12/07/2017 - “Our People”: Holocaust and Historical Memory Wars in Lithuania by The Wilson Center published on 2017-12-08T17:00:35Z In their best-selling book “Our People,” Ruta Vanagaite and Efraim Zuroff sought to explore the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry. They visited 40 sites of mass murder in Lithuania and Belarus, interviewing eyewitnesses and piecing together the role of different elements of wartime Lithuanian society in the events. They discussed their findings, how they are viewed in Lithuania, and what they mean in the broader context of historical memory debates taking place throughout the post-communist world. Comment by Casey Kudos to Vadim Alskan (spelling?) from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum who was speaking for himself, when he stated that historians need to know "why" events happened. Apart from a few Jewish friends, this is the piece of the puzzle that is missing from so many "discussions" about Lithuania's role in the Holocaust. Starting discussions from 1941 and the Nazi occupation of Lithuania will not provide the answers. I suggest starting with the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Occupation of Lithuania in 1940, as well as the deeds of folks like Genrich Yagoda and Nachman Duchanski. Simply implying that people are somehow inherently "haters" or "anti-semites" does nothing for any sort of meaningful discourse. 70 years after events occurred, I believe the main problem trying to honestly discuss events is that both sides have to be honest. 2017-12-16T02:45:03Z
