Lithuanian Court Ruling - Swastikas a Historic Legacy

To read article click here - http://jta.org/news/article/2010/05/21/2739264/lithuanian-court-rules-swastikas-historic-legacy

Blurred distinctions

This year, ultra nationalists in Vilnius staged another march to mark independence day. Supposedly less vitriolic than the march in 2008 (which was featured in our film Surviving History), in that there wasn't calls for "Jews Out!" or "Russians Out!" as in that previous march, but limited to "Lithuania for Lithuanians!"

This photo from Holocaust in the Baltics (see http://www.holocaustinthebaltics.com/38401/index.html)

Sometimes I wonder if we can recognise the distinction between ultra-nationalists and fascists, or if there is any distinction between them at all? And if such displays are not met with any response, does apathy amount to acceptance or collusion?

Efraim Zuroff has written several scathing articles about this event and condemned the apathy.
See Guardian, 3 April 2010
See The Jerusalem Post, 1 May 2010

I must say I am surprised that the mainstream press has missed out on this repeat incident, unlike the span of coverage in 2008. Perhaps because fascist activities are nothing new, whether in Lithuania or elsewhere. (For example, see article on white supremacist march in LA in April 2010.) However, unlike that reported in Vilnius, counter protesters were involved in the fray.

Will the time come, I wonder, when we will see some counter protesters in Lithuania?

If anti-semitism is a yardstick for intolerance around the world, perhaps we should endeavour to be counter protesters. Ultra-nationlists see Jews as the enemy along with any other minority group that inhabit their lands. In this age of globalisation and transient migrant populations, it is impossible for a country to be 'pure' in terms of ethnicity or nationality. And yet, the world sees no shortage of people blindly and actively inciting hatred. For a snapshot, have a look at this website. Or for those in the UK, just look at the BNP and its use of the term 'indigenious' British population.

Limmud Day, Brighton, 29 March 2009

Shivaun and I turned up at this year's Limmud Day. The event was sold out well in advance and the number and variety of presenters were formidable. We kinda squeaked in when Shivaun spoke to the organisers a few weeks before the event, and were, quite last minute, assigned a slot to show our 30-minute documentary Surviving History and for Shivaun to give a presentation. She spoke briefly about her research project and gave a short talk on the history of Jews in Lithuania, trying to squish hundreds of years of history into a 20-minute session. The room was packed and people drifted in well after the talk had started and there was only standing room available. It was very touching to hear afterwards that some had been moved to tears, another said, "I could have listened all day," as he had found it fascinating. Most of the audience, like those we had met at the talk at AJR in February this year, commented that much less is known about East European Jewish experience, on account of the Iron Curtain and decades of Soviet rule; so for them, this was quite revelatory. Which kinda sealed it for us, that despite the fact that much has been written and discussed about the Holocaust, there is room for much more, especially when it comes to personal experience and recollection, which are unique to the individual. Kinda like finding the particular within the universal; the human and the individual within the historical.

Then we squished in to hear Julie Birchell speak. I don't know anything about her, but she seemed very popular; the room was literally bursting at the seams. Her comments both shocked me as well as touched me. (You can read a bit about the session here.) Later I got the rundown and realised why she was so well known, she is, as she herself claims, to be a 'philo-semitic'. Which left me wondering whether one needs to take an extreme stand in order to be heard? If you are quite objective and empathetic, do you come across as a fence-sitter, and will others ride roughshod over your opinions? I still haven't come to a conclusion...