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Former director of Yad Vashem Yitzhak Arad. (Tomer Appelbaum)
Last update - 14:25 08/09/2007
Lithuania asks to quiz ex-Yad Vashem head over WWII killings
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: former Yad Vashem chief 

Lithuania's chief prosecutor is mulling whether to order a probe against the former director of Yad Vashem Yitzhak Arad into 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 asked to question the Lithuanian-born historian and retired Israel Defense Forces brigadier general on murder accusations raised by a local magazine article 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."
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Arad has recently participated in a panel that met in Vilnius called the Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.

As a panel member, Arad raised the issue of Lithuanian citizens' involvement in the murder of local Jews -a claim that has drawn the ire of many Lithuanian rightwing groups who say such accusations are exaggerated and that the panel should focus on Soviet atrocities instead.

In response to the probe, Arad has rejected an invitation to return to Vilnius to continue to take part in the panel's activity and claims he has been singled out by Lithuanian authorities.

"If it were just a personal matter, I wouldn't have made an issue out of it, but it is anything but personal," Arad said. "What they are trying to do with this probe is form an equation as though there were Lithuanians who killed Jews, but also Jews who killed Lithuanians - so now were even and can move on."

The Lithuanian Holocaust is unique in that it was largely carried out by locals, especially members of the Order Police, who began butchering Jews the moment the Soviets left in 1941, even before the German army arrived. Only a few thousand of Lithuania's 220,000 Jews survived the Holocaust.

After the German army conquered Lithuania in 1941, the 15-year-old Arad fled his hometown ghetto and joined a unit of Soviet partisans until the Red Army took over the region. After the war he boarded an illegal immigrant ship to Israel, joined the Palmach [a pre-state elite strike force], and later served as an officer in the IDF, retiring in 1972 as head of the Education Corps. In civilian life Arad became a scholar and lecturer on Jewish history, specializing in the Holocaust. He was director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993.

As a world-class expert on Lithuanian Jewry in the Holocaust, Arad was summoned as an expert witness for the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which hunts down Nazi war criminals and collaborators who managed to obtain American citizenship.

The affidavits Arad gave in the trials of Lithuanian Gestapo officials Aleksandras Lileikis and Algimantas Dailide, who were subsequently deported from the U.S., angered political elements in Vilnius.

Lithuanian nationalists object to the Holocaust's commemoration, claiming the people who should be memorialized are the victims of 46 years of Soviet occupation. A large share of the Lithuanians persecuted by the Soviets had been Nazi collaborators.

Despite opposition from nationalists, the international commission was established as part of Lithuania's efforts to gain European Union membership. The commission invited historians from Lithuania, Germany and the U.S. Arad was invited to represent Yad Vashem.

Yad Vashem's director, Avner Shalev, informed the chair of the commission that in view of the proceedings against Arad, Yad Vashem has decided to suspend its participation in the international commission. The partisans' organization in Israel also sent a protest letter to Lithuanian President Vladas Adamkus.

No comment was received from the Lithuanian embassy as of press time.

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  1.   Anybody surprized? 04:05  |  Jesus 07/09/07
  2.   Lithuanian 04:40  |  sweis Melbourne 07/09/07
  3.   Lithuanian is Right 04:42  |  fred 07/09/07
  4.   Litvaks 04:59  |  Seraph 07/09/07
  5.   It is amazing that a people that brought so much to Lithuania 05:00  |  richard 07/09/07
  6.   Lithuania is going to be extinct in 60 years.. 05:08  |  Tom 07/09/07
  7.   Racism stinks! 06:05  |  US Citizen 07/09/07
  8.   Racism stinks! 06:05  |  US Citizen 07/09/07
  9.   good thing a sense of irony is wasted here 06:19  |  boxley 07/09/07
  10.   Alexander Nevsky 07:37  |  Jake 07/09/07
  11.   Lithuania 07:55  |  Garry 07/09/07
  12.   This is appallingly written 08:00  |  Rowan Berkeley 07/09/07
  13.   Lithuania forever...... 08:22  |  Esther 07/09/07
  14.   Europeans hate therefore they exist. 09:06  |  a Jew 07/09/07
  15.   My personal experience of Lithuanian anti-Semitism 10:26  |  Joshua 07/09/07
  16.   #15 A Jew in Israel, from Europe. 10:48  |  PADDY 07/09/07
  17.   Rowan Berkeley 10:51  |  Connie 07/09/07
  18.   Jews can commit crimes, same as anyone 11:14  |  Natallie Durson 07/09/07
  19.   this is an awful warning on jewish complacency 11:29  |  victor hardman 07/09/07
  20.   Quite a bit of hate over here... 11:38  |  S 07/09/07
  21.   Esther has learned nothing of her family`s past 11:58  |  Absolute Sweden 07/09/07
  22.   LITHUANIA / LATVIA / UKRAINE / BELARUS 12:22  |  Nicole 07/09/07
  23.   LITHUANIA - LATIVIA - UKRAINE - BELARUS 12:25  |  Nicole 07/09/07
  24.   Anti-Semitism In Fashion Again Thanks to Islamists 13:48  |  Jane 07/09/07
  25.   #20 natallie and her lack of education 13:56  |  victor hardman 07/09/07
  26.   #20 Natalie Durson 14:00  |  Reuben Jacobs 07/09/07
  27.   absolute sweden 14:16  |  arik hermeister 07/09/07
  28.   Yitzhak Arad smart of you not to go 14:51  |  topanga 07/09/07
  29.   TO NATALIE DURSON 14:54  |  Nicole 07/09/07
  30.   #28Reuben Jacobs 15:05  |  urmas 07/09/07
  31.   Nicole from Tel Aviv / London 15:05  |  Sasha 07/09/07
  32.   #17 Joshua 15:12  |  Mark B. 07/09/07
  33.   Ms. Durson #0 15:22  |  gaoni 07/09/07
  34.   #15 "a Jew" 15:38  |  A European 07/09/07
  35.   to Jane#26 15:45  |  sinalco 07/09/07
  36.   Yitzhak Arad should not return to Lithuania 15:52  |  Johnny Weintraub 07/09/07
  37.   #32 15:54  |  Reuben Jacobs 07/09/07
  38.   to no.31 15:57  |  sinalco 07/09/07
  39.   Re: This is appallingly written 16:00  |  Varda Epstein 07/09/07
  40.   Re: Europeans hate therefore they exist 16:03  |  Varda Epstein 07/09/07
  41.   TO SASHA 16:18  |  Nicole 07/09/07
  42.   WWII killings 16:23  |  Shana 07/09/07
  43.   Many Israeli Jews act in a similar fashion towards arabs 16:35  |  Pepe Le Pui 07/09/07
  44.   Seraph 16:41  |  Me 07/09/07
  45.   Personally I like Lithuania 16:42  |  Man 07/09/07
  46.   Lithuania should not be admitted in the EU 16:48  |  Dramblys 07/09/07
  47.   Natallie Durson is correct 16:59  |  Ian Robertson 07/09/07
  48.   Yes, Lithuanian jewish hands were also dirty! 17:10  |  Wiktor 07/09/07
  49.   Sorry, PADDY, but Jews were targeted for being foreign 17:44  |  Jake 07/09/07
  50.   #20 Reuben Jacobs 18:05  |  Murray of Montreal 07/09/07
  51.   How about Human rights? 18:08  |  Gene 07/09/07
  52.   Jewish commissars 18:16  |  igco 07/09/07
  53.   Yidn, nekoma 19:01  |  Gene 07/09/07
  54.   Sascha and defenders of Lithuania 19:02  |  Connie 07/09/07
  55.   Just a guess 19:07  |  Gene 07/09/07
  56.   PADDY #18 19:11  |  JOJO 07/09/07
  57.   Re "Absolute Sweden #23 19:19  |  Esther 07/09/07
  58.   HA HA HA 19:31  |  Danite 07/09/07
  59.   we are not talking partizans here 19:31  |  igco 07/09/07
  60.   The Hunter Becomes the Hunted 19:58  |  Mr. Knowitall 07/09/07
  61.   IF ONLY I POSSESSED THE ATOMIC BOMB 20:22  |  patrick hammel 07/09/07
  62.   to # 39 - of course, it is Jews` fault 20:26  |  Peace lover 07/09/07
  63.   # 28 Urmas is correct 20:29  |  Peace Lover 07/09/07
  64.   # 28 Urmas is correct 20:29  |  Peace Lover 07/09/07
  65.   It is obvious, anti-Semitism is not gone yet from the Baltic 20:53  |  Svetlana 07/09/07
  66.   igco, RE Jewish commissars 21:12  |  Jake 07/09/07
  67.   All Jewish Self-Defense is Punishable 21:12  |  Scharker Yid 07/09/07
  68.   to igco 22:35  |  mike 07/09/07
  69.   #26 To Jane. Against Jews and Israel, no more a single limit (1) 22:41  |  Rene Pailloucq 07/09/07
  70.   #26 To Jane. Against Jews and Israel, no more a single limit (2) 23:12  |  Rene Pailloucq 07/09/07
  71.   lithuanian nazis 23:22  |  gil teitler