Landsbergis: Rakutis MPs’ comments on the Holocaust are inappropriate

According to the minister, the comment published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which deals with Jewish cooperation with the Nazi and Soviet regimes, lacked adequacy and understanding, and the opinion expressed by a member of the Seimas has nothing to do with it. with party or government regulations. .

“I am angry, very humanly angry at my lack of suitability and understanding. The opinion of a member of Seimas has nothing to do with my position or with the provisions defended by the party I represent or the government in which I work, ”said G. Landsbergis in a comment sent to BNS.

The minister, who is visiting Paris, said he visited the French Shoah Museum during the visit to honor the victims of the Holocaust.

“Six million Jews throughout the world, 200,000 in our country alone, our neighbors, compatriots, brothers and sisters. People without whom I cannot imagine the history of Lithuania. Words must be embedded in the heart: we will never forget them and we will not allow this to happen again, ”said G. Landsbergis.

Valdas Rakutis, president of the parliamentary commission for the fight for freedom and the historical memory of the state, mentioned the role of Jews in the Holocaust and the repressive Soviet structures in his public comment in which he called for the search for the causes of genocide Jewish.

“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 the past few years, there was no way to prove 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 understanding causes allows understanding consequences, although it does not justify actions, ”wrote V. Rakutis.

V. Rakutis is a historian by education. He has taught at the Lithuanian Military Academy General Jonas Zemaitis and has served as an advisor to the Lithuanian Armed Forces.