Blaming the Victims

See also Responses

The campaign to defame Holocaust Survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance is part of the wider campaign of Holocaust Obfuscation

or:

Is this really how a proud and successful EU and NATO member democracy wants to say farewell to the tiny and dwindling numbers of Jewish survivors of the seven hundred years of shared history?

10 September 2007.  Prosecutors in Lithuania confirm that their investigation of Holocaust survivor and anti-Nazi resistance hero Dr Yitzhak Arad on suspicion of 'crimes against humanity' had been initiated in May 2006. The 'investigation' was based on an article in the antisemitic daily Respublika (22 April 2006), in which the special prosecutor and head of the Genocide Center are extensively quoted. In June 2006 the daily triumphantly proclaimed that prosecutors were acting on its earlier article. English summary.

29 January 2008.  Article in the antisemitic daily Lietuvos aidas that called on prosecutors to 'investigate' Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky and Dr Rachel Margolis. English translation.

5 May 2008.  Police come looking for Dr Rachel Margolis [born 1921] and Ms Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky [born 1922] on a 'war crimes' investigation. Reports in the Jerusalem Post (PDF here), and Jewish Chronicle (PDF here). [Note: Three years earlier, on 8 May 2005, then Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas had awarded Dr Margolis a certificate of appreciation for her role as an anti-Nazi partisan.]

28 May 2008.  Prosecutors tell news agencies that Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky and Rachel Margolis cannot be found;  English translation.

11 July 2008.  Prosecutors reply to the Jewish Community of Lithuania.

22 August 2008.  Director of the Business Division of Baltic News Service (BNS) attacks Yitzhak Arad, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, Rachel Margolis;  English translation.

2 September 2008.  Prosecutors comment on investigations 'related to persons of Jewish nationality'.

25 September 2008.  Prosecutors close part of the Arad investigation, ask the public for assistance in looking for 'evidence', and fault his book on the basis of an anonymous 'doctor of humanitarian sciences (expert-historian)'. Question: Will the anonymous expert-historian trasher of Dr Arad's book please identify himself and share his evidence with colleagues?

20 May 2009.  Director of Baltic News Service (BNS) calls for Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky and Yitzhak Arad to be put on trial for war crimes;  English translation.

28 October 2009.  The mainstream Delfi.lt reports: 'Germany honors red partisan under investigation for mass murder in Vilnius'; caricature of Holocaust survivor and anti-Nazi partisan veteran Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky published with the article.  English translation.  BNS's 29 Oct 2009 English summary. Coverage of the situation in Jerusalem of Lithuania (autumn 2009 issue), publication of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, by its editor Milan Chersonski: 'Congratulations on the Award!'

27 January 2010.  On 27 January (Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the liberation of Auschwitz), Lithuanian prosecutors visited the Jewish Community of Lithuania at Pylimo Street 4 in Vilnius, demanding information about Joseph Melamed in connection with a new 'investigation', the nature of which is not publicly known. Mr Melamed, a Kovno Ghetto survivor, veteran of the anti-Nazi partisans in the forests of Lithuania and of Israel's War of Indepedence, is the elected chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel. It is one of the last active associations of Litvaks in the world. Mr Melamed and the Association have spoken out boldly against the Prague Declaration and the 'Double Genocide' movement, most recently during the recent Global Forum on Combating Antisemitism. Prosecutors in Vilnius have yet to announce the basis of their 'interest' in Mr Melamed, the author of a number of works on Litvak issues. There has moreover been no explanation of why they came to disturb the local Jewish community in Vilnius on Holocaust Remembrance Day instead of contacting Mr Melamed directly with any questions they might have.  Report on the home page includes quotations from an exclusive Holocaust in the Baltics interview with Joseph Melamed. February 10 report on Interfax. February 11 report on Izrus.

See Responses