Baltic States 2006

 

The three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, regained their independence in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. All set up historical committees to research the Soviet and German occupations of their countries. They all claim that the Soviet occupation greatly exacerbated the feelings of the local population toward the Jews during the Nazi occupation that followed. Moreover, since part of the population associated the Jews with the hated Soviets, they collaborated with the Nazis in anti-Jewish actions.

 

Republic of Lithuania

Lithuania was the first of the Soviet republics to declare independence (11 March 1990), although it was recognized as a separate state by Moscow only in September 1991. The Constitution, granting freedom of speech, press and religion, supported by the Criminal Code, prohibits all forms of national, racist and religious intolerance.

 

The Jewish Community

There are about 6,000 Jews in Lithuania (out of about 3.5 million inhabitants), most of whom live in Vilnius (Vilna), the capital. Smaller Jewish communities exist in Kaunas (Kovno), Klajpeda (Memel) and Siauliai, among others. The Jewish Community of Lithuania is the umbrella organization of Lithuanian Jewry. A Jewish secondary school and kindergarten operate in Vilnius while other towns have Jewish Sunday schools. The community in Vilnius publishes the monthly Jerusalem of Lithuania in Lithuanian, Russian, Yiddish and English. The Jewish community building in Vilnius houses the State Jewish Museum, the Israel Center of Culture and Arts, the Center of Yiddish Culture and Music, and the Zalman Reizen Foundation supporting Jewish culture, education and science. The town of Trokai has a museum of the Karaite community.

 

Antisemitic Manifestations and Attitudes toward the Nazi Era

Several cases of desecration of Jewish cemeteries and memorials were recorded. On 23−24 June 2006, 18 tombs were broken at the Jewish cemetery in the town of Suderve near Vilnius. A memorial marking the Jewish cemetery on Olandu Street, Vilnius, which was destroyed by the Soviets, was desecrated with a swastika and the slogan Juden Raus on 8 August. The Jewish cemetery in Vilnius was attacked twice in 2006: on 23 June (22 tombs were damaged) and on 7 September (19 tombs).

Swastikas appear regularly on buildings and other places. In summer 2006, a swastika was carved on the grass on the right bank of the Neris River, Vilnius. As in other CIS states, the offenders in such incidents − who are never caught − are probably members of skinhead gangs or antisemites unaffiliated to any particular group.

The attitude toward the Nazi era is a serious problem in Lithuania, as well as in the other Baltic States. Many Lithuanians view Nazi Germany as the country that freed the Baltic States from the Soviets and regard locals who joined the Wehrmacht and the SS and may have participated, or at least been aware of, the mass murder of Jews as freedom fighters. This standpoint is manifested in all three Baltic States in, for example, the holding of memorial ceremonies and unveiling of monuments in honor of local Nazi collaborators.

Marginal neo-Nazi groups revive near the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birthday (20 April). In 2006 Nazi flags were hung in central places, especially in Vilnius, Klaipeda and Siauliai, and posters of Hitler appeared in various locations in Kaunas.

On 19 April, the eve of Hitler's birthday, a man disguised as Hitler, accompanied by two supposed SS officers and two SD soldiers, passed through the three floors of the Fortas restaurant in Kaunas. Two waiters were dressed as concentration camp inmates. A portrait of Hitler hung on the wall, as well as a hand-made Third Reich flag, and the bar was covered with barbed wire. During World War II the word fortas (forts) developed a negative connotation: in the 4th, 7th and especially the 9th fort of Kaunas, tens of thousands of local Jews, as well as Jews from France, Germany and other countries, were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. The restaurant manager claimed that this was just a show and they were not propagating Nazism. On the weekend of 23−24 September the restaurant celebrated its 10th anniversary with a similar show. There was no reaction from the local authorities. Jewish organizations in Lithuania complained to the authorities demanding that steps be taken against the restaurant. Dr. Efrain Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the reluctance of the Lithuanian authorities to prosecute Nazi collaborators was encouraging neo-Nazi ideology among youth in the country.

 

Responses

Although the Lithuanian authorities repeatedly condemn xenophobia and antisemitism, none of the perpetrators of the antisemitic manifestations mentioned above were caught and prosecuted.

The government continues to support the International Commission for Investigating the Crimes of Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, whose members include historians, human rights activists, members of Jewish organizations, and Lithuanian and foreign lawyers (see www.komisija.lt/en/). The Commission continued to hold conferences in 2006.

On 20−27 March, the regional court of Vilnius examined the case of 85-year-old Algimantas Dailide, who was charged with crimes against humanity for surrendering 15 women, children and elderly Jews to the German authorities and seizing Jewish property during the Holocaust in Lithuania. After Dailides claim that he did not murder Jews in person was accepted as an extenuating circumstance, and having taken into account his age and the fact that since then Dailide had committed no crime, the court found him guilty, but released him without punishment. The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the court's decision.

 

Republic of Latvia

The Jewish Community

There are about 15,000 Jews in Latvia (out of a population of about 2.2 million), most of whom live in the capital Riga (about 11,000). The leading Jewish organization in Latvia is the Society for Jewish Culture. Synagogues are active in Riga, Daugavpils, Liepaja and Rezekne. There is a Jewish school where children learn Hebrew and Yiddish. A monument marks the site of the Choral Synagogue, in which hundreds of Jews were burnt to death in Riga in July 1941.

 

Antisemitic Manifestations and Attitudes toward the Nazi Era

Antisemitic incidents in Latvia occur only occasionally. On 24 May the police reported damage to a new memorial in Rezekne, which was due to be unveiled on 4 June in memory of 120 local Jews murdered on 15 July 1941. On the night of 6−7 September swastikas were painted on several buildings in Riga. In Latvia, too, members of skinhead gangs or antisemites unaffiliated to any particular group are probably responsible for such acts.

The issue of collaboration with the Nazis during World War II is also problematic in Latvia. On 16 March, Latvian Waffen SS veterans held a ceremony at the cathedral in Riga and at a WWII cemetery in the village of Lestene, near Riga, in honor of their dead comrades. On the same day, about 200 nationalists demonstrated near the Occupation Museum in Riga, despite a ban by the city authorities. On 15 September, a memorial was unveiled in the village of Subate honoring the Forest Brothers, Latvian guerillas who in 1945−53 fought against the Soviet regime in Latvia during and after World War II. Similar groups operated in Lithuania and Estonia, most serving as German SS legionnaires.

 

Responses

The Latvian Committee of Historians (11 members, including historians from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Latvia, the State History Archives of Latvia and the Museum of Occupation, as well as representatives from the presidential office), conducts research and organizes international conferences on the period of the Soviet (1940−41) and German (1941−44) occupations of the country. In late 2006 the Committee published volume 18 of its research, The Holocaust in Latvia, the fourth volume dedicated to the mass murder of Jews in Latvia during World War II.

On 20 February, during her visit to Israel, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberg apologized to Israeli President Moshe Katsav for the collaboration of Latvians with the Nazis during World War II and condemned all forms of antisemitism or racism in her country.

In November the Latvian government submitted a draft law to parliament proposing compensation of about 58 million dollars over a period of 10 years as well as the return of 14 buildings to the Council of Jewish Communities for Jewish property confiscated and destroyed before and during the Holocaust. Aigars Kalvistis, Latvian prime minister, said that since the state owned property that belonged in the past to Jews and Jewish organizations, they should be compensated. However, parliament rejected the bill on 23 November. Only 12 deputies voted in favor. Even the pro-government parties in the parliament (67 out of 100 seats) abstained, claiming it needed further discussion. Solvita Aboltina, former justice minister, said that the bill had many lacunae. For example, it did not state whether other groups who suffered from totalitarianism would be entitled to similar compensation. The bill was subsequently dropped.

On 14 December the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement on its website condemning the Holocaust conference held in Iran (10−11 December) and noting that the ministry rejects as unacceptable questioning of the Holocaust.

 

Republic of Estonia

The Jewish Community

About 2,500 Jews live in Estonia (out of a population of about 1.3 million), mostly in the capital Tallinn. Smaller Jewish communities exist in Tartu and Narva. The Jewish Community of Estonia is the umbrella organization of Estonian Jewry. Until the end of 2006 the synagogue in Tallinn was located in a small building especially adapted for this purpose (the original synagogue was destroyed during the Holocaust). A new one was due to be opened in 2007. A Jewish Sunday school and a Jewish school for 1st−12th grades have operated in Tallinn since the early 1990s.

 

Antisemitic Manifestations and Attitudes toward the Nazi Era

More antisemitic incidents were recorded in Estonia than in the other two Baltic States, including an attack on a Jew, desecration of a Holocaust memorial, antisemitic graffiti and the publication of an antisemitic book.

On 6 April, Roman Ilin, an Israeli citizen, was attacked in an underground tunnel at the Viru trade center in Tallinn by two people he identified as neo-Nazis; they shouted Jew, threw a beer bottle at him and chased him.

On 27 January, international Holocaust Memorial Day, the Holocaust monument in Kalevi Laiiva, near Tallinn, where 6,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, was desecrated. On 26 October, swastikas, the slogans Sieg Heil and Juudid Ahju (Jews to the Oven) were reported on a memorial, in the Raadi park in Tartu, to Soviet soldiers who died while fighting in 1944 for the liberation of southern Estonia from the German occupation. In the same month, a white Star of David, the words Jude and Esti vaba (Estonian freedom) were painted on a memorial to soldiers of the Soviet army who participated in World War II, located in the city of Khaapsalu. On 10 February, the police of Mustamiae found remarks insulting Jews, Muslims and homosexuals smeared on a building.

The book, The Holocaust - The Most Depressing Zionist Lie of the 20th Century, by Tiit Madisson, mayor of Lihula, was published in April. Madisson claims that the Holocaust is a myth and that documents were forged to support it.

On 27 January, international Holocaust Memorial Day, candles were lit at the Alevi cemetery in Piarnu where 757 German soldiers who fought in the Wehrmacht during World War II, as well as 13 German soldiers from World War II, are buried,. More than 100 candles were also lit there at a memorial to Estonian soldiers who fought in the Wehrmacht during World War II. On 29 July, veterans of the 20th Estonian SS division held a rally in the village of Sinimae (north-east Estonia), during which they unveiled memorials to SS collaborators from Belgium and the Netherlands. The rally was attended by about 300 people, including SS veterans from Estonia, Belgium and Netherlands, as well as skinheads.

 

Responses

The Estonian Historical Committee on the Soviet and German occupations during World War II was the first of the Baltic committees to publish an official report, in 2001, admitting Estonian collaboration with the Nazis and their participation in atrocities against Jews.

In early November 2006, Minister of Justice Rein Lang said during a radio interview that Estonia would not legislate against Holocaust denial since it was not necessary to punish people for denial of an historical event.

In August, a law against inciting ethnic hatred by means of Soviet and Nazi symbols was proposed. This would include banning the public use and distribution of symbols of the USSR and its republics, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the German Nazi party and the SS, among others. Such symbols, however, would be permitted for research, educational, artistic and journalistic purposes. On 30 November, the government approved a draft law prohibiting the public display of Soviet and Nazi symbols or symbols of both occupations of Estonia, as Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip put it. Violators will be fined $4000 or serve prison sentences of up to three years. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attempt to equate the USSR with Nazi Germany, claiming that this was an attempt to rewrite history.