Lithuanians Scrap Event for Quisling Leader
The Lithuanian University in Kaunas on Tuesday decided to cancel a commemorative conference planned for the “prime minister” of Lithuania’s 1941 Nazi puppet government.
In a controversial move, causing anguish among Holocaust survivors, Lithuania’s Jewish community and the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, the remains of Juozas Brazaitis Ambrazevicius, who died almost 40 years ago in the United States, will be reinterred from Connecticut to the Church of the Resurrection in Kaunas. En route, he will be honored in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, in a ceremony slated for Thursday.
A memorial conference in the Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas was originally scheduled for Saturday.
Following a Haaretz report, the university’s rector and his deputy had decided to call off the event, explaining they wish to “save the honor” of the institution. In a letter addressed to Lithuanian parliament, Rector Prof. Zigmas Lydeka and Vice Rector Prof. Aukse Balcytiene wrote that political and memorial events should take place in the parliament, and not on university grounds.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
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