MIM Notes #225     January 1, 2001

Lithuanian soldiers mourn Nazi in uniform

Three Lithuanian soldiers wore their uniforms to the funeral of 
Aleksandras Lileikis at the end of September in 2000. The military 
punished them for explicitly disobeying orders.

The fact that to this day Lithuanian soldiers stand up for Nazism 
says a lot about what Stalin faced in his day regarding certain 
peoples of Eastern Europe. These soldiers knew that Lileikis was 
charged with handing over 75 Jews for death and they knew that 
even the United States Government which usually whitewashes 
fascism found it fitting to deprive him of his passport.

After World War II, the United States Government turned a blind 
eye as Nazis rushed into the pro-U.S. government in Germany and 
moved to the United $tates in some cases, sometimes to aid in the 
formation of the CIA. A number ended up as United States citizens 
and occasionally it comes to light in recent years, especially now 
that the Soviet Union is gone and the people are dying off from 
old age and having funerals that attract notice. Incorporating the 
Nazis into its anti-Soviet strategy did not stop the U.$. 
propaganda machine from equating Nazism and communism as supposed 
totalitarianism.

The Latvian "Defense Minister" attended a statue unveiling in 
neighboring Latvia to commemorate Latvians who served in the Nazi 
army shortly after the funeral incident in Lithuania. The former 
director of the Occupation Museum of Latvia Matthew Kott was, 
within the Latvian context, a critic of the statue, because he 
said that the Latvians serving in the Nazi army were not for 
Latvian independence. The speakers at the statue unveiling said 
the Nazi lapdogs were fighting for the liberty of their homeland.

Even Kott, however, adopted an idealist position with no reality 
behind it: "From the perspective of the independence and self-
determination of Latvia all men from Latvia who fought in World 
War II fought on the wrong side." Kott degrades those Latvians who 
fought on the Soviet side against fascism and attempts to take a 
middle position. He added that some Latvians commemorated by the 
statue "may" have participated in the "mass-executions of the 
country's Jewish and Roma population between 1941 and 1942."

MIM can only imagine what the situation was like when the Nazi 
propaganda machine was in full force and when the photos and 
complete facts of the Holocaust were not widely available yet. MIM 
continues to find full justification of Stalin's harsh policy in 
Eastern Europe concerning World War II.

Many politically naive people believe MIM defends all nationalism. 
Such is not true. MIM only supports that nationalism which has a 
progressive economic content. Since most peoples in the world are 
exploited and super-exploited by U.$. imperialism, most 
nationalism is the nationalism of oppressed nations and such 
nationalism has a progressive economic content. The nationalism of 
Baltic, Polish and other Lithuanian people who hated Jews, Roma 
and Russians had no progressive economic content in World War II 
and was the type of nationalism that results only in a vicious 
cycle of militarism and death. To such wretched nationalism, MIM 
counterposes the peace movement. The capitalists manage to profit 
during such wars, but the proletariat does the dying.

Note:

Baltic Times Nov9-15, pp. 3, 5.