History is not preserved by monuments or institutions. It is preserved by accuracy, accountability, and the willingness to confront what is difficult. Nowhere is that obligation more binding than in nations whose soil carries the memory of mass murder. When a state chooses to defend dishonest institutional narratives instead of historical truth, the cost becomes permanent: the leadership that made those choices becomes inseparable from the legacy of distortion.
Lithuania refuses to confront that legacy.
The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (LGGRTC) is a state institution charged with researching and memorializing the crimes of totalitarian regimes. Over the past decades, its conduct has drawn sustained criticism for minimizing Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust while promoting dishonest national narratives.
International Jewish organizations and independent observers have warned that the Centre’s activities approach Holocaust distortion and contradict established historical scholarship. https://www.timesofisrael.com/lithuanias-genocide-studies-center-accused-of-holocaust-denial/
This approach is rooted in what is known as the Genocide Equalization Doctrine — the official framing of Nazi and Soviet crimes as equivalent, which serves to relativize Lithuanian collaboration in the Holocaust and shift focus to Soviet-era suffering. For a detailed examination of how this doctrine dilutes historical accountability and enables contemporary propaganda narratives, see: https://grantgochin.substack.com/p/the-dilution-of-death-how-genocide
Teresė Birutė Burauskaitė and My Record of Legal Challenge
Under the directorship of Teresė Birutė Burauskaitė, the LGGRTC issued findings on Jonas Noreika that I formally challenged through a sustained legal campaign.
I have pursued accountability from Lithuanian authorities for nearly two decades. After exhaustive efforts through fact, research, and irrefutable proof absolutely failed to move those responsible for reporting the official version of history, I sought a legal pathway, initiating formal legal actions with attorneys in 2015. This campaign was conducted by me, Grant Gochin, without institutional sponsorship, organizational backing, or external funding. The research, expert consultation, archival analysis, filings, appeals, and litigation were executed and financed personally after academic institutions, advocacy organizations, and oversight bodies declined to act on the evidence presented.
Three Formal Complaints Directly Implicating Teresė Birutė Burauskaitė
As Director of the LGGRTC, Burauskaitė was the subject of three formal actions I filed:
1. Ethics Complaint (30 July 2018) – Alleging abuse of office and professional misconduct for issuing and defending the exculpatory Noreika memorandum in contradiction to documentary evidence and scholarship. https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ethics-case-burauskaite.pdf – August 2018 submission refusal: https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/prosecutors_refusal.pdf
2. Criminal Complaint (August–September 2018) – Request to initiate investigation under Criminal Code Art. 170² for Holocaust denial/distortion by LGGRTC leadership. Refused by prosecutor.
Submission (Sept 26): https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/request-to-start-criminal-action-Holocaust-denial-BK-170-2-GG-2018-09-26_gv.pdf
Refusal: https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Prosecutor_refusal2.pdf
3. Renewed Criminal Demand (November 2019) – Further request for prosecution based on continued circulation of the contested findings.
https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/en-letter-to-supreme-court.pdf This case was also declined – I do not find the refusal within my records.
These actions targeted Burauskaitė’s personal and institutional responsibility for the LGGRTC’s distorted historical record.
Court Refusals and Institutional Closure
– Vilnius County Administrative Court dismissal (March 27, 2019): https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Vilnius_County_administartive_court_2019-03-27sprendimas-bylojeeI-534-281-2019_gv.pdf
– Supreme Administrative Court dismissal (April 1, 2020): https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/2020-04-01-EN.docx
– Vilnius Regional Court dismissal (June 8, 2020): https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/2020-06-08nutartis-bylojee2-21120-936-2020.docx
The Noreika Case and the Consequences for Historical Credibility
The LGGRTC’s memorandum declaring Jonas Noreika innocent of Holocaust involvement was rejected by historians, Jewish organizations, descendants of victims, and Lithuania’s own Presidential Commission.
Independent documentation of Noreika’s role:
https://grokipedia.com/page/Jonas_Noreika
While several honors have been removed after sustained advocacy — including Vilnius and National Library plaques, and in December 2024 the Lithuanian De-Sovietization Commission’s recommendation to remove the Šiauliai plaque — many official honors remain in place: schools, street names, public memorials, and institutional recognition across the country. As of January 2026, no further de-honoring actions have been reported beyond 2024 recommendations. National honors have not been revoked — despite repeated requests to Presidents Grybauskaitė (January 27, 2017: https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/letter-to-lithuanian-president-grybauskaite-1-27-17.pdf and Nausėda (November 2, 2021): https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/President-Nauseda-Nov-2-2021.pdf The LGGRTC’s exculpatory memorandum itself remains unchanged.
This is clear evidence that having murdered Lithuanian citizens who happened to be Jewish is no impediment to Lithuanian national honors.
The record now raises a more fundamental issue. Over many years, through repeated refusals to revise contested findings, sustained disregard of scholarly rebuttals, and continued reliance on narratives rejected by historians and international bodies, the Genocide Center has demonstrated a persistent indifference to the standards by which historical credibility is normally measured. In light of that record, the question is no longer whether the Center values its credibility, but why any institution — domestic or international — would continue to confer credibility upon it.
State Memorialization of Holocaust Perpetrators
As documented in my article “Holocaust perpetrators presented as victims”: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-perpetrators-presented-as-victims/
At least 136 convicted Holocaust perpetrators are buried and honored at Tuskulėnai Memorial Park, with documentation indicating 257 perpetrators interred there in total.
https://tuskulenumemorialas.lt/assets/files/3348a11526/asmenu_sarasas.pdf
Specific examples of this practice include at least 14 Holocaust perpetrators who are honored today despite their documented crimes:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/enabling-genocide These individuals — direct participants in mass murders — have been awarded national honors as guiding lights of service to the nation, further illustrating how Lithuania reclassifies perpetrators while obscuring the scope of local collaboration.
Further documentation:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/lithuanian-holocaust-fraud/
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/defending-the-indefensible-2/
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/memory-road-1941-2021-project/
Lithuanian perpetrators were not confined to Lithuania’s borders. Units and individuals crossed into neighboring countries to hunt and murder Jews there as well — expanding the scope of Lithuanian participation in genocide beyond the nation’s own territory.
International Condemnation and the Unresolved Record
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance — Statement on LGGRTC
Primary source (intermittently accessible): https://holocaustremembrance.com/statements/statement-center-study-genocide-resistance-lithuania
Backup archived copy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Syb8vjAa9EMAcwl6Mtm9o6_Bp7i-_Vtr/view?usp=drive_link
World Jewish Congress
European Jewish Congress
Lithuanian Jewish Community
https://www.lzb.lt/2019/03/28/kas-lietuvoje-sankcionavo-institucini-antisemitizma/
American Jewish Committee
https://www.ajc.org/news/ajc-criticizes-legal-effort-in-lithuania-to-distort-holocaust
Dani Dayan, Chairman of Yad Vashem — Address to the Seimas, 21 Sept 2023
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9av6nTTcFo
Transcript: https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/yad-vashem-chairman-address-to-the-seimas-21-september-2023.html
“Honoring those who took an active part in the murder of Jews damages historical truth and moral integrity.”
Silvia Foti — published investigation
https://www.amazon.com/Nazis-Granddaughter-Discovered-Grandfather-Criminal/dp/1684511089
Documentaries
U.S.–Germany Joint Statement (May 3, 2023)
https://www.lzb.lt/en/2023/05/04/joint-statement-on-the-dialogue-on-holocaust-issues/
In a brazen display of institutional arrogance and historical denialism, the Lithuanian government has not only ignored direct interventions from a senior U.S. lawmaker but actively demeaned them to shield its glorification of Holocaust perpetrators. On September 25, 2019, Congressman Brad Sherman—a high-ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation—wrote to Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, exposing the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre’s (LGGRTC) blatant misstatements of fact and misuse of U.S. Congressional documents to whitewash figures like Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis, a key collaborator in the Nazi-era Provisional Government responsible for anti-Jewish policies. The letter demanded either credible evidence for their claims of “exoneration” or a public retraction, highlighting how such distortions perpetuate Holocaust revisionism. Yet, the Prime Minister offered no response, signaling a deliberate choice to prioritize a fabricated national narrative over accountability to a vital NATO ally. The full letter is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z9GfI9k8XxP3JzAHWUzB-CllnFBwT_D6/view?usp=drive_link
This contempt escalated when, in a December 22, 2020, response from the LGGRTC to my own demand for corrections regarding Brazaitis, they dismissed Sherman’s authoritative critique as merely “the opinion of a politician, but not as a new historical source or a new circumstance of historical events.” This sneering retort—effectively branding a U.S. Congressman as irrelevant—reveals the depths of Lithuania’s commitment to protecting Jew-murdering “heroes” at any cost, even if it means insulting American legislators and risking strained bilateral relations. The LGGRTC’s letter, which rejects factual corrections outright, can be viewed in full here: https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Brazitis-Nov-2020-merged.pdf
Undeterred, Sherman followed up on May 25, 2021, with a letter to Lithuanian Ambassador Audra Plepytė, reiterating his concerns and quoting the LGGRTC’s dismissive language to underscore the ongoing fraud. Again, no reply came from the Ambassador, cementing a pattern of stonewalling that exposes Lithuania’s moral bankruptcy: they would rather jeopardize ties with the United States—a cornerstone of their security—than confront the truth about the 220,000 Lithuanian Jews slaughtered with local complicity. Congressman Sherman’s 2021 letter is accessible here: https://grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Congressman-Sherman-to-Ambassador-Plepyte-Letter-Response1.pdf
Such actions are not mere oversights but calculated defiance, as detailed in my Times of Israel blogs Defending the Indefensible and The Quest for Truth about the Holocaust by Bullets where I highlight how Lithuania’s government taunts U.S. officials like schoolyard bullies to maintain their Holocaust deceptions. By ignoring Congress and belittling its members, Lithuania not only dishonors the victims but invites international isolation, proving that their state-sponsored edifice of lies is worth more to them than justice, diplomacy, or the lessons of history. This episode, documented across these sources, stands as irrefutable evidence of a regime willing to gamble its alliances to eternalize the status quo of denial. This calculated willingness to antagonize even a key NATO ally underscores the conclusion that follows: Lithuania values its fabricated mythology far more than truth, reconciliation, or its place among responsible nations.
International Legal Escalation: Courts, Strasbourg, and the UN
After exhausting domestic remedies, my case advanced to the European Court of Human Rights (Gochin v. Lithuania, reported 2021), which declined to admit the application for substantive hearing. My UN Human Rights Committee submission (27 January 2022) was registered but likewise not adjudicated.
No legal remedy remains.
Resolution now rests solely with public institutions and the Lithuanian government.
For the Victims — and for the World
Over 200,000 Jewish men, women, and children — representing 96.4% of Lithuania’s Jewish population, the highest murder rate in Europe — were murdered. Their families, languages, professions, ideas, music, science, and generations of human potential were erased. What was destroyed cannot be rebuilt. What was stolen from the world is gone forever.
The only thing the living can still offer them is truth — who murdered them, how, and why. Without truth, the crime continues in memory itself. Today, the Government of Lithuania murders their memory with the same resolute determination that Lithuanians used to murder their physical bodies in the 1940s.
They lie in forests, fields, towns, and mass burial pits across Lithuania. No memorial substitutes for honesty. No monument compensates for accountability. No institution retains moral authority while the truth remains distorted.
The victims deserve better.
They deserve the truth.
A New Generation, A Final Choice
Lithuania is now governed by a new generation. They are not personally guilty of the crimes of their parents and grandparents — but they are fully responsible for whether the lies continue.
After years of legal filings, scholarship, international condemnation, and global exposure, no official can claim ignorance. If Lithuania refuses to tell the truth and revoke the honors that glorify those implicated in genocide, then the present leadership assumes responsibility for perpetuating those falsehoods.
History has placed the choice squarely before them.
Misinformation and Disinformation as a Weapon: Why This Matters Beyond Lithuania
Patterns of historical distortion, narrative laundering, memory laundering, and selective memory described in this record are not confined to one country. Lithuania’s “eight pillars” of inversion — reframing perpetrators as victims, suppressing facts, and repeating contested narratives through official channels — have become a blueprint exported to modern conflicts.
These methods are examined here:
https://grantgochin.substack.com/p/hamass-propaganda-playbook
If democratic societies want such strategies to fail, they must show — through Lithuania’s case — that these methods do not stand, cannot stand, and will be dismantled by the record of truth, however long that takes.
Unanswered Questions of Responsibility
How can the Government of Israel maintain normal relations with Lithuania while these issues remain unresolved?
How can Jewish institutions associate with a government whose official historical bodies continue to defend discredited narratives?
How can Lithuanian museums claim to present Jewish history while omitting this record?
Lithuania is supported by the European Union and NATO.
At what point does unresolved Holocaust distortion erode the credibility of the values those alliances claim to defend?
What Lithuania Must Do to Close This Case
For this long-standing distortion of Holocaust history to be resolved and the case effectively closed, the Lithuanian government must take concrete, verifiable steps:
1. Revoke all national honors bestowed on individuals implicated in Holocaust crimes. This includes removing street names, plaques, memorials, school namings, and any other forms of state recognition for documented perpetrators and collaborators.
2. Formally withdraw the LGGRTC’s exculpatory memorandum on Jonas Noreika. The 2019 document declaring Noreika innocent of Holocaust involvement must be officially retracted, acknowledging that it contradicts established historical evidence and scholarly consensus.
3. Commission an independent international review of the LGGRTC. An impartial panel of recognized Holocaust historians and experts from outside Lithuania should be invited to examine the Centre’s methodologies, publications, and conclusions, with full access to archives and the authority to recommend reforms.
4. Issue a formal state acknowledgment of the full scope of Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust. This should include an unequivocal official statement recognizing the extent of local collaboration, the actions of the 1941 Provisional Government and its associated units, and the consequences for Lithuania’s Jewish citizens.
The Lithuanian state can no longer credibly reopen the truth-telling process or revisit the dismissed Holocaust-distortion complaints against former LGGRTC Director Teresė Birutė Burauskaitė without undermining its own prior judicial finality. The most direct path to accountability now lies in recognizing the validity of the evidence presented over years of challenge. Lithuania should acknowledge that every substantive claim made in these cases was correct, withdraw any national honors awarded to Burauskaitė, and revoke her state pension in recognition of the institutional misconduct that occurred under her leadership.
These measures would demonstrate a genuine commitment to historical truth, restore some measure of moral credibility, and allow Lithuania to move forward without the burden of an unresolved legacy of distortion.
Conclusion
The documents exist.
The courts have spoken.
The international record is established.
What remains is whether Lithuania — and those who stand beside it — will finally answer history. EU and NATO allies should condition continued support on full historical accountability, including revocation of honors for those implicated in genocide.