Representatives of the Jewish community oppose honoring another partisan commander: this is an unfinished issue, the war continues

Attempts to cast doubt on J. Lukša’s memory are not new. A decade ago, the widow of Antanas Lukša and J. Lukša, Nijolė Bražėnaitė-Paronetto, appealed to the Lithuanian Center for Genocide and Resistance (LGGRTC), the president of the Lithuanian Association of Criminal Police, the then-Jewish Association of Lithuania Joseph A. Melamed, because first of all, J. Lukša was added to the list of Jewish assassins on the website of this association, among other known leaders of the Lithuanian partisan movement.

The LGGRTC historian, who participated in the study and coordinated it, dr. According to Alfredas Rukšėnas, the names of the Lithuanian partisans were also mentioned in the published list, but the investigation did not confirm the participation of most of them in the Jewish genocide:

“The list provided on the website of the Jewish Association of Lithuania in Israel included people who, superficially, could identify with the leaders of Lithuanian supporters. Consistent research has found no data on the participation of such famous party leaders as Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas, Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas or Juozas Lukša-Daumantas in the massacre of Jews. However, Juozas Krikštaponis (commander of the partisans of the Vytis district, who died in 1945 – aut. Past) is mentioned in the list. In October, he participated in the operation to liquidate the Rudensk ghetto and shoot prisoners of war in Belarus. ” You can read more about this here.

This time, one of the authors of the appeal, F. Kukliansky, taught that the issue of honoring a person belonging to the LAF was raised in general.

The address to the President of Seimas says the following:

The LAF, founded in Berlin, was previously formed as a German ally operating in occupied Lithuania. It was an organization that did not hide its anti-Semitic orientation and was proud of it, and many of its members were directly involved in the persecution and murder of Lithuanian Jews.

Despite anti-Soviet activities and the subsequent conflict with the Nazi government, the LAF’s declared vision of an independent Lithuania was an ethnically “pure” homeland with no place for Jewish citizens. Although there are doubts about J. Lukša-Daumantas’ guilt regarding war crimes and claim that there are not enough documents to prove it, we believe that the Seimas should not have announced the year 2021 of J. Lukša-Daumantas. “

Demand an apology for the humiliation of the hero’s memory.

After the last speech, the MP from the National Union of the Homeland-Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party (TS-LKD), historian Arvydas Anušauskas, noted on Facebook that J. Lukša-Daumantas in 1941. While in prison, he really did not know with whom The Lithuanian activist front would be identified or what crimes people associated with the LAF would commit. But now the postwar LCP / CPSU members who “moralized” him really knew which Red Nazi organization he joined and with which crimes he was associated, the politician said.

“I thought that after saying # AšesuVanagas you would no longer have to type # AšesuDaumantas. They called themselves # Freedom Fighters. Already after the establishment of NATO, J. Lukša was selected by the US CIA to land in Lithuania and returned in 1950 to die at the hands of MGB agents.

J. Lukša is accused of being assigned to LAF by the NKGB, although the organization itself had no membership for at least the first half of the year, and at the time J. Lukša, 19, was arrested and imprisoned in prison. from Kaunas until 1941. He returned home from prison alive due to the June uprising and the uprising alone, continued his studies. I could write more, because I have accumulated a lot of material for the future book about J. Lukšas. But perhaps it is enough to start reading # The Forgotten Landing, in which I describe how MGB’s misinformation about Lukša (and Vanaga) was created in 1951, “wrote A. Anušauskas.

According to the Seimas member, J. Lukša-Daumantas deserves to be honored in the same way as his bunker friend A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas.

Laurynas Kasčiūnas, a member of the TS-LKD faction in the Seimas, noted on Facebook that “if the letter against J. Lukšas-Daumantas is just ignorance of the story and a mistake, F. Kukliansky should immediately revoke it and apologize for humiliating the memory of the partisan hero who died for the freedom of Lithuania, unfortunately, to the contrary, but his appeal can only be seen as a provocation in the service of the Russian regime and a deliberate slander of the dead hero. “

Vytautas Landsbergis, Honorary President of TS-LKD, also reacted poetically to the open letter.

He says he doesn’t want to blame anyone.

F. Kukliansky, the president of the Lithuanian Jewish community, taught that she learned from the Jewish Telegraph about the fact that 2021 would be declared the year of J. Lukša-Daumantas.

“There was a (…) article in that newspaper showing a photo of the garage massacre and a short text about the fact that next year it would be dedicated to J. Lukšai-Daumantas. As a result, we became interested in this information “The only thing I found on the Seimas page was the bill, without any explanatory note, explaining that it intends to do so in view of the centenary of the birth of supporter J. Lukša-Daumantas,” said F. Kukliansky.

The president of the Lithuanian Jewish community emphasizes that in her letter they do not seek to accuse, but to pose problems, and they see nothing wrong with that.

“We respect J. Lukšas-Daumantas as any supporter who fought for the independence of his state, Lithuania. However, I would like to point out that in 2004 it was issued by the International Commission for the Evaluation of Crimes of Nazi Occupation Regimes and Soviet in Lithuania in Tritium. (…) The first volume reads about LAF as follows:

“LAF is a Lithuanian patriotic organization that sought to restore the country’s independence. However, the LAF’s activities were accompanied by dark shadows: political union with Hitler’s Germany, the pursuit of satellite status for Lithuania, the demonstrations of the Nazism in its ideology and fierce anti-Semitism (…) “. There are more posts about LAF. (…) We, the Jews of Lithuania, cannot say that all the LAF and all the people who participated in it are contaminated by the persecution of the Jews. However, in cases where a person is so honored that the entire year is declared a year of honor, they would like to know more about their activities in this ambiguous organization, “said F. Kukliansky.

There are said to be more personalities to discuss

J. Lukša is named after several official institutions in the country. The Land Forces J. Lukša Training Center operates in the Lithuanian Armed Forces, and the J. Lukša Gym in Garliava. The president of the Lithuanian Jewish community explained that the question of honoring this person now arose due to the decision to declare 2021 her year.

“I can also mention more personalities that have been controversial for many years, for example, Mr. J. Barzda, J. Krištaponis, J. Noreika. (…) There is more to talk about. This is an unfinished business and it will not be completed. That war will continue until the people or organizations we are talking about are valued.

But I don’t see anything wrong with that. There are many things in the story that are not black-white but have tones. “If people talk and argue, thank you for saying that more and more people are learning that there was an organization like LAF,” said Kukliansky.