Remembering the lesser crime.

The Soviet and Nazi regimes both committed atrocities during their occupations of Lithuania. During nearly 50 years of Soviet rule, 74,500 people died or disappeared, due to summary executions, whilst in prison or during deportations. The Nazis occupied Lithuania for three years and killed 240,000 people, 200,000 of whom were Jews.

Jonathan Steele examines why then Vilnius’ Museum of Genocide Victims is focussed only on the Soviet crimes and why this pattern is repeated in terms of public remembrance throughout Lithuania’s capital. Steele concludes that anger about recent Soviet occupations, “blocks discussion of Nazi mass murder and the fact that too many Lithuanians eagerly supported it”.

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