A storm in Lithuania following a statement by a member of parliament that distorted the history of Holocaust events in the country, according to a publication in the Lithuanian branch of the Russian website “Sputnik”.
Valdes Rakotis, a representative in parliament on behalf of the “National Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats” party, said at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day held yesterday (Wednesday) that “there was no shortage of Jews who were involved in the murders of their people.” He also called for “examining the positions of the Jews, and what made them cooperate with the Soviet authorities.”
The Russian embassy in Vilnius (Vilna) has strongly condemned the remarks on its Twitter account: “The provocative statements of the Lithuanian MP, who blamed the Jewish population for the Holocaust, are outrageous.
It should be noted that Lithuania was annexed to the USSR in the summer of 1940 following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between Moscow and Berlin. It was occupied by the Nazis who invaded it in Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and recaptured by the Red Army in 1944. Most Lithuanians saw Soviet rule as an occupation regime. And repression until the country’s independence in 1991.
Before World War II, more than 208,000 Jews lived in Lithuanian territory and 90% of them were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators. However, 877 Lithuanians saved Jews and were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.