Wiesenthal Center Criticizes Failure of Lithuanian Authorities to Prevent Neo-Nazi Anti-Semitic Demonstration in Vilnius and Demands Harsh Punishments for Participants

Wiesenthal Center Criticizes Failure of Lithuanian Authorities to Prevent Neo-Nazi Anti-Semitic Demonstration in Vilnius and Demands Harsh Punishments forParticipants

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the manner in which the Lithuanian authoritieshandled a demonstration held last Tuesday in the capital of Vilnius in which hundreds of neo-Nazis marched chanting anti-Semitic slogans in the city center.

In a letter sent by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff to the Lithuanian ambassador toIsrael, the Center demanded that the demonstrators be punished as quickly as possible, noting that public opinion poll published today in Vilnius indicated widespread publicsupport of the march, which clearly shows that Lithuanian society in acute need of a lesson about the dangers of Nazism.

According to Zuroff:

“The Wiesenthal Center would therefore request that you transmit to Vilnius not only the sense of shock andoutrage felt by Jews the world over, but our demand that those responsible for this outrage be prosecuted and punished in an expeditious manner. I would also add that the failureof the police to respond to the march raises serious questions about the willingness of the Lithuanian authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent such cases in thefuture.

“In fact, based on the public opinion poll which appeared in today’s’ Lietuvos Rytas in which 32% of therespondents expressed approval for the anti-Semitic and racist slogans chanted by the neo-Nazi demonstrators and another 22% approved of the march, it appears that there is muchwork to be done in educating the Lithuanian public about the dangers posed by Nazism. But perhaps that is not surprising in a country in which not a single one of the numerousunprosecuted Lithuanian Nazi war criminals has ever been punished for his crimes.”

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