But when I dug deeper, I learned that becoming district chief brought him the best house in the region, about 1,000 reichsmarks each month and a job for my grandmother. In the version of history that is now celebrated by Lithuanians, my grandfather and others like him were forced to sign those documents by the Germans.
Under his watch, roughly 8,000 Jews were killed.
In August, the Germans welcomed him as the new district chief of the Siauliai region, and the same month he signed orders to send thousands of Jews to their eventual deaths. In July, he ordered the murder of all of the 2,000 Jews in Plunge, the town from which he led the uprising. In June 1941, he led an uprising against the Soviets, even as he was collaborating with the Nazis. In 1933, as a young soldier in the Lithuanian Army, he wrote “ Raise Your Head Lithuanian,” Lithuania’s equivalent of “Mein Kampf,” which incited hate toward Jews as a solution to Lithuania’s problems. Lithuanian leaders still believe their country’s identity depends on holding onto its heroes, even at the cost of the truth. I was called an agent of President Vladimir Putin of Russia. When I publicly questioned the official story of my grandfather’s life, I was vilified by the Lithuanian community in Chicago and in Lithuania.
#Gramps grandpa free#
I would like to think that if Lithuania had been a free and independent nation after World War II, it might have acknowledged its own role in the Holocaust.Ĭorrecting historical memory turned out to be dangerous. References to Jewish victims were scrubbed away by the occupiers. During this time, there was a deep freeze on the truth: Lithuanians were only allowed to talk about how many Soviet citizens were killed during World War II.
In this way, perhaps, Lithuania is like many other countries that spent 50 years under Soviet occupation.
#Gramps grandpa full#
I concluded that my grandfather was a man of paradoxes, just as Lithuania - a country caught between the Nazi and Communist occupations during World War II, then trapped behind the Iron Curtain for the next 50 years - is full of contradictions. Those questions began a journey that led me to understand the power of the politics of memory and the importance of getting the recounting right, even at great personal cost. How could I reconcile two realities? Was Jonas Noreika a monster who slaughtered thousands of Jews or a hero who fought to save his country from the Communists? Suddenly, I no longer had any idea who my grandfather was, what Lithuania was, and how my own story fit in.
0 kommentar(er)
