05/10/2008

Lithuanian academic blasts war crimes probe of ex-Yad Vashem head

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1026542.html

A prominent Lithuanian academic has blasted a decision by Lithuania to investigate an Israeli Holocaust historian for alleged war crimes while he was a partisan in World War II.

Philosopher, essayist, and activist Leonidas Donskis called the move "the most severe mistake made by the Lithuanian government since independence" from the Soviet Union.

Donskis' was referring to the Lithuanian government's decision to investigate Dr. Yitzhak Arad, a Holocaust historian and one-time partisan, a former brigadier general and a chief education officer in the Israel Defense Forces, and the chairman of the board of Yad Vashem over his time serving in the Soviet security service the NKVD.

The NKVD engaged in murder and looting, and the Lithuanian government alleged that Arad may have been involved in the murder of innocent Lithuanians while serving in the agency.

In the Lithuanian newspaper, Republika, they even published an article on Arad two years ago entitled "The expert with blood on his hands."

Arad has stated that the Lithuanian claims against him were false. The Foreign Ministry and Yad Vashem sharply protested the Lithuanian demand, and refused to cooperate with the request for help in the investigation.

However, there are some in Israel who believe that neither the Foreign Ministry nor Yad Vashem are acting with the determination expected of them, and are demonstrating weakness. There are voices who believe that Israel should lower its diplomatic contacts with Lithuania if it continues harassing Jewish and Israeli partisans.

Donskis has called for Lithuanian to "deal with its past, including cases where Lithuanians collaborated with the Nazi occupiers in the extermination of Jews." Donskis also added that the revelations of Lithuanian collaboration with the Nazis, which came to light during the 1980's, led many in Lithuania to seek "defensive tactics" to clear the name of the Lithuanian people. These tactics, like the probe of Arad, included the attempt to draw parallels and relativism between the actions of Nazi collaborators and those who worked with the Soviet security forces.