Last update - 00:00 09/09/2007
Prof. slams Yad Vashem role in panel on WWII killing of Lithuanians
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Professor Dov Levin of Hebrew University, an expert on the Baltic States criticized the participation of Yad Vashem in a committee founded to examine crimes against civilians during the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Lithuania.
According to Levin, who served as a partisan in Lithuania during WWII, the committee founded in 1998 to examine the role of partisans in the killings of Lithuanian civilians "was not established to discover the truth, rather to ease Lithuania's acceptance to the European Union."
"This was not a scientific committee, merely an initiative whose goal was to sanitize the image of Lithuanian civilians and to absolve them of guilt for their complicity and support of Nazi war crimes," he said.
Levin, an expert on the history of the Baltic states, had called for an examination of the alleged compliance and participation of Lithuanian civilians in Nazi war crimes as a prerequisite for the country's acceptance into the EU.
Lithuania's chief prosecutor is mulling whether to order a probe against the former director of Yad Vashem, Yitzhak Arad, regarding allegations he was involved in the killing of Lithuanians as a partisan fighter during World War Two.
In a letter to the Justice Ministry, Lithuanian authorities requested permission to question the Lithuanian-born historian and retired Israel Defense Forces brigadier general on murder accusations raised by a local magazine article, which was based on quotes from his autobiography and testimony he gave as a witness in trials of Nazi criminals.
Government sources unofficially confirmed they have received Lithuania's request, adding that Israel views it as "nothing short of outrageous."
Head of the Simon Weisenthal Center in Israel, Ephraim Zoroff, stated that the campaign against Arad is the first time that a foreign government has attempted to investigate an Israeli citizen for alleged crimes committed against Nazi collaborators.
"The Lithuanian committee was born in sin," said Zoroff, adding that "they have decided to make a moral equivalency that is simply impossible to accept. We have already highlighted their severely inadequate pursuit of former Nazi war criminals, a fact they are now attempting to distance themselves from."
Director of Yad Vashem Professor Avner Shilo stated that "we made our decision regarding participation in the committee after consultation with the foreign ministry and a Lithuanian immigrants' association, and only after the committee was split into two divisions to examine Nazi and Soviet crimes separately.
Shilo added that participation in the committee had positive results, stating it encouraged Lithuanian historians to publish their own independent research on the role of Lithuanian collaborators in the crimes of the Nazi occupation, and special courses on the Holocaust for Lithuanian teachers.
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