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“At the request of the leadership of the TS-LKD party and faction, assuming political responsibility, without wanting this statement to complicate the vital work of the Commission for the Fight for Freedom and Historical Memory and following the Western political tradition, I decided to take an honorable step and resign as president “, – says a member of the Seimas in a statement distributed on Friday.
“I hope that this step will help to eliminate unnecessary tensions both at home and abroad with our strategic partners and allow further discussion to develop in a more constructive direction,” he said.
In his comment on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, V. Rakutis states that he wanted to draw attention to the fact that this day should be spoken not only in honor of the victims, but also to analyze the causes and manifestations of this phenomenon.
“In this intention, the declaration made on the International Holocaust Commemoration Day as a new person in politics has had, unfortunately, the opposite result,” lamented the politician.
Instead of people delving into the essence of the phenomenon, understanding its complexity, the text presented caused great discontent and an international storm, hurting and disappointing many people dear to me. I admit that several carelessly chosen words and summaries were not accurate and appropriate in the current context and created a basis for interpretations and speculations, which I really did not intend and would like to avoid, ”says V. Rakutis.
In a statement on Friday, the parliamentarian apologized “to all those who were offended, his colleagues, leaders and party members, diplomats and citizens of friendly countries, that these interpretations misled the seriousness of the International Holocaust Day.”
In a text published on Wednesday, the chairman of the parliamentary commission for the fight for freedom and the historical memory of the state also spoke about the collaboration of Nazi collaborators with the Nazi and Soviet regimes.
“But what about those helpers? Who are the people who adopt terrible ideas? Is it the leaders of the Lithuanian nation, like the first volunteer Kazys Škirpa or General Vėtra? Or maybe Antanas Smetona? Despite the great uproar of recent years, there was no way to prove that they organized the Holocaust. No, it is quite different people, often uneducated, who tend to feel important after receiving a rifle in their hands, sometimes severely affected since 1941. Soviet repression, sometimes blindly following orders. They look like stripes. Let’s get to know them, let’s understand why they did it. After all, there was no shortage of Holocaust perpetrators among the Jews themselves, especially in the ghetto’s self-government structures. We need to name these people out loud and try to prevent people like them from happening again. But also to answer the question of what were the opinions of the Jews themselves, what ideas led some Jews to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, to occupy important positions in the repressive Soviet structures. Sometimes the understanding of the causes allows to understand the consequences, although it does not justify the actions ”, wrote V. Rakutis.
The publication was criticized by the leaders of the TS-LKD, the Lithuanian Jewish community and foreign diplomats.
On Thursday, part of the Social Democratic opposition asked the Seimas leadership to initiate the removal of V. Rakutis from the position of president of the Seimas Freedom Struggles and of the State Historical Memory Commission in relation to his comment on the Holocaust .
Faina Kukliansky, president of the Lithuanian Jewish community, demanded that the Attorney General’s Office launch a pre-trial investigation into the denial and distortion of the Holocaust.
After the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II, the Nazis and local collaborators killed more than 90 percent. of more than 200 thousand. Lithuanian Jews.
Israel has awarded more than 900 Lithuanians the title of righteous nation of the world for saving Jews by risking their lives.
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