Wiesenthal Center: Only in a Country Like Lithuania Which Has Never Acknowledged its Holocaust Crimes, Can a Candidate for Mayor Quote Hitler and Assume That it Will Not Hurt His Chances to be Elected

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center's director of Eastern European affairs, Holocaust historian, Dr. Efraim Zuroff today issueda statement harshly condemning Darius Treciakauskas, a candidate for the Mayor of Kaunas (Kovno), the second largest city in Lithuania, who quoted Adolf Hitler in a TV debate by several of thecandidates running for mayor.

Treciakauskas attributed wisdom to the Nazi dictator and expressed open disappointment that the local administration did not followHitler's advice.

According to Zuroff :

"Only in a country like Lithuania which has never acknowledged its Holocaust crimes, can a candidate for Mayor quote Hitler andassume that it will not hurt his chances to be elected."

For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center: Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel:972-50-721-4156, follow the Center on Facebook, or @simonwiesenthal and @EZuroff for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament(Parlatino).