Speaking in the Seimas on Tuesday at the international conference dedicated to the Vilnius ghetto, the leader of the parliament noted that “we easily find ourselves in the zone of aggression that is anti-European and despises the values of Western civilization”.
“I have strong hope that Lithuania has overcome its painful past and has boldly chosen the future of Western values. I firmly believe that we will always be on the side of those who create and build, not kill and destroy. I believe that there will be no place for hate speech, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in our parliament,” said the head of the parliament.
Opening her speech with condolences for the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel, she recalled the act of vandalism committed in France a week ago, when a memorial stele dedicated to French Holocaust survivor Simone Veil was smashed in the small town of Lesneven in Brittany.
“S. Weil is undoubtedly among those moral authorities who symbolize the new, post-war Europe, aware of the painful mistakes of its past and determined to make a firm commitment to the future. The brutal desecration of her memory is not just an act of vulgar anti-Semitism. This is an attack on those moral values that shaped Europe, of which we are an integral part,” said the head of the parliament.
Last week, the Seimas decided to start impeachment against Remigijas Žemaitaits, a member of the Mixed Seimas Members’ Group, for his anti-Semitic statements and appealed to the Constitutional Court to assess whether the parliamentarian’s statements contradict the Constitution.
Jonathan Brent, director of the YIVO Jewish Research Institute, who spoke at the conference, said that the last little myth that Jews are Bolsheviks is still alive and causing anti-Semitic attacks in the world.
“Ideas have consequences. And one of the essential ideas of this conference is that the myth of the so-called Jewish Bolshevism has clouded Jewish relations with many nations since the beginning of the 20th century. And it is still very much alive in today’s world,” said Mr. Brent.
According to the director of YIVO, this myth became a deadly element among Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians and other peoples during the Holocaust, prompting them to participate in the killing of Jews in the hope of saving their nations.
“Unfortunately, the destruction of the Jews did not bring salvation or redemption, it brought destruction and human suffering, dividing the human world,” Mr Brent said.
He noted that “the slander that Jews may still be Bolsheviks persists and continues to fuel anti-Semitic attacks around the world.”
The international conference “Ideologies of Hate and Hope in Contemporary Jewish History” was held in the Seimas on Tuesday – this is the last event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the anti-Nazi resistance and liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto.
It will conclude a months-long cycle of events in respect and memory of tens of thousands of ghetto victims, organizers said.
Writer and publisher, director of the YIVO Jewish Research Institute Jonathan Brent, director of the Department of International Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, Rabbi Andrew Baker, head of the Institute of Polish History, attorney Monika Krawczyk Kravčik), other guests.
The Vilnius ghetto was established in the capital’s Old Town during the Nazi occupation on September 6, 1941. Initially, Vokiečių Street divided it into two parts – the Big and Small Ghettos. The latter was soon liquidated, leaving the Great Ghetto. In total, about 40,000 people were imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto. Jews, it was destroyed on September 23, 1943.
At the end of the Nazi occupation, only 2-3 thousand Jewish prisoners of the ghetto survived. people.
During the Second World War, more than 90% of the people in Lithuania were killed. from more than 200 thousand Lithuanian Jews. Over 900 Lithuanians have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for rescuing Jews.
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2024-08-07 01:58:39
