Lithuania

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Vilnius's Choral Synagogue on August 26, 2018. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)

August 8, 2019, 8:56 pm

Lithuanian synagogue reopens after government vows to guarantee security

Local Jewish community leader praises Lithuania’s president, PM for promising to protect house of worship after spate of threats

By AFP and TOI staff

Lithuanian Jewish men pray, during a morning service in a Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)

August 7, 2019, 12:20 am

Lithuanian Jews indefinitely shut community center, lone synagogue after threats

Amid escalating controversy over national commemoration policies, Jewish leader demands government speak out, wonders ‘whether we are safe or not’

By Raphael Ahren

Smashed and dilapidated graves at the old Jewish cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania, July 2019 (Raphael Ahren/TOI)

August 4, 2019, 10:17 am

Graves, guilt and genius: Inside Lithuania’s struggle with its checkered past

Once an epicenter of Jewish life, the Baltic state still refuses to come clean about its dark history, critics charge. But recent developments show it is a work in progress

By Raphael Ahren

Stanislovas Tomas smashes the plaque honoring Jonas Noreika in Vilnius, Lithuania, April 7, 2019 (Screen grab via Facebook)

July 28, 2019, 4:53 am

Vilnius removes plaque honoring alleged Nazi collaborator

Move comes after city changes name of street from one honoring another collaborator; plaque had been subject of lawsuits and protests

By JTA

Nationalists carrying a picture merging Pepe the Frog and Kazys Skirpa during a march in Kaunas, Lithuania, on February 16, 2017. The banner reads: 'Lithuania will contribute to a new and better European order.' (Defending History via JTA)

July 25, 2019, 5:40 pm

Lithuanian capital to rename street honoring anti-Semitic Nazi collaborator

Nationalist protesters picket city hall in defense of Kazio Skirpos during Wednesday’s 21-16 vote; mayor says he’s pleased with result

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Lithuania Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius addresses the Atlantic Council's "NATO Engages The Alliance at 70" conference, in Washington, April 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

July 23, 2019, 6:03 am

Lithuanian FM: Israel’s rapprochement with Russia is ‘shortsighted’

Linas Linkevicius addresses his country’s efforts to ‘come clean’ about Holocaust complicity, and why Vilnius won’t recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization

By Raphael Ahren

Members of an international team of archaeologists work to unearth parts of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius on July 25, 2018. (AFP Photo/Petras Malukas)

July 19, 2019, 5:21 am

Discovery sheds light on Jewish life in Lithuania before Holocaust

In remains of synagogue destroyed by Nazis, archaeologists find 18th-century plaque describing Jewish residents of Vilnius traveling to Holy Land

By AFP

Lithuania's Ninth Fort, a 19th century bunker complex that the Nazis and their helpers turned into a camp and execution area. (Screen capture: YouTube)

June 1, 2019, 8:41 am

Lithuanian soldiers, officials honor late chaplain of Holocaust-era death squad

Vitkija holds plaque ceremony for Zenonas Ignatavičius of 12th Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion, whose troops were responsible for killing over 15,000 Jews in October 1941

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Lithuanian presidential candidate Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, his wife Silvija Skverneliene and their children cast a ballot during the presidential election in Vilnius on May 12, 2019. (Photo by Petras Malukas / AFP)

May 13, 2019, 3:36 am

Lithuanian PM, who backed moving embassy to Jerusalem, loses presidential bid

Saulius Skvernelis says he’ll quit after failure to make second round runoff; economist Gitanas Nauseda will face conservative Ingrida Simonyte in final vote

By Agencies and TOI staff

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite speaks to the members of press at a polling station during the advance presidential elections in Vilnius, Lithuania, May 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

May 11, 2019, 5:58 am

Voters to pick successor Sunday to Lithuania’s popular ‘Iron Lady’

Leading presidential candidate, PM Saulius Skvernelis, speaks in favor of moving embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, strengthening security and trade ties with Israel

By Agencies and TOI staff

British Holocaust denier David Irving. (JTA)

April 24, 2019, 4:51 pm

Lithuania bans Holocaust denier David Irving for 5 years

State authorities say they won’t allow 81-year-old who’s written books minimizing Nazi atrocities to commit similar crimes on their soil

By AFP

April 9, 2019, 5:55 pm

Lithuania to blacklist Holocaust denier David Irving

Country’s top diplomat says people like controversial British historian who trivialize Nazi genocide ‘are not welcome in our country’

By AFP

April 8, 2019, 2:55 pm

Aspiring Lithuanian politician smashes plaque honoring Nazi collaborator

Stanislovas Tomas, a human rights attorney running in European Parliament elections, livestreams himself bashing plaque with sledgehammer before reporting himself to police

By Cnaan Liphshiz

A boy playing soccer at the entrance to the former concentration camp known as the Seventh Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, on July 12, 2016. (JTA/Cnaan Liphshiz)

April 3, 2019, 4:44 pm

Lithuania’s genocide studies center accused of Holocaust denial

Local Jews say state-run body tasked with memorializing Holocaust is attempting to absolve country of substantial complicity in the mass murder of Jews during WWII

By JTA

The Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania (YouTube screenshot)

March 27, 2019, 4:32 pm

Lithuanian court rejects lawsuit against state honors for Nazi collaborator

Grant Gochin, an American Jew who lost many relatives in Holocaust-era executions attributed to Jonas Noreika, had sued against plaque honoring the anti-Communist hero

By Cnaan Liphshiz