17, 18, 19, 20 May 2012: Four Days of Glorification of the “Prime Minister” of Lithuania’s 1941 Nazi Puppet Government who Signed: The Order for all Kaunas Jews to be herded into a Ghetto; The Order for “All Means” against Jews (but not in public); The Order to set up a Concentration Camp for Lithuanian Jews
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Self-inflicted wound? Government honor guard at Vilnius International Airport on 17 May 2012 meeting the remains of the head of the Nazi puppet government of 1941 who signed the order confirming that all the city’s Jewish residents be herded into a ghetto within four weeks
Remains of 1941 Fascist Leader Met by Honor Guard at Vilnius Airport, as Mayor of Kaunas Dismisses Criticism; Office of the Prime Minister, who signed off on the €8,700 ($11,000) Expenditure to Honor the Wartime Fascist, Defends Events; Jewish Community & Vilna Gaon Museum Issue Joint Protest
Parliament’s “Public Relations Department” Publishes Revised Schedule of Events; Saturday Memorial Conference Now at “Venue to be Announced”; Website Announces Free Transportation to Kaunas Events
KRYSTYNA ANNA STEIGER’S INTERNATIONAL PETITION
Archbishop Metropolitan, who effusively praised the Nazi collaborator, to officiate at the reburial mass in Kaunas on Sunday; ICEJ leaders offer another opinion
Authorization for 30,000 litas (c. 8,700 euros) for the reburial and celebrations was personally signed by the prime minister and the minister of culture in March 2012 (PDF here, item no. 2)
“VilNews.com” gives its readers a “cooked” version as “news”; Darius Udrys’s bold corrective is called “opinion”
Protest Sign prepared by Dr. Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson
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INTERNATIONAL REACTION MOUNTING:
JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LITHUANIA & VILNA GAON MUSEUM ◊ OFER ADERET IN HAARETZ; FOLLOW-UP ◊ MILAN CHERSONSKI ◊ LEONIDAS DONSKIS ◊ MICHAEL AND FAUSTA MAASS ◊ DARIUS UDRYS IN VILNEWS.COM ◊ EFRAIM ZUROFF IN THE JERUSALEM POST
BBC NEWS EUROPE ◊ 15MIN.LT/BNS ◊ RZECZPOSPOLITA ◊ WIESENTHAL CENTER
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Remains of Ambrazevičius (Brazaitis) Flown from Putnam, Connecticut for Four Days of Celebratory Events (17, 18, 19, 20 May) in Lithuania
including
Reburial in the Altar of the Church of the Resurrection in Kaunas
and
May 19th Memorial Conference at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas; University’s rector protests to parliament and venue of conference changed: BNS report; Haaretz update & 2nd update; JTA.
Conference program is posted on the Genocide Center’s website (English here)
Not a word about the victims, at a conference to honor the Nazi puppet prime minister who signed the order for the Jews of Kaunas to be locked up in a ghetto. Later that year (29 October 1941), close to ten thousand Jews from the ghetto were murdered at the nearby Ninth Fort, the largest one-day massacre in the history of the Baltic states. Around 95% of Lithuanian Jewry perished in the Holocaust, the highest percentage in Europe.
“This compromises Lithuania in the eyes of the world.”
— Dr. Shimon Alperovich, chairperson of the Jewish Community of Lithuania
U.S. Embassy persuaded to sponsor a one-sided history conference on Nazi and Soviet crimes (featuring Tim Snyder & Jonathan Brent) the same week, in some views in order to confer legitimacy locally while diverting international attention from the week’s “historic events” which are “meant” to enter the record uncontroversially
Signature of Juozas Ambrazevičius (Brazaitis) on the 7 July 1941 order confirming the German demand that all Jews in Kaunas be “emptied out” into a ghetto in the Vilijampolė section within four weeks [English translation here]. His name appears atop this document, as well as the 27 June 1941 appeal for “all means” against the Jews (but avoiding “public executions”); and the 30 June 1941 order for setting up a concentration camp for Jews.
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Video promo for whitewash “documentary” to premiere on 20 May, 4:30 PM at the Romuva cinema, Laisvės alėja 54, Kaunas following the reburial in the altar of the Church of the Ascension
Festivities seen as revival of earlier campaign to sanitize and glorify local 1941 fascist authorities
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HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS “DEVASTATED”
DefendingHistory.com comments:
“Lithuania has magnificent real heroes of 1941: the inspirational people who saved an innocent neighbor from the LAF and Provisional Government’s reign of genocide, starting with the war’s first week. They are that year’s heroes of history who should be honored. May their families live to see streets and squares named for them.”
Solemnly commemorates the Holocaust and reaffirms human rights of all people. Opposes the 
SYD TEXT IN FRENCH
Danny Ben-Moshe launches SYD 
New documentary by acclaimed Lithuanian film maker Saulius Beržinis, on the Holocaust in Jurbarkas (Yúrberik), is slammed by town’s leaders — for telling the truth, and for “failing” to frame the Holocaust in a Red=Brown obfuscationist framework . . .
