August 22 holds horrific memories for civilized people. On that date in 1941, a Lithuanian named Jonas Noreika (a.k.a. Generolas Vetra), signed orders to send the Jews of the Lithuanian Siauliai region into ghettos.

Several hundred Jews were immediately murdered; the remaining Jews were then concentrated in ghettos, only to be murdered later. My relatives were among them.

Noreika was appointed as head of the Siauliai district by the legitimate and legally constituted pro-Nazi provisional government of Lithuania on August 3, 1941.

Present-day Lithuania has confirmed the legitimacy of that government.

That this government came to power as a result of collaboration between Nazis and pro-Nazi Lithuanian activists like diplomat Kazys Skirpa barely stirs controversy within Lithuania.

On the contrary, collaborators like Noreika, Skirpa and others are honored in Lithuania as freedom fighters with memorials, streets and schools named in their honor.

Facts attesting to their virulent anti-Semitism and obsessive participation in crimes against fellow citizens are deliberately whitewashed or obscured.
Will Lithuania continue to honor Nazi collaborators? - Opinion - Jerusalem Post