Memories of blood: some Aspects of Lithuanian responses to the holocaust
ENTo study the Lithuanian responses to the genocide of the Jews, understood here as the reactions, views and perceptions of ethnic Lithuanians, is to enter a labyrinth of conflicting emotions and attitudes. Whether one considers the immediate reaction to the slaughter, peoples reflections on its aftermath or the development of postwar memory, the spectrum of responses is wide and diverse although some perceptions are clearly more common. Research on what can be considered a nationwide response, or a collective memory of the Holocaust, is inherently different from the kinds of documentary evidence generally employed in describing the genocide itself. The study of attitudes rather than actions is a different, subtler kind of research. Sources that purport to inform us about what was going on in the minds of the population at large have their limitations. There were no professionally conducted opinion polls in 1941. Official accounts of the security services, the reports produced by agents on the ground, may constitute an important evidentiary tool in gauging the "mood of the times", but much of its value depends on the professionalism and/or bias of those spying on the people. The press, even if censored, gives us some insights, albeit often indirectly. Foreign occupations tend to smother the political and moral voices of civil society. Only the collaborators can speak openly. Diaries, memoirs and related anecdotal evidence, while highly subjective, can be mined to reflect social attitudes, although these sources are by nature "snapshots" shaped by the prejudices and initial impressions of the authors.Ghetto inmates and especially the hunted survivors could not have helped but feel that most of the world was against them. Those who pitied the victims may have assigned their own feelings to fellow bystanders, while those who helped may have believed that they were but a lonely select few. On the other hand, rescuers who passed on their charges might conclude that the network of righteous was larger than in reality.
