VILNIUS - The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, has asked the Lithuanian government not to turn a blind eye to the public display of a Nazi flag in one of Kaunas' bars, demanding that the state prosecute and punish the admirers of all Nazi symbols.
In a statement issued on Sept. 19, the Center called on Lithuanian authorities "to respond in an unequivocal manner, which will make clear that such behavior cannot be tolerated."
"The time has come for the government to make it unequivocally clear that Nazi symbols and figures have no place in democratic Lithuania," Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said.
The statement came in response to a report in the Lithuanian daily L.T., which described the celebrations during pub Fortas' 10th anniversary. The report said that the downtown Kaunas bar's walls were decorated with a swastika-emblazoned flag, and that a waiter greeted customers dressed up like Adolf Hitler.
L.T. reported that this was not the first time Fortas has publicly displayed Nazi symbols. The bar has previously celebrated Hitler's birthday.
"Perhaps if Lithuanian authorities had exhibited the necessary zeal in prosecuting and punishing local Nazi war criminals, Nazi flags would not have been flown in Kaunas this week. But in a country where those who facilitated the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry are treated with undue sympathy and mercy, Nazi flags should come as no surprise," Zuroff added.
Kaunas saw the first massive slaughter of Jews in Lithuania when occupied by Nazi Germany in June 1941.
Some 95 percent of Lithuania's 220,000 strong pre-war Jewish community perished during the Holocaust.
