Kazys Skirpa:
Background:
Lithuania considers Kazys Skirpa a national hero. Streets are named to honor him in the capital city Vilnius, as well as the second national city, Kaunas. Skirpa is the recipient of Lithuanian national honors. In 1995, his bodily remains were repatriated to Lithuania where he was reburied with State Honors as a Lithuanian national hero. Skirpa was not a hero, rather, he was a primary Holocaust perpetrator.
The Lithuanian government has repeatedly been approached about the heroization of Holocaust perpetrators. They have rejected data and created reasons for continuing the veneration of multiple monsters with claims such as “we do not know what was in their heart”, outright distortion of history, calling witness testimony “unreliable” (without offering any reason why they consider it unreliable) and other forms of constructive obstruction.
The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, under the administration of Terese Birute Burauskaite is supposed to conduct authoritative, independent, impartial research, instead, they are a locus of Holocaust distortion, deliberately converting Holocaust perpetrators into Lithuanian national heroes.
I do not seek historical truth only to restore facts, I seek truth to ultimately bring about reconciliation between Lithuanians and Jews. The distortions that are deliberately promoted by the Lithuanian Government will inevitably collapse current efforts at bridge building. Trust building is too fragile to survive deliberate falsehoods. Reconciliation can only be based on truth.
I have undertaken my own, independent, self-funded study of the historical record relating to Skirpa and submitted it per the letters attached to this post. Research was assisted by Dr. Andrius Kulikauskas. The correspondence is currently only in the Lithuanian language, the letters and research will be translated into English with translations posted in due course.
All should be asking why a center funded by the Government, staffed by multiple professional historians is unable to locate documents in their own archives, and cannot discern truth, while one individual living a continent away, that neither speaks nor reads the language is able to find documents during his spare time, as a recreational historian. Why does it take an activist citizen to expose Holocaust distortion by a member country of the European Union?
This Skirpa research has taken many months, it is an enormous amount original research, of conscientious scholarship and good will, that puts history into context and breaks down the dishonesty of the Genocide Center. I have no expectation of truth or objectivity from the Lithuanian Government. This research document will record for history that the facts were known, and that the Lithuanian Government has deliberately, and consciously elected to honor Holocaust perpetrators as their national heroes.
The submissions are as follows:
Genocide Center:
The Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania is the recipient of the original research. I ask twelve key questions which group together 266 specific questions. I ask: “Is Skirpa’s lie your lie as well?”
I compare current Holocaust distortion events in Poland and show that Lithuania is worse. I cite the European Parliament resolution, that Europe will never unify unless it arrives at a shared view of history through conscientious discussion.
I show the choice between explaining away murderous documents or having a public dialogue about them. We can’t excuse people by saying we don’t know what was in their heart. Would that be a reason for excusing Adolph Hitler? Stalin did not personally murder a single Lithuanian on Lithuanian territory. Is he innocent of crimes against Lithuanians because “we do not know what was in his heart”? The Genocide Center distorts crimes against humanity. I am asking questions now that others will ask in the future.
Letter to President Grybauskaite:
Copies to
- Lithuanian Jewish Community
- USA Ambassador to Lithuania
- Israel Ambassador to Lithuania
Letter to Mayor Simasius of Vilnius
Letter to Foreign Minister Linkevicius