[Undigested past: the Holocaust in Lithuania]

ENRobert van Voren has written an unusual, compact study of probably the worst period of twentieth-century European history. The title (Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania) alludes to the fact that the country in question has had a hard time accommodating these difficult years into its national narrative — and the struggle goes on today. Nonetheless, the most unusual aspect of the book is its attempt to put Lithuanian difficulties into a comparative context. To do this, the author displays comparatively how very hard it was for the population of The Netherlands to ‘digest’ the full story of its own reactions to Nazi occupation and genocide. So if the Lithuanian population has to face criticism for only slow progress in coming to terms with ‘the skeletons in its closet’, then it should not be singled out as the only group found wanting. This text might only be 182 pages long, but it has big ambitions. It provides a discussion of the historical background to the place of Jews on Lithuanian soil, the origins of antisemitism among the Lithuanian population, Jewish life during the interwar period, the perpetration of the Holocaust, popular collaboration, motives for participation in genocide and, finally, two chapters examining why the dreadful events happened and the difficulties encountered in their finding adequate recognition. Without doubt Undigested Past is a thoughtful piece of work, but potential readers should probably be made aware that it is founded on secondary literature. As such it provides a useful guide to a large amount of work, but at times the study can seem quite familiar.