E.Zuroffas
complains to Lithuania that the country has failed to punish
even a single local Nazi criminal
Jewish historian Efraim Zuroff, called the last Nazi hunter, is ringing
the alarm bells. He perceives a rebirth of neo-Fascism
in the Baltic
states.
Several weeks back about one thousand Latvian SS veterans and their
supporters held a march in Riga. A little earlier, on March
11,
nationalists staged a political action in the Lithuanian
capital. Although
the deomstration was supposed to celebrate Independence
Day, the slogans
at both marches were similar, Zuroff says. In Riga demonstrators
held
signs with an inscription "Jews,
this land belongs to Latvians!" while in
Vilnius there were shouts of "Lithuania
for Lithuanians!"
"Carrying flags with
all sorts of neo-Fascist symbols, marchers in the
Lithuanian capital sent a hostile message to all ethnic
minorities,"
Zuroff writes in the British newspaper the Guardian. "On
the same day two
years earlier, the signal was even clearer: the famous
Nazi slogan 'Juden
raus!' and a suggestion the Russian minority look for a
new place to live
somewhere else."
Zuroff noted that these kinds
of demonstrations in the Baltic states are
attracting ever more participants. The historian is surprised
that neither
Baltic politicians nor the European media have noticed
the rising threat
to democracy.
Lithuanian prime minister Andrius
Kubilius called for not attaching
significance to the march of nationalists in Vilnius and
said that in
terms of [the level of] tolerance, Lithuania does not lag
behind other
European countries. His words didn't convince Zuroff, [who
noted] a
politician from the prime minister's party had asked for
permission for
the march, MP and March 11th Act of Independence signatory
Kazimieras
Uoka.
The Nazi hunter was also surprised
by the new US ambassador to Lithuania
Anne E. Derse, who, speaking at Vilnius University, said: "The
United
States and Lithuania are partners in the fight against
anti-Semitism,
together we seek to bring attention to the heritage of
the Holocaust."
Zuroff, hungry for justice, is
angry: "If Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia
made progress educating their people about the crimes committed
by the
local Nazi collaborators and tried to conscientiously punish
the local
murderers, then we could ignore such marches. But after
regaining
independence the courts of the Baltic states have not punished
even a
single Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian Nazi criminal. On
the contrary, the
courts in Lithuania persecute [prosecute is the same word
in Lithuanian]
Jewish partisans who operated in Soviet times. As if that
weren't enough,
these countries are trying to equate Communism with Nazism."
Addressing himself to British
politicians in the Guardian, Zuroff called
upon them to open their eyes and see for themselves whether
the
renaissance of neo-Fascism [sic] in the Baltic states threatens
European
democracy. kauno.diena.lt
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