 Yom HaShoah Rally (cont...) (BACK
TO NEWSLETTER)  The
rally was covered by NBC News 4 at 6:00 and 11:00
PM editions. The story also appeared in the A.P.
and the J.T.A.
News of the rally also appeared
in The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.
The story also made its way to the front covers
of several
papers in Lithuania.
The Boston Globe reported: “Reached
at his home in Millbury, Zajanckauskas said he
rejects the allegations against him. "It's
not true," he said. "I have nothing else
to say. I got lawyers; talk to my lawyers."” Click below to read news stories:
Boston
Globe
Boston Herald
At the rally a Rambam Mesivta student read
the following eyewitness account from Joesph Gar,
a Holocaust survivor (excerpted from Lithuania
Crime and Punishment Volume 5 Page 47):
“The
following shocking event bears witness to the barbaric
massacres at the 7th Fort: While the arrested Jews
were kept there, a basketball match was being staged
between a German military team and a Lithuanian
selection. Since the latter were experienced players,
having won more than once the European championship
before WWII, they succeeded in beating the Germans.
Each member of the winning team was "rewarded" with
the privilege of killing ten Jews at the 7th Fort.
One Lithuanian officer was so carried away by his
lust for blood, that he alone killed hundreds.
Out of belated "remorse", he shot himself
after a few days.”
Zoli Honig, 15, a sophomore
at Rambam Mesivta, read the following eyewitness
account of a German photographer on June 24, 1941
(excerpted from Lithuania: Crime and Punishment
Volume 5 Page 51):
“The way to the road was
completely blocked by a wall of people. I was confronted
by the following scene in the left corner of the
yard there was a group of men aged between thirty
and fifty. There must have been forty to fifty
of them. They were herded together and kept under
guard by some civilians. The civilians were armed
with rifles and wore armbands, as can be seen in
the pictures I took. A young man - he must have
been a Lithuanian - ...with rolled-up sleeves was
armed with an iron crowbar. He dragged out one
man at a time from the group and struck him with
the crowbar with one or more blows on the back
of his head. Within three quarters of an hour he
had beaten to death the entire group of forty-five
to fifty people in this way. I took a series of
photographs of the victims...After the entire group
have been beaten to death,the young man put the
crowbar to one side, fetched
an accordion and went and stood on the mountain
of corpses and played the Lithuanian national anthem.
I recognized the tune and was informed by bystanders
that this was the national anthem. The behavior
of the civilians present (women and children) was
unbelievable. After each man had been killed they
began to clap and when the national anthem started
up they joined in singing and clapping. In the
front row there were women with small children
in their arms who stayed there right until the
end of the whole proceedings."
Rabbi Yotav
Eliach also spoke movingly about the dozens of
his family members that were killed by Lithuanians
during the Holocaust. The protesters
then directed their attention to the Lithuanian
Consulate and chanted, "Confront your bloody
past," “Do what’s right- extradite” and “Put
the twelve on trial.”
The
rally concluded with a memorial prayer for the
victims of WWII.
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