Trudy Gold
Lithuania, the World They Left Behind: 1915- 1945

Trudy Gold - Lithuania, the World They Left Behind: 1915 - 1945

- So let’s get on to the subject of tonight. Going back to Lithuania, and of course the reason we are studying it at this period is because, of course, 90% of South African Jewry are from Lithuania. And next week I’ve chosen the town of Siauliai. I’m giving it one pronunciation. You will see it on the map. S-I-A-U-L-I-A-I, Kaunas. Now, this is Lithuania within the former Russian Empire. And, of course, the major city at that period was Vilnius. And I’m just going to mention Vilnius, because what’s going to happen after the First World War is, for a while, Vilnius is going to become part of Poland. This area is going to go through huge catastrophe and change at the end of the First World War. At this particular period, and this is important, all this area is under the Russian czars. And I don’t have to tell you, because this is the reason so many of your people left, between 1881 and 1914, the situation was so dire under the czars that 40% of the Jews of Eastern Europe got out. And one of the reasons so many South Africans got out, and so many Jews got out to South Africa, is that in Vilnius, there was tickets that were supplied by the Union Castle Line. So you come out of Le Havre, first to Hull, then down to London, quite often to the Jewish shelter, and then on to the Cape. Now, having said that, I know that others of you got out in the First World War during that terrible period of anarchy, and others got out in the ‘30s. But I’ll be dealing with that more next session. Okay, so I just wanted to address a few words about Vilna, because Vilna, of course, had for a long time been the Jerusalem of the Jews. The problem with Jewish history is geography.

That map shows you it was in the Russian Empire. There was a period from the 13th to the 18th century when this whole area of land was in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And it was at that period that Vilnius really came into its own. It became the centre of study. It was the centre of the Vilna Gaon. It was the centre of the great yeshivot. And out of Vilna came much Jewish learning. Now jump on. When the Polish kingdom is destroyed, what then happens is Poland, Lithuania, and the Ukraine, which was also part of the kingdom, are syphoned off, some going to the kingdom of Prussia, some going to the Habsburgs, but the largest number going under the czarist rule. And Vilnius, under czarist rule, is still a huge Jewish centre. When you are dealing with these towns, particularly in this kind of area, the majority of the city dwellers were Jews. Now, why do I say that? Because the peasantry, Lithuania was particularly a peasant society with an aristocracy and not a very vibrant middle class. And that’s where Jews fill the place in the economy. And by the time you get to the 19th century, Vilnius is a hotbed of all kinds of ideas. Under the appalling oppression of the czars, and also the fact that even though the czarist oppression, the Russian authorities are trying to industrialise in a hurry. In 1863, the czars freed the serfs. 57 million people were liberated. So that’s how backward Russia was. By 1900, Russia becomes the fifth industrial power in the world, and it happens without social reform. So I want you to imagine the horror in the cities.

And Vilnius becomes a very important city of manufacture. And it’s in this atmosphere that all sorts of activities are going to affect the Jews. To start with, particularly after 1881 and the pogroms, what on earth is Jewish destiny? Now, of course, the majority of Jews stay completely true to their religion. The Haskalah in that part of the world was not a Haskalah of assimilation at all. It was a Haskalah of saying, “We want to be part, not of the the outside world. "We want to reform within the Jewish world.” And there was a great renaissance of Hebrew culture, Hebrew poetry, literature, and also a study of the outside world without being part of it. That was the Haskalah in places like Vilnius. But, there was also a sizable Jewish working class. And that Jewish working class was often oppressed by Jewish bosses. And it led, in 1897, in the back of a blacksmith shop in Vilna, to the establishment of the Bund. Now, the Bund was a Jewish socialist organisation. And what they wanted was better working conditions. They wanted, in the end, they’re going to be with the revolution. They want Jewish autonomy after a revolution. Their language was Yiddish. They revelled in the Yiddish language. There were Yiddish schools. There was Yiddish theatre. This becomes the heartland in Vilnius. And, of course, the Bund, as a politically active group, was incredibly numerous, far bigger than the other response, which, of course, was Zionism. And in Vilna there were lots and lots of different Zionist groups. And, you know, we are such a strange people. When do all the groups come together?

We’ve seen such fractiousness, have we not? In Israel recently. And now in this terrible period of horror, all of a sudden there seems to be, for a short period, at least a certain kind of united front. But anyway, in Vilna, you had every group. You had Betar. Everything from the right to the left. And there was terrible friction between the Jewish socialists and also the Bund, because they’re all after the same souls, aren’t they? What is the future destiny of the Jews? We’re living in unbelievably ghastly times. We’re oppressed. We are poor. Jewish life is being squeezed. What do we do? Can we work for revolution and our own autonomy within the Russian Empire once we’ve got rid of the evil regime? And later on, of course, the Bund wanted to, they did work with the revolution. There were also communists in Vilna. Jewish communists who had a different view. Their view, they were the ones who’d moved away from their Jewishness. Think of the first line of the Communist manifesto, workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. These are Jews who want to break down every barrier and create this great international world of socialism and justice. And this is really the province of the young. You can imagine what Vilnius was like. It was a huge centre of all sorts of ideas against the backdrop of czarist oppression. And funnily enough, where is the soul of the Jew? And there is an extraordinary letter from a Bundist to a group of young Jews who are going to Palestine saying, “Why are you deserting us?” Because at this stage, ironically, Zionism was still a minority movement. Having said that, it was very strong in Vilnius.

Now, the reason I have brought this all into the equation now is that after, I wanted to just mention Vilnius to you, and we can go back to it later on, because after the partitions, after the defeat of the czarist empire, eventually Vilnius is going to be part of Poland. And the capital of the new Lithuanian Republic is going to be Kaunas. So the Jews of Vilnius are now cut off from the rest. And don’t forget, Vilnius also was the home of YIVO, which thankfully has transferred to New York, that incredible library. You’ve got to take on all the scholarship, the religious scholarship, the Hebrew scholarship, the poetry, the literature. And as I said to you, it was the home of Yiddish theatre. Later on, of course, Yiddish Cinema, the Old World. And never forget, the Bundists were much more numerous than were the Zionists. Now, can we go on please?

• [Karina] Yes, there’s also a lot of that table noise.

• Sorry, I’m banging the table. You know what happens, I get… You know what happens. Anyway, I beg your pardon. Now let’s talk a little bit about Lithuania. And I’m going to leave that picture of Leon Trotsky, Lev Davidovich Bronstein, in front of you while I talk. Now, Lithuania Awake. Lithuania Awake, unfortunately I couldn’t find a symbol for it, but during the 19th century Lithuanian was spoken in the Russian protectorates in Kaunas and Vilnius. And don’t forget that these two towns are squeezed between Russian, German, Pols, and Latvians, mainly uneducated, impoverished peasants. They spoke Lithuanian. But in the cities there’s a core for national rebirth, because the other thing that the czarist authorities had to do in order to industrialise, in order to modernise, they had to educate. So you have Lithuanians going to universities. And the ideas of nationalism and language are imported from the West. Look, the 19th century is a huge century of nationalism, is it not? You can imagine the spirit of the universities. Imagine the railway building process. So people can now go from city to city. And these young people who are educated in the universities become aware that they themselves had a past and they themselves had a language. I mean, in the 1880s, the Ukrainian elites, Ukraine was just borderlands. That’s what it meant.

They began to standardise the Ukrainian language. They began to document its history and speak out. And then what happens is the same thing happens amongst the Lithuanian elite. They called themselves the Lithuania Awake Movement. And in a small group of intellectuals. And according to them, what stood in their way, what stood in the way of the economic and social emancipation of their small and threatened people. In 1884, the addition of the national liberal journal, called Dawn, it’s the leading Lithuanian nationalist paper. It was written by a physician called Jonas Sliupas, and he warned the Jews are the blood suckers. This is one of the issues. You know, the stereotype of the Jew that goes back 2000 years, and we are seeing it again. I don’t have to talk to you about the history of antisemitism. You all know where it comes from. You know where Jew hatred comes from. But the problem is when the social and economic and any kind of political discontent, it comes to the surface. So much so that even in the West, which is supporting Israel, there are still many people who can’t bring themselves to call Hamas terrorists. And that’s what we are dealing with. And to me that is antisemitism. And it’s the same kind of antisemitism looked at this Lithuanian elite, and they looked at Jews in their cities, because if you think about it, the Jews were the main workers. They were the factory owners. They are not the peasantry. They are the grain collectors. And they begin to say Jews are blood suckers. And I’m quoting, “They suck people dry "whilst they’re sleeping "and leave them behind completely drained.” And the author implores his compatriots to wake up and enter the productive trades. He said the only way out for his people from their, and obviously I’m translating it, “from their stultifying, uneducated, "rural poverty towards a better life.”

This is our national movement. And the problem with the Lithuanian national movement was, at its core, it was antisemitic. And they urged the people to overcome their laziness, overcome your insecurity, and to imitate the Jewish mercantile spirit. And once mobilised, the other article said, “The Jewish foreigners, who like lice, "ceaselessly bite at us and then drive them, "and we must drive them "from the market towns and the cities.” And the other thing was that conservative Catholic publications was just as eager to blame the Jews, because the Catholic church itself was fighting a backlash against the forces of liberalism, the forces of socialism and change. And you had a particularly reactionary pope on the papal throne for 45 years. So the Catholic, so it’s being fought by the nationalists, the same fight. Who are the enemy? It’s got to be the Jews. They’re not looking at the czarist authorities, they’re not looking at the social, economic, and political situation, which is the majority of Jews were impoverished. But that’s not the point. It’s about a perception. And this is from 1891, a Catholic editor demanding all priests in the churches explain to the peasants that, “We can live without this plague and popularise the idea. "He who loves God will deliver us from the Jews.” In 1904, Father “The Jews will soon quit Lithuania. "And if we Lithuanians, get more involved in trade, "found businesses, and only buy from our own kind.” So that’s the kind of backdrop that’s happening, not amongst the majority of people. The majority of Lithuanians are a peasantry, remember. But amongst the elite, the majority of them are blaming the Jews just as is the Catholics.

Lithuania is Catholic. Lithuania and Poland are Catholic. The further east you go, with Ukraine, half of it’s Catholic. The other half is Orthodox. Russia is Orthodox. And that’s also a great clash. Those of you who are interested in what’s going on at the moment in Eastern Europe, that gives you more of that really, you need to take that religious divide into it as well. And then, of course, everything explodes. The First World War. The absolute devastation of the First World War. When the whole of this world goes up in flames. Now the German army invade. Now it’s important to remember, when the German army invades. There you see the Germans occupying Lithuania. Within two years, the Lithuanians are given permission by the German occupation force to build a congress in Vilna to consider its future state. And that is in September. So the Germans invade, they occupy Lithuania. It’s a terrible, terrible time. And many hundreds of Jews got out at this period. In fact, I believe Francis Goshen’s grandmother actually got out this particular period. Now, according to the 1923 statistics in Lithuania, the Jewish population was 153,000. This is without Vilnius, remember? The largest national majority. It formed about a third of the total population of the larger towns, which of course means now Kaunas is going to become the capital and Siauliai, the second largest. 30%, so Jews make up a third of the population of the larger towns, 30% of the small town population, and only 0.5% of the villages. In Kaunas, Kovno, there were 25,000 Jews, which is 27% of the population. And of course the Jewish minority, what did they speak? They spoke Yiddish amongst themselves. A few of the professional intelligentsia spoke Russian, and most Jews actually could speak Lithuanian, but it never became their spoken language. They spoke Lithuanian because they were the traders.

So, it’s towards the end of World War I that this small little Lithuanian nation was created. Now, 75% of trade was in Yiddish-speaking Jewish hands. Important to remember that. In fact, there wasn’t, when Lithuania was actually created, there wasn’t that much antisemitism at this stage. But what happens is this. Don’t forget, whilst Lithuania is trying to establish its independence, the Germans… Can you go onto the next slide, please? Here you see the Vilna Conference, and this is under the Germans, but the point is the Germans are defeated. They sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Soviets, with Trotsky. Don’t forget, it’s Lev Davidovich Bronstein, Trotsky. The communist revolution has occurred in Russia. Trotsky has created the Red Army, and he is fighting on lots of different fronts. He’s fighting in Ukraine against the blacks, who are the anarchists. He’s fighting against Petliura in the Ukraine. He’s fighting against the whites in Russia. That’s the armies of czarist officers, aristocrats, and anyone who loathed communism. And also he’s fighting the Pols. And in this whole situation, what is going to happen to the Ukraine? What is going to happen to Lithuanians who now see themselves as wanting to be a sovereign nation with a large Jewish minority? It’s at this stage, of course, that when the Germans are defeated, everyone goes to Versailles to look at what can happen. And on August the fifth, 1919, the Lithuanian sent a peace delegation to the conference. And what happens is the Treaty of Versailles and the conferences that follow ratify Lithuanian independence. Remember, they have lost Vilnius. Vilnius is now part of Poland. There’s war between Poland and Lithuania. The whole area went up in flames.

Hundreds of thousands of people died in this terrible time. And another thing you have to take into account, this is the cheapening of life. When this kind of thing happens, life is cheapened. But there are a lot of people at the conference, think of President Wilson and his various pointers, and they want to safeguard national minorities. And it is in fact… Can we go on, please? I need you now to see Eastern Europe in 1923. There you see little Lithuania. This is how it was all divided up. Poland. You see the, the German corridor, Czechoslovakia. Now, Czechoslovakia had been part of the Habsburg empire, so had Hungary. These are the creation of new states. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Soviet Union. Trotsky held most of it, but he, of course, had lost that rump. And it’s that rump that is a big question mark on it because is that what Putin wants? Does he see the Baltics as part of the Russian Empire? Because they were once part of the czarist empire. And of course you can see the Ukraine, which is under Russian control, but the Russians create the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. So they, in a way, they themselves liked Ukrainian nationalism. And over 100,000 Jews were murdered in that part of the world. So you’re looking at a terrible, terrible time. However, at the conference, the Jewish rights are going to be ratified, because President Wilson, along with many of the other delegates, because Europe is now being redrawn, Eastern Europe is being completely changed. What are we going to do about minority groups from country to country to country? And Jewish rights have to be looked after. Can we jump two slides to Shimshon Rosenbaum, please? Thank you, Shimshon Rosenbaum, he was a lawyer. He was a politician. He campaigned for Jewish rights in independent Lithuania.

And he becomes the, he was at the first conference in Kaunas, and he was a delegate to Versailles, and he was elected head of Jewish affairs. Because at this stage Lithuania’s going to become a state, so we can include the Jews. There were some liberal Lithuanians at this stage. So this man, who’s a lawyer, he’s a politician. He had always fought for Jewish rights, and he actually becomes the Deputy Foreign Minister in the newly created Lithuanian state. He was a moderate Zionist. He maintained contacts with Jews worldwide. He finally, though, what happened to him, he was absolutely horrified by the growing antisemitism in Lithuania, and finally immigrated to Palestine in 1924, where, ironically he became the general counsel for Lithuania in Tel Aviv. He was given honour in Lithuania, the Order of Prince Gedimin, and you will remember, he is the great prince of Lithuania, was conferred on him by the Lithuanian government. By the way, he had previously served in the Russian Duma, and he’d been arrested by the czars. And he was a man of huge courage. He very much wanted to see his people safe in the diaspora. But in the end, he took the decision to go to Palestine. But the point about him, during the early years of Lithuanian independence, when there was hope, he was occupied with giving assistance to war refugees who had returned from Russia. And he also obtained help from the marvellous American joint.

So, just as today, we’re all helping each other again, Rosenbaum was the kind of character in Lithuania, because in that period of political anarchy, can you just imagine all these competing forces had refugees fleeing from country to country? And he very much helped them. And he did believe, and between, I think we can say between 1919 and 1922, he called it the Ggolden Age of Lithuanian Jewry. And he really believed when Lithuania was finally admitted to the League of Nations in 1922, he said, “Lithuania will fulfil all her obligations "to her national minorities.” This idea, as I said, was completely eroded. And by 1924, the Lithuanian Parliament said they had no money for Jewish affairs, and that was the end for him. And of course he went to Palestine. Can you flip back a slide? I want just to talk a little about those who took over the Lithuanian state, so that we can see what is going to happen. This is Augustinas Voldemaras, 1883 to 1942. Clever, born into a modest family. But remember this is part of the, he’s born under the czars, and it’s, remember the Russians, they’re trying to keep down all the national minorities, but at the same time, they have to educate people so that they can compete with the West. It was the Crimean War of 1861 to 18, when did it finish? Sorry, 1856, it finished. That made Russia realise that they had to modernise. How had the biggest army in the world been defeated by Britain and France? Because Russia was so backward. So they have to educate. And Voldemaras was one of those Lithuanians who was educated. Because he was clever he was sent to St. Petersburg, and he was studying there when he met a man called Antoninus Smetana, who I’m going to talk about in a minute. He becomes his political collaborator. Unfortunately later, his nemesis. Though, these two young men were going to dominate Lithuanian politics, they meet in St. Petersburg.

He was brilliant. He won a gold medal for his dissertation, and he studied abroad. He studied in Italy. He studied in Sweden. He took his PhD. And he then returned to Lithuania. And he enters politics as a student. He was desperate for Lithuanian autonomy in the empire, and he joined the Party of National Progress in 1916. And in 1918, you see, the Lithuanians didn’t have many people to send to Versailles, and he becomes one of the Lithuanian… He was one of the Lithuanian representatives, but before that, he was a Lithuanian representative of Brest-Litovsk, when the Russians did a peace deal with the Germans. And in fact, at Brest-Litovsk, Lithuania was claimed by the Germans, but of course it came to nothing, because Germany finally lost the war. He returns to Lithuania, and he’s invited to join the council, and he was very worried about the lack of unity amongst the Lithuanians after the German defeat. He’s very much involved with the army. And he is in finally elected the first prime minister on the 11th of November, 1918. He also is Foreign Minister and Minister of Defence. Because of the infighting, he takes the government to Grodno. He’s dismissed as prime minister. There’s going to be terrible infighting between him and Smetana. And when he is dismissed, he goes into academia, he becomes very critical of the new government. And in 1926, he is going to be behind a coup, and a segment of the army is going to appeal to him.

He was a brilliant orator. He was very charismatic. And later on is going to become the head of an organisation called the Iron Wolf. Between 1926 and 1927, the Iron Wolf is a group made up mainly of right wing army officers, students. And it was very much inspired by the Italian Blackshirts. If Lithuania is in recession, all the dreams… It’s a tiny little country. It’s fighting for its national survival, and 4,000 members join. Don’t forget what is happening in Europe. The growth of fascism in Italy inspired many of these countries. Remember, he’d studied in Italy to take on board fascism. They had no trust with liberal democracy. They saw that as weakening. And he is going to be involved in this terrible fight with Smetana. And later on, of course, many members of his group are actually going to cooperate with the Nazis. And what happened to him is there’s another coup in 1934, it’s unsuccessful, but he had to flee to France. He attempted to return in '39. He was exiled again. And in 1940, when the Soviet Union invaded, he was, in fact, he made another attempt to return, and he finished up and died in a Soviet prison. So a tragic story of a brilliant man who had no belief in democracy, and in the end is swayed by the right wing. Now let’s talk about Antoninus Smetana, who is another controversial figure. Can we see him, please? That’s YIVO. I just wanted to show you that picture, but of course that was in Vilnius. Yeah, let’s go on. Yeah, he served as the first president of Lithuania. He was very much an ideologist of Lithuania nationalism. He was born in Kovno into a farming family. In fact, they lived on the estate of the Radziwills, which gives you a notion of the huge estates of Lithuania. His father was literate and taught him to read at home.

He managed to have a gymnasium education. He supported himself by giving private lessons. And, in fact, three other classmates in the gymnasium were all signatories to the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence. His family wanted him to enter the priesthood. He came from a very, very pious Catholic family. He didn’t want to, but he became more and more interested in Lithuanian national revival. What happened at his gymnasium? The Lithuanian students were forced to recite their prayers in Russian, while the Latvian and German students could actually recite them in their own language. And that really, really got to his soul. He refused, and he was expelled. He then manages to get into the faculty of law in St. Petersburg. And it’s, of course, in St. Petersburg where he meets the other important figure in Lithuanian nationalism, Voldemaras. So he’s very much part of the fights for independence, and he was responsible for producing a Lithuanian grammar book and then worked on a comprehensive dictionary of Lithuanian. Because, you see, these are people who are having to research and assert their own independence, their own language. They have to carve, if you like, states for themselves. Because Lithuania, if you think about Lithuanian history, it was the Pagan tribes. And it was, in fact, where it was back in the 13th century when the pagan Duke of Lithuania married the 12-year-old queen of Poland and converted to Christianity.

But it’s a history that’s based on pagan dreams and ideals, and then part of Poland. And what happened to the Lithuanian aristocracy under Poland? They colonised. And now you have intellectuals. What is Lithuanian? What is the language? What is our identity? And who are we? And he is very much involved in that. Now, he’s actually imprisoned under by the Soviets. He’s let out of prison. He goes to work in the Vilnius Land Bank. He does everything… And this is a bank for peasantry. He does everything to help. And of course, after Lithuania becomes independent, he becomes the first president. And then later on, he is one of the leaders of the coup d'etat. In 1926, there’s a coup d'etat, when all liberalism in Lithuania is finished. And by 1929, he had taken total dictatorial powers to himself and ruled by decree. And that is going to be the case until, of course, Lithuania is invaded by the Soviets. I should mention to you that at one stage, at the beginning, and they thought of offering the throne to one of the German royals, a man called Prince Wilhelm of Urach, he was offered the throne as King Mindaugas III. And in fact, he never, ever, he never actually came, because he never actually got to Lithuania. But the point was, all these thrones were up for grabs. And, in fact, he’d been one of the princes considered to be king of Albania. All these new countries are being formed. They want to be like England. Let’s have a monarchy. So it was very, very, very strange. And consequently, we have a situation where you had these two very, very authoritarian figures. They become more and more authoritarian. And remember, Jews are living in this climate.

And can we go on, please? By August 1939, all hope is lost, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviet Union sign a deal with the Nazis. Now of course, we know now it was totally something that Hitler did to buy himself time, but it’s going to completely change the face of Lithuania, because what happens is that the Soviets are going to roll into Lithuania. But before that I need to… Can we just have a look at the picture of, there you see the Red Army enters Lithuania. They take it over and later on they annex Lithuania. And I now need to show you the symbol of LAF. This is the Lithuanian Fascist Front. Now what happens is the Soviets enter, and of course all Lithuanian nationalism is suppressed. What is going to happen to these kind of organisations? And under the Soviets, ironically, the Jews suffered badly, particularly those who had businesses. But the Lithuanians, because so many of those people who’d taken power in Russia, the belief was that the Soviet, it was in fact the evil Jews who were coming into Lithuania and taking over. Nothing could have been further from the truth. And now you have the Soviets. Ironically, the Soviets, they break down capitalism in Lithuania. So a lot of Jews, not only did they suffer economically, but thousands of them were sent back into the Soviet Union. Ironically, many of them survived. Because to be in… So many of them went in Soviet prisoner camps, but they didn’t die. Whereas of course, you know what happened to those who stayed for the Nazi invasion. Let’s talk about the next character. Kazys Skirpa.

He was born in Kovno. He’d been mobilised into the czar’s army. And after Lithuania became independent, he became part of the Lithuanian army. He was the Commandant of Vilnius, and it was him who raised the Lithuanian flag on Gediminas’ Tower in Vilnius. And of course, they lost Vilnius. And that made him very, very angry. And because it is, the Gediminas’ Tower is the symbol of the historic capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And today, the 1st of January, when he did that, 1919, it’s now commemorated today as Lithuanian National Day. So what’s going on in Lithuania today is also very, very complicated. So in 1920, he’s a member of the Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union. He’s elected to the constituent assembly of Lithuania. As I said, he’s in the military. He studied in Zurich, Belgium, and Kaunas. And he graduated in 1925, and aged 30, he becomes Chief of the General Staff. He was forced to resign after the coup d'etat in 1926, when Smetana replaced the democratically-elected government. So, he reconciled, and he served as the Lithuanian representative in Germany between 1927 and 1930, to the League of Nations in 1937, Poland in ‘38, and again Germany, 1938 to 1941. This is important. After the Soviet occupation, he fled to Germany, and he forms LAF. It’s a short-lived group to liberate and work with the Nazis. And what happens, of course, is the Soviets are taken by surprise. And the Nazis invade in June 1941. Let’s see the Nazi invasion. There you see the Nazi invasion of Lithuania. And many members of LAF cooperate with the Nazis. He is named Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Lithuania. But what happens is he wants Lithuania independence. The Germans don’t want to give it to him. And, in fact, just to tell you what happened to him, because he’s still a national hero, he was moved to Southern Germany from Berlin because he’d asked for Lithuania independence. He was under house arrest. But in June '44 he was arrested for sending a memorandum to Nazi officials asking to replace Germans in Lithuania with Lithuanians.

He’s put into prison. And after the war, he flees to Paris and then to Ireland. And in 1949, he finished up in America, working at the Library of Congress. He’s incredibly controversial, because he laid down two milestones during the struggle against Soviet occupation, independence and Lithuania without Jews. And here we come to the nub of the problem. The 24th of April, 1941, he wrote his aims in Berlin. Instructions for liberating Lithuania. Instructions to expel the Jews. “It is very important to use this opportunity "to get rid of the Jews. "The more of them removed at this opportunity, "the easier it will be to finally be rid of the Jews.” He did understand, though, that most Jews were not communists. But on the 15th of July, before Lithuanian was actually annexed by the Soviets, and of course a year before the Nazi invasion, he said, “The Lithuanian people must be cleansed of a foreign race "that the last century has selfishly blood sucked "the Lithuanian people and the fruits of labour "of these blistered hands, "which both now and in the past have betrayed Lithuania. "What these leeches of Christian nations "have in the past denuded the people.” Let me repeat this. “What these leeches of Christian nations have in the past "denuded the people, "and must be returned in a statutory way to the nation, "especially to the poorer echelons.”

So again, the Christian and the National, national Christianity. And he is the main force behind LAF. And of course it is LAF, the men from the Lithuanian front, who are going to be involved in some of the worst pogroms that face the Jews of Lithuania, so much so that the Nazis actually try and hold them back. Of course, the Einsatzgruppen and in the end are going to be behind the shooting processes. But they actually tell, there’s letters, there’s memorandum back to Berlin from the leader of the Einsatzgruppen in the area saying the Lithuanians are being overzealous. I’m going to stop it there. And when I talk about Siauliai, I will continue. What a history we have. But having said that to you, and of course, it’s a very, very dark period in our history, I still want us to think about that line of Simon Dubnow’s, that we are the eternal people, and we will go on, despite everything that people throw at us. And we do have friends. We have more friends than we realise. So let’s have a look at the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

This is from Aline. “My granddaughter, age 19, "at the university in Ontario asked me if "she should take her mezuzah down. "Very bad at universities.”

And Shelly thanks us for Miri Eisin. Yes, she was wonderful, wasn’t she? Don’t forget, you can all get hold of… Carol, “We in Israel are living "in a state of indescribable sadness.” Carol, we in the diaspora, we’re not sharing the horror with you, but we’re sharing… But please take our love and support. I don’t know what it’s worth, but we’re all with you. Believe me. Whatever our political or religious views, we are with you all.

Adam Gopnik is the author of the other quote.

Carol, and she’s saying, “Carol, I hope you’re feeling the love and support.”

And Rita is echoing that. “Please, it’s Ukraine, not the Ukraine.”

Sorry, Katarina, I will remember. It’s Ukraine. This is from Barry. “My mother came to to Cape Town in 1929.

"My mother was born in Slonim, "which I understand was in Poland. "Can you tell me anything about Slonim?”

Thank you, Barry. There was a wonderful yeshiva there, Barry. I’ve been there. Yes, it was a yeshiva town. I’ll mention it then when I’m, I talk about Siauliai.

Oh, Michael. “Writing from Israel with one daughter in the southwest, "with four sons, eldest, 12, "husband called up. "Missiles every now and then. "We had a missile in this morning. "Thank people in the diaspora for their moral support. "However, what Israel needs more than anything else "is a huge amount of money. "This war has wiped out at least five years "of economic effort. "Please donate until it hurts. "Your lives are worth nothing without Israel.”

Michael, that comes from the heart. I know it does. And believe me, everyone I know is doing their best. Really doing their best. I know young people, people under 30, who are collecting an absolute fortune. They’re making people give until it hurts. And we should.

Q: Okay, “Can you give some population statistics for Jews.”

A: What I’ll do, Shelly, I’ll put out a chart. I think that would be easy.

And Rita’s telling us what I love. “Shelly, roughly 63% in 1897 to 76 in 1,901, "46% to 85,000 in 1903. "And to perhaps as many as 100,000 in 1905.” But important to remember that a lot of Jews are going to flee from the Polish occupied, when the Germans occupied Poland, a lot of Jews are going to flee into Lithuania under the Soviets. It is a period of absolute horror. “You have not mentioned the mass expulsion by Russia "of Lithuanian Jews from the Polish provinces. "Almost 200,000 were driven into Russia.”

Yes, I’m sorry Miriam, I should have mentioned it. It’s very, very, very important. I’m a little bit at the moment, I apologise. In the winter of 1914, 1915, the czarist authorities in their wisdom believed that they couldn’t trust the Jews in the wake of the advancing Germans. They were frightened that the Jews would hand all the supplies over to the Germans. So, the men were conscripted into the army. And in fact, more than 250,000, I think it’s nearer 400,000 in all, were driven into the Russian interior. And nearly 100,000 women and old people and children died of hunger and starvation and cold in that winter of 1914, 1915. It is one of the darkest times in our history, as though I could say that today. I dunno.

Oh, this is from Debbie. “My grandmother left Kupiskis in 1915 "and went to in Belarus.” “Firstly, I want to assert my moral "and financial support for the people of Israel. "More than ever, they need the people in the galut "to stand with them as we in the diaspora "are nothing without their safety. "I am the granddaughter of a Lithuanian "who immigrated to Mexico. "My great grandfather, Pesa Broit, was an academic tutor in math in Kovno and Vilnius. "Thank you for shining a light on my ancestors’ history.”

Oh, Rose, wish you all so well.

Q: “Is Smetana related?”

A: I don’t know.

Rita, thank you.

Lorna, “An ancestor of mine is said to have fled "because Lithuanian Jews had to serve "20 years in the military.” Lorna, the story is that Jews were, it’s in the time of Nicholas I, so you’re going back a lot of years. Peasants were drafted into the Russian Army for 25 years, but Jews had to serve for 31 years. The first six years were called the Cantonists. They were forced to eat tray food. It’s a terrible, terrible story. And when the boys were taken into the army, the family sat shiva for them.

I think that’s everything, Karina. So I will continue next week. I just, I just wish you all the very best. Let’s all keep in touch with each other. And may I assure you that Wendy and the Kirsch organisation and her team are on the ground, and they are doing so, so much. And everyone I know… Please, those of you in Israel, we are with you. We’re not just with you emotionally. We’re with you in spirit and we’re going to be with you in financially helping you. If that’s all we can do, let us all do that. And I do know that the Kirsch Foundation has a list of organisations that are in need of help. Carly has sent a list, and I know that if you get in touch, you could be sent lists that specially need support.

• [Karina] That’s exactly right. If they send an email to info@, I will send the list to them.

• Thank you very much. Because these are all organisations that the Kirsch Foundation not only is supporting, but we’ve said that these are the people who desperately need help. And the other thing that I’m finding in London, Karina, is that my grandson goes to a Jewish school. And of course there are a lot of Israeli families there. And we’re getting heartbreaking calls from grandmothers, mothers, sisters saying, “Our boy’s going to the front, "particularly up to the north, without enough equipment.” And there’s an emergency drive for equipment. In fact, there’s one young man, I think he’s gone today back to Israel. His commander gave him the permission just to go and order stuff on Amazon. And I think that’s all been, I think that’s been sorted. But there are other people in similar situations. But I think, Karina, if the list goes from you, it would be incredibly helpful.

• [Karina] Absolutely, we’re ready.

• And info@lockdownuniversity.org. Everything helps. God bless.