaborators, the recent campaign against Soviet Jewish partisans and the ongoing efforts to minimize the role of Lithuanians in the mass murder of their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust. Today’s anti-Semitic violence is the direct result of ignoring the crimes of the past.”

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According to Zuroff:

“On May 5 and 13, 2008 plainclothes policemen came looking for Fania Brantsovsky, the librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, and Rachel Margolis in connection with an investigation against the former for supposed war crimes during World War II. The irony of such allegations is that on April 30, 2008 Fania Brantsovsky has just been honored by the American Embassy for “her struggles as a partisan fighting the Nazi occupiers.”

“If we add this investigation to the one currently being conducted by the Lithuanian authorities against former Yad Vashem Chairman and anti-Nazi partisan Dr. Yitzchak Arad, it is absolutely clear that a deliberate campaign is currently underway to discredit the brave Jewish heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance and help deflect attention from the infinitely more numerous crimes by Lithuanians against Jews during the Holocaust.

“I want to point out that we have every intention of exposing and responding to this malicious campaign against innocent heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance whose only “crime” was to fight against the occupiers of Lithuania who sought with the help of local collaborators to annihilate the Jewish people.”

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In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center praised Prof. Levin for taking “an unequivocal stand against the attempts by the Lithuanian judicial authorities to delegitimize the courageous struggle of the Soviet partisan movement against the Nazis and their numerous Lithuanian collaborators. This is merely another attempt by Lithuania to minimize or relativize the extensive participation by Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust,” said Zuroff, who urged other honorees to follow Levin’s example.

In his letter to President Adamkus, Prof. Levin explained why he took this unprecedented step:

“As a former comrade-in-arms of Dr. Arad, and as someone who has very closely followed the efforts of Lithuanian society to erase the guilt of Lithuanian complicity in Holocaust crimes, I want to strenuously protest the absolutely disgusting demand to extradite this Jewish hero to stand trial in Lithuania. Out of a sense of solidarity with Dr.Arad and deep disgust and anger at this despicable step, which attempts to delegitimize the courageous struggle of myself and my comrades against the Nazi invaders and their Lithuanian collaborators, I hereby return the certificate of honor whose contents have been rendered meaningless by the recent actions and events in Lithuania as explained above.


“In that context, I cannot refrain from mentioning my deep sense of shock and indignation at the recent demonstration by some two hundred neo-Nazis, who brazenly marched in the main streets of our beloved Vilna [Vilnius] shouting anti-Semitic slogans such as "Juden raus" under the protection of the local police, who stood by passively despite this blatant exhibition of incitement against Jews and Russians. And thus it is perhaps no coincidence that this disgusting anti-Semitic event took place not long after the insulting demand by the Lithuanian authorities to extradite our comrade Dr. Yitzchak Arad.”

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In a letter sent by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff to the Lithuanian ambassador to Israel, the Center demanded that the demonstrators be punished as quickly as possible, noting that public opinion poll published today in Vilnius indicated widespread public support of the march, which clearly shows that Lithuanian society in acute need of a lesson about the dangers of Nazism.

According to Zuroff:

“The Wiesenthal Center would therefore request that you transmit to Vilnius not only the sense of shock and outrage felt by Jews the world over, but our demand that those responsible for this outrage be prosecuted and punished in an expeditious manner. I would also add that the failure of the police to respond to the march raises serious questions about the willingness of the Lithuanian authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent such cases in the future.

“In fact, based on the public opinion poll which appeared in today’s’ Lietuvos Rytas in which 32% of the respondents expressed approval for the anti-Semitic and racist slogans chanted by the neo-Nazi demonstrators and another 22% approved of the march, it appears that there is much work to be done in educating the Lithuanian public about the dangers posed by Nazism. But perhaps that is not surprising in a country in which not a single one of the numerous unprosecuted Lithuanian Nazi war criminals has ever been punished for his crimes.”

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Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its concern in the wake of an anti-Semitic comment made by Lithuanian former NBA star Sarunas Marciulionis in the course of an argument with a local Jew during the recent events marking the 85th anniversary of Lithuanian basketball. Marciulionis, who claims that he was insulted by Shabtai Kalmanovich , a member of the Kaunas Jewish community, reacted by saying that “There is no place for a Jew here [at the events marking the anniversary].” Although Marciulionis later claimed that he did not understand what was objectionable about his comment, he did subsequently apologize to the Jewish community.

In a statement issued today in Jerusalem, the Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff,
warned that public figures, and especially sports heroes, had to be particularly careful when expressing their displeasure. “Regardless of the nature of the dispute between them, there was absolutely no reason for Marciulionis to refer to the fact that Kalmanovich is Jewish and it is clear that he used the term in a pejorative manner. In Lithuania, where basketball is the most popular sport, and outstanding hoopsters are local heroes, such comments provide legitimacy for local anti-Semitism, which in the past played a role in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry and continues today, on a much smaller scale, to pose a problem in contemporary Lithuania. We therefore are pleased that Marciulionis apologized and urge him to show greater sensitivity to the problem of local anti-Semitism in the future,” said Zuroff.

For more information call: 00-972-50-7214156

The Simon Wiesenthal Center severely criticized the decision issued today by a Lithuanian court not to punish former Security Police operative Algimantas Dailide after it convicted him of actively participating in the persecution of innocent civilians – Jews and Poles – during the Holocaust.

In a statement issued today in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center labeled the decision not to implement the verdict of 5 years imprisonment as one “which clearly shows that Lithuania is the safest haven in the world for a local Nazi war criminal and makes a mockery of the efforts to hold Nazi war criminals accountable.”

According to Zuroff:

“Once again Lithuania has proven that it is totally incapable of punishing its own Nazi war criminals. The Dailide case will now be added to those of Dailide's superiors in the Saugumas (Lithuanian Security Police) of the Vilnius district, Aleksandras Lileikis and Kazys Gimzauskas, who despite active participation in Nazi war crimes never sat a single minute in jail for their crimes, as unequivocal proof that Lithuania is totally incapable of honestly dealing with the complicity of its own nationals in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry. The reasons adduced for clemency in this case – his wife's health and his advanced age – ring utterly hollow in the case of a person who had no sympathy for his unfortunate victims.”

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center totally and unequivocally rejected the dismissal yesterday by the prosecutor's office of the Kaunas District of evidence it had submitted to the Lithuanian Special Prosecutor for genocide cases regarding the participation of members of the Lithuanian national basketball team in the murder of Jews in the Seventh Fort in Kaunas in early July 1941.In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center insisted that the material presented clearly implicated the Lithuanian players and that yesterday's decision to clear all of them of any suspicion of involvement in crimes that they had clearly committed was “an unfortunate and hasty decision which reeks of misplaced political correctness.” The Center also noted that the statement issued by the prosecutor's office of the Kaunas district which referred to the testimony of Holocaust survivors and Holocaust victims as “literature” and “gossip,” is not only an affront to the memory of those murdered, but also in effect delegitimizes the accounts presented by the Holocaust's victims, which are undoubtedly among the most important sources of information on this terrible tragedy.

According to Zuroff, ”It is extremely unfortunate that once again Lithuanian prosecutors have failed to acknowledge important evidence from the Holocaust and have rushed to exonerate individuals who deserve to be condemned rather than cleared of any suspicion. In the light of the unpardonable and totally fallacious comments regarding the evidence of Holocaust survivors made by the Kaunas prosecutors, one can only wonder whether it is at all possible for a Lithuanian Nazi war criminal to be convicted of his or her crimes in Lithuania.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center revealed today that it had received official confirmation from the Lithuanian Prosecutor-General’s Office that three new murder investigations have been initiated by the Lithuanian authorities based on information submitted to the Center in the framework of “Operation: Last Chance,” a joint project of the Center and the Targum Shlishi Foundation of Miami, Florida, which offers financial rewards for information leading to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who coordinates the project, the Center welcomed the opening of the investigations but warned that unless the cases were given priority treatment, it was doubtful whether any of the guilty would actually be tried and punished for their crimes. more

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff today submitted the names of twelve Lithuanians suspected of murdering Jews during the Holocaust to Lithuanian Special Prosecutor Rimvydas Valentukevicius and called upon the Lithuanian authorities to expedite their investigation of World War II cases. more...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today that it had received the names of one hundred eighty four suspects accused of participation in Holocaust crimes in Lithuania or as members of Lithuanian Security Police units outside the country during the initial year of its “Operation: Last Chance” project launched together with the Targum Shlishi Foundation of Miami in July 2002 in Vilnius. more...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today in Vilnius that it had already received the names of 174 Lithuanians suspected of participation in the rimes of the Holocaust in the framework of its "Operation: Last Chance” launched in the Baltics exactly nine months ago.

The program, which is being sponsored by the Center and the Targum Shlishi Foundation of Miami, Florida, offered a financial reward of $10,000 for information, which would lead to the conviction, and punishment of Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia featured large ads with graphic historical photos of the persecution and murder of Jews in these areas. more...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Targum Shlishi Foundation have launched the second stage of their “Operation: Last Chance” campaign which offers financial rewards for information leading to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals in the Baltics, by initiating an innovative ad campaign which utilizes authentic Holocaust-era photos of Nazi atrocities to urge informants to supply the Center with incriminating information against local Holocaust perpetrators. The ads, which have already appeared in Lithuania and are slated to run in Latvia and Estonia during the coming two weeks, note the tragic fates of the Baltic Jewish communities and the role-played by local collaborators in their liquidation. more...