Posted on 06/07/2008 7:07:16 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
Elderly Jews say they are outraged that Lithuania is pursuing them over their wartime role as anti-Nazi partisans
Fania Branstovsky was just 20 when she joined the Jewish partisan movement fighting the Nazis in her home country of Lithuania. In the Vilnius ghetto, she and her fellow partisans carried out attacks against the occupying German forces. By the end of the war, almost her entire family — more than 50 people –— had perished at the hands of the Nazis. Yet now, over 60 years later, she is the one being branded unpatriotic, and is reportedly under investigation by Lithuanian authorities for alleged war crimes.
National and local newspapers and television stations are referring to the 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, who now works as a librarian at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, as a murderer and a terrorist. Earlier this year, the Vilnius-based newspaper Lietuvos Aidas called for her to be put on trial. The allegation levelled against her is that during her time as a partisan, she committed crimes against Lithuanians. But she strongly denies that she and her partisan colleagues ever targeted groups of local people.
“It’s very upsetting and shocking,” says Branstovsky, a mother of two, with six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “We fought against the powers of the Nazis. Not against the locals. The Nazis wanted to annihilate all Jews and all people who loved freedom, and I joined the underground partisan organisation in September 1943 to defend myself and my people. It was a matter of honour.”
Even with a possible war-crimes prosecution hanging over her, she has no regrets. “I didn’t want all Jewish people to die with no resistance. I feel very proud and I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to do something for honour and humanity.”
She vows that the prospect of being put on trial for war crimes will not drive her out of her country. “I’m very patriotic. I was born here and have always lived here. Of course I am worried, but I am not planning to leave because of this. By doing this they want to rewrite history.”
Branstovsky is not the only Holocaust survivor being pursued by the Lithuanian authorities. Yitzhak Arad, a historian and former chairman of Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, is also being investigated over similar alleged crimes.
Arad joined the partisan movement in the Vilnius ghetto during the war. His parents had already been taken by the Nazis two years earlier, eventually dying in Warsaw. So the teenage Arad decided to try to make it alone. “The night before we had to go to the ghetto, I escaped to Belorussia [then part of the Soviet Union, now Belarus],” he recalls. “In doing that, I escaped the killings. Forty members of my family were killed as well as many people from my village.”
He returned to Vilnius as a member of the pro-Soviet partisan movement, whose main activity was sabotaging German trains. Having fought so hard to survive the Nazi killings, Arad, who settled in Israel after the war, says he is “upset and disappointed” at being branded a war criminal.
“In doing this they are trying to rewrite history and to turn the murderers of thousands of Jews into heroes and the few survivors into criminals,” he says.
Although he has had no formal confirmation from the authorities that they are looking into his partisan activities, or that a prosecution is planned, he says he has heard through other channels that a group of anti-Soviets in the country filed a complaint against him to Lithuanian prosecutors. This led to an investigation being launched. The local media have also reported that an investigation is under way, accusing both Arad and Branstovsky of massacring civilians in the village of Kaniukai.
The prospect of standing trial has, naturally enough, left Arad reluctant to return to his home town. “I have not been back for two years, and I’m not planning on going back now,” he says.
If trials do go ahead, it seems that a third Jewish partisan could be the primary witness for the prosecution. Rachel Margolis, founder of Vilnius’s Jewish museum, has written a memoir recounting her escape from the ghetto and her time as a partisan. Extracts from her book, she fears, could be used as evidence by prosecutors.
Margolis, who lost her family in the Holocaust and now lives in Israel, was unavailable to talk to the JC. But according to Efraim Zuroff, director of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, an investigator was sent to the address which she uses in Lithuania. He says the investigator interviewed Rachel Konstanian, the director of the Vilnius Jewish Museum, and told her that he was looking for Margolis in order to question her regarding an investigation into Fania Branstovsky.
Margolis’s cousin, Budd Margolis, who lives in London, fears that the stress of going through a trial could prove life-threatening to Holocaust survivors now in their eighties. “This is very shocking and upsetting,” he says. “My cousin, as well as the other two people involved, are all quite elderly now, and it’s very unfortunate that they have to deal with this at this stage of their lives. It’s terribly unjust.”
He adds that his cousin is now too scared to return to Lithuania. “She is worried she may get arrested.”
Rachel Margolis’s memoir, which has been published in Lithuania, contains a description of how a group of partisans, including Fania Branstovsky, attacked a Nazi garrison in the village of “Kanyuki”. She writes: “The partisans had surrounded the garrison, but the Nazis were exceptionally well armed and beat off all attacks. They broke the flanks of the Jewish detachments, and the partisans withdrew precipitously. Then Magid jumped up on a rock and yelled: ‘We are Jews. We will show them what we are capable of. Forward, comrades!’ This sobered the men up; they ran back and won.”
A willingness to prosecute alleged war criminals is something not often displayed by the Lithuanian authorities. Even though around 212,000 of its Jews were killed, the Baltic country has only ever brought three of its citizens to trial over war crimes, two of whom — Kazys Gimzauskas and Algimantas Dailide — were convicted, but were excused imprisonment, in Gimzauskas’s case because of illness, in Dailide’s because of advanced age. Dailide was 85, a year younger than Fania Branstovsky is now.
According to the Lithuania embassy in London, there are currently no plans to prosecute Branstovsky. In an emailed statement, Minister Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission Jonas Grinevicius said: “There is no lawsuit against Mrs Branstovsky and there are no charges by the Prosecution General against Mrs Branstovsky, nor there is any other legal action against Mrs Branstovsky initiated. Mrs Branstovsky is only asked to appear in the court hearings as a witness in the case of the massacre by Soviet partisans of peaceful inhabitants of Kaniukai village in Salcininkai district. The killing of 38 Kaniukai inhabitants occurred in January 1944, it was committed by 120-150 Soviet partisans.”
Lithuanian denials do not impress Efraim Zuroff. He has written a strongly worded letter to Asta Skaisgiryté–Liauskienè, the Lithuanian ambassador in Israel. In it he accuses the Lithuanian authorities of “launching a campaign to discredit Jewish resistance fighters by falsely accusing them of war crimes in order to deflect attention from widespread Lithuanian participation in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust”.
He tells the JC that this is a “malicious campaign against the innocent heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance. We are hoping the investigations will be dropped,” he says.
And so are Fania Branstovsky, Yitzhak Arad and Rachel Margolis.
I have always thought we should be as lenient as the facts allow in dealing with alleged Nazi collaborators in that part of the world. It is simply a fact that many of them acted from high motives and discovered the real nature of their newfound German allies only when it was too late. Now that they are out in the open, and apparently very influential if not actually running the country, these collaborators and their ideological descendants can show the same leniency to others, especially when the evidence is so likely to tainted by resurgent antisemitism and the stench of petrodollars.
gnip...
Ping!
Elderly Jews say they are outraged that Lithuania is pursuing them over their wartime role as anti-Nazi partisans
Pardon the pun...but don't we have bigger fish to fry?... e.g. The War on Terror, Islamic Fundamentalism, etc.
Might have something to do with keeping Odin pacified and happy; Lithuania was Europe’s last pagan country....
Oh, yeah? What about murdering Lithuanian patriots? That was actually the "main activity" of the Stalinist partisans all over the Eastern Europe, which continued unabated after the war, as these "victims" were put in positions of power (Thank you very much Messrs Roosevelt and Churchill!.) No mention of a few inconvenient facts in the article. Surprise.
God bless this brave woman and all who stood by her side. I fear we are about to see history repeat itself; “Never Again”, again...
If that piss-ant from chicago becomes President of the United States, I wonder how long it will be before all U.S. Veterans are cordially invited to the Hague for a little questioning.
why did she stay in Lithuania?
Most distressing.
Who murdered the 70 to 120 million victims of Marxist Utopia listed in the Black Book of Communism, Easter Bunny? Who colaborrated with Uncle Joe, Santa Claus?!
Yep. My insane aunt, a lifelong communist and antiwar activist in the UK (excuse the multiple redundancy), still considers me a war criminal for having served in the US Army during the Vietnam War. We hear the same kind of thing from unregenerate VC-sympathizers in this country. Fortunately, I live in the US so I can tell them to “bring it!”
The anti-nazi partisans in Lithuania were under the operational control of Stalin’s NKVD. It is an ugly truth, therefore, that some of these people could well have been involved in actions that would normally rate as war crimes. I just do not think they should be judged for it, given that there was no real option for Jews trapped behind Nazi lines.
From the same article:
He returned to Vilnius as a member of the pro-Soviet partisan movement
The Soviets were not Boy Scouts and "pro-Soviet" is not always merely "anti-Nazi". It was also anti-Lithuanian independence. In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
"....in the court hearings as a witness in the case of the massacre by Soviet partisans of peaceful inhabitants of Kaniukai village in Salcininkai district. The killing of 38 Kaniukai inhabitants occurred in January 1944, it was committed by 120-150 Soviet partisans.” "
Ok, but who are these “anti-Soviets” in Lithuania accusing Jews of war crimes? Are they Muslims?
Hmmm... So it was OK to work for Stalin in your opinion?
“why did she stay in Lithuania?”
It was her home country, to leave is to let the nazis win.
She was pretty smokin, in an unwashed way, bathing habits in Eastern Europe are spotty.
So I asked her if she was a commie, she said yes, some kind of middle range Apparatchik. Then I asked her how many Lithuanian Patriots did you people kill, I have a soft spot in my heart for Poles and Lithuanians, the frost settled.
Unfortunately, many Jews threw in with the Soviets and betrayed their countrymen. They will (righly) pay for those crimes. In the US we only pursue ‘Nazi’ war criminals (for some reason the Communists get a pass), but the Lithuanians take a different view and some elderly people will be prosecuted there.
Memories over there are long, and bitterness remains, as the Apparatchiks (high level) have been the ones to benefit from the fall of the Wall.
This story has so many holes in it. Why don’t they name the Partisan units involved? I assume because they were Soviet units. I wonder if these investigations are related to the ongoing requests by Israel to try Lithuanians?
Of course the communists killed far more Lithuanians than Jews were killed in Lithuania by the Germans. These old communist Jews don’t seem too concerned about that little historical fact.
Regardless, the EU will never allow any Jews to be put on trial for Soviet crimes. The rulers in Brussels are the proud grandchildren of Stalin.
You wrote:
“Did we read the same article or am I missing something?”
I think you missed a lot of history. The partisans sometimes murdered those who were not pro-Communist not just those who were pro-Nazi. There are plenty of bitter and angry people in Eastern Europe who think justice was NEVER served properly after WWII.
Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
btt
The Jewish survivors picked the lesser of two evils - which happened to be the side not set to kill them all.
Lithuania’s choice to punish Soviet alliances, instead of specifically protecting Nazism. Modern day scape-goating to make an ideological screw-you to modern day Russia.
Then again, perhaps the persecution is both for being Jewish and for having siding with the Soviets. A double whammy and massive slam dunk for the prosecution of these survivors.
What a devil’s choice, I would hate to be put in the position of choosing sides between Hitler or Stalin. They were both so evil. I think Lithuania ought to just put that behind them and forgive the ordinary people who supported either side. What’s the point of harassing elderly people for their decision 60 years ago? It doesn’t sound like being neutral was an option. It was a horrible time in eastern Europe. Just let all the survivors live their last few years out in peace. IMO.
Whatever was going on in Scandinavia and the Kola Penninsula?
I used to go down to the Lit Club with my dear EX's Grandfather and ply him and his friends with drink. I learned more Eastern European History than I cared to know, Old Yashu(SP) died in 1982 at 96, real great Guy.
A failed relationship is right, those Tartar Eyes, but then again they all look like Bapchi in the end.
Not all the “partisans” were Stalinists - that’s the problem with the equation.
I have pictures of our own President sitting down to deal directly with Stalin.
Your question is, I hope, only rhetorical. If you have no idea what the lineups were in WWII (or even in the Continuation War or the Winter War), I doubt you can comprehend any answers you might get.
When talking about the Lithuanian Heathens ask about the Lithuanian Tartars, all Catholic now, or the differences between the the Black Lithuanians and the Slavs, the damn place is worth 20 Blam threads.
One of my distant ancestors has a statue to himself in a public square in the capital of Latvia. Didn't know that until I did lots and lots of research.
Guy died in one of Sweden's Wars to conquer the world. His Grandfather was a Frenchman. I am at a loss to figure out if the locals put up the statue because they killed him, or the Swedes put it up to remind the locals of who won the war even if they killed a bunch of 'em.
Now, moving right ahead into Eastern European politics, I've figured out it's probably unwise to select "favorites" once you get too far from the Keregeorgevich family./sarc
And on a similar note the free forces that operated out of Britain during the war.
My God yes… Let these people live what little time they have left in peace. The stinking world has stolen their youth already. Why steal anything else?
I think that my ex wife's family, in part at least, were Lithuanian Tartars, area of origin and the Mongolian spot.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, to name just 3.
That would start a civil war.
Really? Polish partisans in Lithuanian forests fought against both. Easy to understand. Easy to understand how those who threw in with Stalin (or Hitler) will be prosecuted. Heck, we said that Demanjuk was one man, then we prosecuted him as another.
So, you think that the Lithuanians (not Americans) should give the Communists a pass for oppressing their country?
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You guys should have gotten busy much earlier and exterminated ALL the Socialists of all kinds. You’d bee much better off and have fewer people to hate.
Hate whom? We are talking about whom the Lithuanians are prosecuting. I think that those who collaborated with Stalin are worthy targets. You, apparently, don’t. Why not?
Perhaps you’ve heard of Solomon Morel. He was so bad, that the Soviets gave him a suspension for being inhuman. Poland is trying to get Israel to hand him over for war crimes. Guess what? Israel refuses. Some war crimes apparently are not important compared with others.
People of good will would support the punishment of all war criminals Do you?
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