There has been much newsprint about Lithuania’s statement that they were “completely innocent” of the Holocaust. The government floated the idea of legislating this idea:
This created a worldwide outrage. The internal response to that outrage was to claim that this was a private idea of Gumuliauskas. It was not.
In my own cases, the innocence position has been set forth twice by the Lithuanian Government.
- In my first lawsuit against the Government over Noreika, the Governments lawyers stated: “The Lithuanian nation has never actually perpetrated crimes against humanity. It’s a fact and no one is ever going to be able to prove what you’re trying to prove.
- In February 2019, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry stated their position in this interview: https://www.sajr.co.za/news-and-articles/2019/02/07/sa-born-litvak-accuses-lithuania-of-insincerity-on-holocaust Their comment: “Due to declared neutrality in 1939 and three occupations (1940 – Soviet, 1941 – Nazi, 1944 – Soviet) the Lithuanian state didn‘t participate in World War II, and was just a victim.”
Now claiming that “innocence” was not a full fledged government position is dishonest.