The government of Lithuania has officially accepted responsibility for the mass murders of Jews by Lithuanian citizens carried out during the Holocaust, according to a document obtained by Israel Hayom.
The document states that 95% of the Jews in Lithuania at the time of the Holocaust were killed and calls the deaths “a great tragedy for the Lithuanian state and society.” “It is regrettable that Lithuanian civilians were personally involved in the mass killings organised by the Nazis,” the document reads.
The document was written and disseminated ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Lithuania last week, the first by an Israeli prime minister, and in response to criticism by Jewish organisations that Lithuania sweeps the murder of Jews by its citizens under the rug.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said, “Lithuania never imprisoned the murderers of Jews who took part in the revolt against the Soviet Union.”
Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon said that the current government was working to commemorate the Holocaust and that it was taking steps in the right direction.
On Friday, Netanyahu participated in a memorial ceremony for the 70,000 Jews of Vilnius who perished during the Holocaust. Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, and Fania Kukliansky, chair of the Jewish community in Lithuania – the country’s EJC affiliate – were all in attendance.
Speaking at the event, Netanyahu said, “An unpardonable crime was committed here. 70,000 Jews were murdered in cold blood by the Nazis and their collaborators … all together, 200,000 Jews were murdered here and in other places in Lithuania.”
