Current Discourses on the Holocaust in Lithuania

Two competing narratives of the Holocaust in Lithuania exist in the nation's collective memory. Lithuanians largely follow a narrative that presents themselves as the victim of World War II, particularly during the Stalinist occupation. This view is in strong contrast to the Jewish memory because about 95% of Lithuania's Jewry was wiped out during the Nazi occupation. Although it was the Germans who organized and implemented the Holocaust, the mass killings of some 200,000 Jews could not have taken place that quickly and thoroughly from 1941 to 1944 without the local collaboration in Lithuania. Instead of a self-critical discourse about the past, Lithuanians still prefer to downplay the role of their compatriots. The main challenge is that the Jewish genocide is not recognized as part of Lithuania's history. Although Jews were Lithuanian citizens, it seems that they were aliens and not natives to the country. A collective memory of the Holocaust in Lithuania which critically reflects the past will remain a forgotten discourse to Lithuanians, most likely also in the near future.