Lithuania in testimony of pro – Nazi Prime Minister

Lithuania is preparing a celebration of reburial  of remains of Juozas  Brazaitis (Ambrazevičiusa)  the former Prime Minister of Lithuanian National Government, which had tended to restoration of the independent Lithuania in June 1941 with help of the 3^rd Reich. The Remains of former Prime Minister are about to arrive  to Lithuania from the USA, where he had died in 1974. The celebration of reburial will be celebrated with companion of 4 days of events in Vilnius and Kaunas, with patriotic demonstrations, parades and casual scientific conference at the University of Witold the Great in Kovno.

The case of reburial of remains of former Lithuanian Prime Minister has shared Lithuanian society into two parts. For one part  Ambrazevičius(on his sojourn in the SA he has changed his surname to Brazaitis)   appeared to be an accomplished advocate and promoter of idea of independent Lithuanian state, but for another one he was just an anti – Semite at Hitler’s regime service, responsible for many violations, including creation a ghetto in Kaunas.

Celebrations of reburial former Prime Minister will be organized with swing and take 4 days. Tomorrow will take place a huge event of welcoming in Vilnius, when an airplane with  the remains  of Juozas Ambrazevičius will be received from the USA. Next, the body will be transported to Kaunas will all honour, where it will be buried in the modern church of the Lord’s Resurrection in the planned celebrations will take place without participation of the Lithuanian  government, which has supported the Organizing Committee. According to suggestion stated by the journalists of  diena.lt, it happened because they have got scared because of  the controversial dimension of the event.

According to Efraim Zuroff, the chief of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, glorification of the wartime criminal appeared to be a scandal. “ I just can’t get the fact of glorification of criminal by the EU member state government. It is like a humiliation for the Holocaust victims” –  Zuroff added in the interview. He is deeply convinced of Ambrazevičius collaboration with a view to making  the dream of independent Lithuanian state come true.

This theory was supported by polish historian and history of Lithuania in 20^th century  researcher Professor Piotr Łossowski. “Did Ambrazevičius care of restoration of Lithuanian’s independence? Of course he did. But he also worked for Germans in their  the most hideous affairs, which was the Holocaust.” – emphasized Łossowski.

Juozas Ambrazevičius was a famous Lithuanian historian and the Professor in Literature. When 22 June 1941 Nazis  haves attacked the Soviet Union and entered into occupied by Bolsheviks Lithuanian territory, he had become a Prime Minister of new created government. The government which aimed at restoration with help of Nazis new independent Lithuanian state and had lasted  only one and half year. Several edicts of his government caused deaths of few thousands Jews, including the ghetto at Kaunas  inhabitants.

http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/litwa-odda-hold-proniemieckiemu-premierowi

Tłumaczenie Ewelina Targosz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Ewelina Targosz within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.