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"EFRAIM ZUROFF:
voitlus kommunismikuritegudega pole minu mission”
(EFRAIM ZUROFF:Fighting Communist crimes is not my mission)
Eesti Paevaleht Online
Dr. Efraim Zuroff | |
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In his op-ed in yesterday's
Eesti Paevaleht, Heiki Suurkask raised a very serious charge against
me and made two additional accusations. He claimed that I have no empathy
with the victims of Communism, that I believe in collective guilt and
that I did not submit any evidence of crimes against humanity committed
by Harry Mannil and Michael Gorshkow to back up my call for their prosecution
by Estonia.
Normally, I would take such criticism very seriously, but I have to
admit that today the first accusation made me laugh because of its
ironic timing. On the very day that Suurkask publically accused me
of lacking sympathy for the victims of Communism, I spent most of my
morning hosting a delegation from the Romanian Institute for the Study
of Communist Crimes (which is mandated to prepare the prosecution of
local Communist criminals) to discuss practical cooperation and how
I can personally assist the Institute in training its staff to carry
out its important objectives. In fact, the director has already invited
me for the latter task to come to Bucharest, an invitation I most probably
will accept.
To make things even clearer, allow me to reiterate what I have said
publically many times in Estonia in every possible forum, including
in Eesti Paevaleht Online, as well as in many other post-Communist
countries. I fully empathize with the victims of Communism and unequivocally
support the prosecution of Communist criminals, regardless of their
religion and/or nationality. In fact, in Soviet times, I carried out
a mission to meet with "refusniks" (Jews forbidden to emigrate
from the Soviet Union), in the course of which I had two unpleasant
encounters with the KGB in Riga and in Vilnius. As someone who fought
against the evil empire of Communism on behalf of Soviet Jewry, I certainly
can appreciate the suffering and pain of the other victims of that
terrible regime. In fact, contrary to Suurkask's claims, I also have
been involved in assisting the Rwandan government deal with the horrific
crimes committed during the genocide of 1994 and have twice visited
Rwanda to help the victims and facilitate the prosecution of the killers.
I have no problem acknowledging other cases of genocide and the Wiesenthal
Center has always referred to the Armenian tragedy as a genocide, even
incorporating those events into the permanent exhibition at our Museum
of Tolerance which was opened in Los Angeles in 1993. More recently,
I have publically written and spoken about the obligation of Jews to
assit in stoping the mass murders in Sudan.
As far as collective guilt is concerned, I have explained time after
time that we do not accept any such concept and in fact have NEVER
accused any individual of Holocaust crimes because of their nationality
or ethnic identity. People are accused because of the crimes they committed
and not for any other reason. In the cases of Mannil and Gorshkow,
I believe that sufficient evidence exists to charge them, but I think
that it is political factors which prevent their prosecution. Estonia
is not the only country in which the government lacks political will
to prosecute local Nazi war criminals. Unfortunately, many countries
have this problem and I consider it part of our mission to try and
combat this phenomenon. All one has to do is read the report issued
by the Estonian prosecutor in the Mannil case, in which he names the
seven Jews interrogated by Mannil in his capacity in the Political
Police who were murdered or disappeared to realize that Mannil participated
in the implementation of the Nazis’ plan to make Estonia (and
the rest of Europe) judenrein.
I have often been asked, particularly in the Baltics why I do not deal
with Communist criminals, to which I respond by saying that while I
fully support such efforts, they are neither the mission nor the expertise
of the Wiesenthal Center as an institution and myself personally as
a historian. Having said that, I look forward to the day when Heiki
Suurkask will appreciate our efforts in Estonia and view them as part
of the larger process in which Estonia faces its painful past honestly
and courageously enough to not only acknowledge the crimes committed
but to understand why it is important to hold the criminals accountable.
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