Vilnius forum calls for return of Jewish legacy

VILNIUS - The international conference "The Vilnius Forum of Holocaust Looted Cultural Assets" was held in the Villon hotel near Vilnius on Oct.4 - 5. The conference urged all governments of the world to undertake every reasonable effort to see that cultural assets, like paintings, that were stolen during the Nazi occupation of Europe are returned to their original owners.

The Vilnius forum was held under the trusteeship of the Lithuanian government and the Council of Europe. Representatives of 37 countries participated in the forum.

"We must realize once and for all that the killing of Jews is also the killing of us, an insult to Jews is an insult to us, annihilation of Jewish culture is an attack on our culture," said Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius in his address to the forum.

He spoke about Lithuania's intention to compensate the losses to Jewish people. "Compensation of all losses to Lithuania's Jews would cost some 4 billion litas ($1 billion). This sum would make up two thirds of Lithuania's annual budget. Lithuania has not yet received compensation for the damages resulting from the Soviet and Nazi occupations, but Lithuania will try to compensate the losses of Jewish people," Kubilius said.

Lithuanian government experts say that direct damage to Lithuania from Soviet occupation is $20 billion while lost revenues, caused by Soviets, make up $800 billion. All Lithuanian parties, both right-wing and left wing, say that this issue should be negotiated with Russia, which officially proclaimed itself as inheritor of rights and responsibilities of the Soviet Union. Earlier, Kubilius said that Germany also should pay the Lithuanian state for mass killings and ruining of economy during Nazi occupation.

Emanuelis Zingeris, member of the Lithuanian Parliament and Jewish activist, agrees with Kubilius. "Lithuania was a victim of the German Reich itself," Zingeris said. He told The Baltic Times that he inspired Kubilius to organize the Vilnius forum. Zingeris said that he expects to see more Jewish cultural traces in Vilnius after the forum.

Lithuanian state returned several dozen buildings in Vilnius, Kaunas and other cities to Lithuania's Jewish community. On the eve of the forum, the Lithuanian Parliament decided that Torahs, stored in the Lithuanian National Library, should be returned to Jewish religious communities.

"Jewish culture is a part of a legacy of the European continent. The Vilnius forum is an important message to the world about the necessity of the recreation of Jewish culture in Europe," said Markas Zingeris, Jewish-Lithuanian writer and Emanuelis' brother.

Participants in the forum supported the idea of speeding up identification and the return of cultural property to the rightful owners, their descendants or Jewish communities. Problems with regard to access to archive data on plundered cultural property of the Holocaust victims were discussed at the forum.

Stuart Eizenstat, the U.S. deputy treasury secretary, arrived at the forum too. Eizenstat helped force the German government and German private firms to pay compensation to former Nazi slave labor. Some 10,000 Lithuanians expect to get this compensation next year.

Eizenstat positively evaluated lessons about the tragedy of the Holocaust in Lithuanian schools and the activity of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes which was created on the initiative of Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus. Eizenstat expressed hope that Lithuania will continue the investigation of cases of the Jewish genocide suspects.

A videotaped address by U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos was shown at the conference. Lantos, a Hungarian-born Jew, personally suffered from the horrors of the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps. Lantos was a loud supporter of Lithuanian independence in 1990 when other officials in Washington had a dubious position towards the reestablished state of Lithuania. Now Lantos is known as an active supporter of Lithuania's candidacy for membership in NATO.

In his videotaped address, Lantos expressed his gratitude to the initiators of restoration of the historical Vilnius Jewish quarter. A year ago the Lithuanian government decided to rebuild the Vilnius Jewish quarter, which was destroyed by Nazis and Soviets. "It should become a living museum of the Jewish community, which has made a considerable contribution to Jewish culture, history, traditions and which had also contributed to Lithuania's life," Lantos said.