ON THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF KRISTALLNACHT: LITHUANIA SEEKS TO PROSECUTE WORLD WAR II JEWISH PARTISANS WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THE NAZIS

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany’s pogrom that signaled the beginning of the end of European Jewry. Two hundred synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses throughout Germany and Austria were looted, which eventually led to the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews to concentration camps. Now, 70 years later, the Holocaust is being distorted and trivialized in places around the world including Lithuania where a shocking 96.4% of Lithuania’s Jewish citizens were murdered by the Nazis and local collaborators. To this day, not a single Lithuanian has ever been punished in independent Lithuania for Holocaust crimes and every effort has been made to prevent such criminals from facing prosecution. Instead - as unbelievable as it may sound - Lithuanian prosecutors, urged on by an anti-Semitic press, have sought to indict for “war crimes,” heroic World War II-era Jewish partisans for their anti-Nazi resistance! Chief among them, Dr. Yitzhak Arad, the former chairman of Yad Vashem and a renowned Holocaust scholar. In 2008, authorities are targeting 3 women, fellow Jewish anti-Nazi partisans Dr. Rochel Margolis, Professor Sara Ginaite, and Fania Brantsovsky, pictured left with SWC International Relations Director, Dr. Shimon Samuels. This must not continue. Join the Wiesenthal Center’s campaign to Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus demanding that: •the campaign against Jewish anti-Nazi partisans be immediately stopped and that a public apology is made to those already made to suffer •the full scope of Lithuanians’ participation in the murder of Jews in the country and elsewhere during the Holocaust be acknowledged and taught to younger generations •the Lithuanian government implement the prison sentence against convicted Nazi war criminal Algimantas Dailide Please join this campaign and help fight against anti-Semitism and the distortion and trivialization of the Nazi Holocaust today.

KRISTALLNACHT70: Stop the Distortion and Trivialization of Victims of the Nazi Holocaust
To: President Valdas Adamkus
Dear President Adamkus;As the world gathers to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht - Nazi Germany’s pogrom that signaled the beginning of the end of European Jewry -today, seventy years later, the Holocaust is being distorted and trivialized in places around the world including Lithuania.I therefore join with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in demanding that you:•Immediately stop the campaign of incitement against, and delegitimization of, Jewish anti-Nazi partisans and publicly apologize to those already made to suffer•Acknowledge the full scope of Lithuanian participation in the murder of Jews in the country and elsewhere during the Holocaust and teach the truth to Lithuanian students •Implement the prison sentence against Nazi war criminal Algimantas Dailide
Sincerelly

http://www.wiesenthal.com/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=4724837