I am passing along this information written by the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, as I stand in solidarity with their position. I will be thinking of their demonstration this coming Friday. Please join me in getting the word out. We invite you to join us in a demonstration across the street from the …
To my Holocaust guide in Lithuania: Simon Dovidavičius. May he rest in peace.
While attending courses to complete my Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction at Murray State University in Kentucky, my professors were so encouraging and excited about my thesis, then titled Storm in the Fatherland. By the time I defended my thesis in the winter of 2012, I had gone through everything in my mother’s …
Continue reading "To my Holocaust guide in Lithuania: Simon Dovidavičius. May he rest in peace."
Lithuania’s Provisional Government was similar to France’s Vichy Regime
A few people have commented that Lithuania’s Provisional Government just after the Nazi occupation in 1941 was similar to France’s Vichy Regime, especially regarding their sympathies for the Nazis and against Jews. The difference, of course, is that the Vichy government has been called out for what it was—a willing participant in the Holocaust, while …
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What are the stakes of acknowledging General Storm’s complicity?
This is a secret my parents’ homeland has kept for seventy-seven years, not just from my family and from the rest of the country, but also from itself. The government told itself so often that it was the victim, that it had nothing to do with the deaths of 200,000 innocent civilians buried in 200 …
Continue reading "What are the stakes of acknowledging General Storm’s complicity?"
Lighting A Candle
Sunday, November 10, 2019, 12:45 p.m. I’m sitting in St. Daniel’s Adoration Chapel, just after Mass. It’s warm inside, too warm. The chapel is spacious with a dazzling monstrance, a yard high, standing vigil on a white marble pedestal covered by a satin-fringed cap. Its base the size of a dinner plate, its cross points …
