Since its independence from the Soviet Union, an arduous and painful process in itself, Lithuania has gone to great lengths to take its place among the democracies of Europe. Securing both NATO and European Union membership are included in the tangible acts the nation has taken on the road to obtaining its place in the current world order.
There are, of course, responsibilities associated with these memberships.
Lithuania’s achievements notwithstanding, the nation grapples with the truth, particularly as it pertains to the Holocaust and its very substantial participation in it. The Holocaust, conceived and devised by Nazi Germany, saw the systematic and industrialized slaughter of roughly 6 million Jews.
Yet the Holocaust was perpetrated not only by the Nazis, but also at the hands of the countless anti-Semitic butchers from throughout German-occupied Europe — including, in significant measure, Lithuania.
After the war and the near-motionless years of the Soviet era, Lithuania sought to come to terms with its World War II-era history of complicity with the Nazis. The nation established the Genocide and Resistance Research Center (Genocide Center), a think tank and truth-and-reconciliation-type organization. The group was tasked with investigating and reporting on Holocaust issues in order to help the nation to take responsibility for and cope with its bloody past.
Unfortunately, in Lithuania, a 25-year road was embarked upon, replete with denial of its involvement and culpability vis a vis the Holocaust, including the minimization of murderous and tortuous acts, and the obligatory obfuscation. Recently, Genocide Center Director Terese Burauskaite admitted that her center is subject to political pressure to issue determinations of fact that are politically expedient, not factual.