8 BOOKS )""3&5;ď'FCSVBSZ 'FCSVBSZď)""3&5; P Rachel Margolis: P Lithuania’s Dovid Katz says ambassador to Israel, the low point in Asta Skaisgiryte- modern Lithuania’s Liauskiene: ‘Jews are history came the day part of our culture, prosecutors called for and part of our this former resistance mentality, heritage fighter’s arrest. and history.’ I Efraim Zuroff: I Yitzhak Arad: ‘The harassment of The former Yad Jewish partisans − that Vashem chairman says to me more than was recently accused these cultural festivals of war crimes in for dead Jews.’ Lithuania for his activities in the partisan resistance to Jewry, accusing the country of hav- ests.” The first partisan to be accused was plaining his decision not to attend the fair. single anti-Semitic incident.” ing a “powerful anti-Semitic establish- Arad, although all charges were dropped, Yet other intellectuals and officials − both Zalkin said the harassment of Arad and ment.” in the wake of international pressure. Israelis and Lithuanians − said Zuroff’s and Margolis was initiated by the judiciary At the same time, Katz, who has lived “The low point in the history of mod- Katz’s criticism of the Lithuanian presence rather than the government, and that what- in Vilnius for the last 10 years, says he ern Lithuania,” said Katz, “came on May at the fair is exaggerated and misplaced. ever anti-Semitism exists in Lithuania is has been treated “exceptionally well by 5, 2008, when prosecutors sent two armed “To speak about a plot is too strong,” said based on a rampant hatred of Russians. people everywhere in the city” and that he plainclothes police to look for Rachel Skaisgiryte-Liauskiene, the Lithuanian Jews, said Zalkin, were over-proportion- feels “proud to look, sound and feel very Margolis and Fania Brantsovsky, two in- ambassador. “Rachel Margolis was never ally involved with the KGB − which is con- Jewish.” He also wrote a new book about credibly courageous Holocaust survivors accused of anything. Never. She was a wit- sidered to have perpetrated a “Lithuanian Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews ), which was com- who are heroes of the free world for hav- ness in a legal case about the burning of a genocide” − and it is in this light that anti- missioned by the Lithuanian culture min- ing joined the anti-Nazi resistance in the village, where men, women and children Jewish sentiments have to be evaluated. istry especially for the book fair (“Seven forests of Lithuania.” Later that month, were burned alive. She could know about Zalkin pointed out that historian Tomas Kingdoms of the Litvaks” ). prosecutors said the women couldn’t be how this could have happened, so she was Venclova, “the first Lithuanian writer to say Yet he reports on a “dreadful and power- found − implying, according to Katz, that invited to [be a] witness. That’s it.” that the Lithuanians are collectively guilty ful anti-Semitic establishment that is based they were fugitives. Besides the participation of for their role in the Holocaust,” will not among everyday people, but among “Articles and media have continued to Arad, the invitation to historian v e r a g e be on the panel. “We should wel- the ‘elites’ of government and some of its call both ‘murderers’ or ‘suspects of war Saulius Suziedelis is another o J e come such efforts to promote c r agencies and some quasi-academic institu- crimes,’” he said. “We must not allow this sign that the Lithuanians l u this bilateral discourse via a tions.” In an e-mail interview with Haaretz, shameful sham to continue unopposed, or are serious about the i s the cultural channel,” said a c Katz complained, for example, about the for it to be covered up by even the most topic, said Icchokas l Zalkin. e so-called Red-Brown Commission, a gov- lavish and impressive cultural events.” Meras, a well-known e The organizers of the p m ernment-sponsored study “whose purpose Although Katz was invited to partici- Jewish-Lithuanian writ- S fair, meanwhile, are try- is not Holocaust denial but what I call pate in the fair’s “Yiddishland” seminar, er who was scheduled i ing to stay away from n r Holocaust obfuscation − a plot to trivialize, he said he politely explained he would not to appear on Thursday’s i the controversy. t a e minimize and ‘talk away’ the Holocaust by be willing to come unless Margolis − a dual panel about language as f “I am not a politician, r k claiming that Nazi and Soviet crimes are Lithuanian-Israeli citizen − was invited to an existential choice but n I am just running a book o a t ‘absolutely equal.’” join the Lithuanian delegation as a guest of who won’t be able attend o fair,” said Zev Birger, the i b o l n Like Zuroff, Katz is outraged that honor for her achievement in rediscover- because of his heart prob- a chairman, who was born in Lithuanian “politicians, prosecutors and ing, deciphering and publishing the lost di- lems. Lithuania. “I don’t know if it’s quasi-academics in the service of revi- ary of the mass murder at Ponar, one of the “Suziedelis is one of the best propaganda or not, but we’re offer- sionist history started to accuse Jewish most important documents of any witness historians, he began to find out every- ing a platform for discussions, and we in- Holocaust survivors of ‘war crimes’ if they to the Lithuanian Holocaust. thing about how the Holocaust happened vite people to come and ask questions and escaped certain death to join the anti-Nazi “They discreetly got back to me [saying] in Lithuania,” said Meras, a Holocaust sur- have a dialogue. The Lithuanians will have partisan resistance movement in the for- that nothing could be done,” Katz said, ex- vivor who moved from Lithuania to Israel to reply, and by talking to each other, the in 1972. “Here in Israel, Jews don’t want to truth will emerge.” show anything positive about Lithuania.” Birger, who moved to Israel in 1946, af- “There are people who only see the bad ter having been liberated from Dachau − side, the black side of what happened,” he and who returned to his native Lithuania said. “Yes, it was bad. I went through it. But for the first time only two years ago − it’s necessary that Israel and Lithuania are said he personally doesn’t believe the in a good relationship, and I don’t see any Lithuanians dealt correctly with their role propaganda here.” in the Holocaust. He added, however, that Motti Zalkin, who teaches the his- he is happy about their eagerness to par- tory of Lithuanian Jewry at Ben-Gurion ticipate in this year’s fair. University of the Negev, and who will ap- “We believe that the exchange of litera- pear at Wednesday’s event on Yiddish, also ture and culture brings people together,” says the criticism is unjustified. “I spent a said Birger. “Because people know more lot of time in Lithuania, I’ve been to almost about each other by reading the books of every shtetl, and I walk around with a kip- the other nation’s authors. And they’ll get pah on my head,” he said. “I can’t recall a closer to each other.” .