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“We need to understand where these things come from, how people behave in such conditions that such a Holocaust no longer exists. The objective here is very clear,” the politician told BNS on Wednesday night.
He claimed that he had no anti-Semitic provisions.
“It just came to my attention then. I really didn’t want to cause any problems. I don’t really have any anti-Semitic attitude as I receive all kinds of such letters at the moment. I have a lot of respect for this nation,” said a member of the Seimas.
“I want to say at this point that the Holocaust, as a phenomenon, if we don’t understand its causes, we will have it again. Perhaps not in relation to the Jewish nation, other nations, “said V. Rakutis.
In the politician’s comment, his comments on Jewish cooperation with the Nazi and Soviet regimes received the most criticism.
V. Rakutis himself said that he alluded to it to show the larger context that not only Germans but also other nations participated in the Holocaust process.
“When we talk about the Holocaust, we often go superficially to the typical claims that the Germans, the German nation, exterminated the Jews, or something like that, which is clearly partly true, that the state was covered by the Nazi wave. Whenever we talk about a practical Holocaust, many different nations are involved in the process, “said the politician.
“The text mentions a case in which the Jewish people participated in it. This is very easy to understand. They were led into ghettos, and the ghettos had their own administration. Here there was no Jewish self-government or elected representatives of the nation. It was a tool of the German nation. (…) It is natural that the ghetto government is not the most charming, it is natural that they had to survive in those conditions and make various decisions, ”said V. Rakutis.
“I have mentioned this way here, when it seems impossible, when people from the same nation participate in that destruction, but have few options. They are coercive things that you have to survive, “he added.
He said that this and other examples of collaboration with the Nazis to survive “are of great importance in the mechanism of the Holocaust.”
On Wednesday, V. Rakutis published a text in which, speaking of Nazi collaborators, he also spoke about Jewish cooperation 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 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 the causes allows us to understand the consequences, although it does not justify the actions, ”the politician wrote.
These comments were condemned by the representatives of the Lithuanian Jews, the ambassadors of Israel and the United States, and by the leadership of the Conservative Party. The leader of the Conservatives, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, claimed that V. Rakutis’s comment lacked appropriateness and understanding.
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.
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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