Lithuanian premier about destroyed memorial in Ponary

Act of hatred – that is how the Lithuanian premier Algirdas Butkevičius named the destruction of information boards in Museum of Genocide in Ponary, which took place on March 15^th.

“It is an act of hatred, which has to be inspected by the law institutions. Any sedition attempts linked with anti-Semitic spirits or any other ones cannot be tolerated in Lithuania”, said Lithuanian premier Algirdas Butkevičius.

On March 15^th violators wrecked not only information board about Ponary crime and its culprits but also board with a map of garden of remembrance. Those destructions may be related to celebration of Dzień Odrodzenia Niepodległości of Republic of Lithuania, which takes place on March 11^th. For years, during this celebration, groups of Lithuanian nationalists have marched through the streets of Vilnius.

During World War II forest in Ponary near Vilnius was a place of the mass murders performed by the Schutzstaffel forces, German police and Lithuanian police collaborating with Germans. Germans, supported by voluntary Lithuanian forces, murdered in Ponary about 100 000 people: about 60 000-70 000 Jews, approximately 20 000 Poles, and also Romanies, Russians and Lithuanians. Amongst the murdered people, Polish intelligentsia dominated – professors, teachers, priests and doctors.

Based on: BNC

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/premier-litwy-o-zniszczonym-memoriale-w-ponarach

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