Incompetent Journalism and Discussions about Complicity in the Holocaust in Lithuania (Thoughts on the Book by Rūta Vanagaitė and Efraim Zuroff, Our People: Journey with an Enemy)
4/2018
SUMMARY:
This review essay discusses the book by Lithuanian journalist Rūta Vanagaitė and Israeli historian Efraim Zuroff, Our People: Journey with an Enemy. Originally published in Lithuanian and recently translated into Russian, the book discusses the role of Lithuanians as perpetrators in the Holocaust. The author presents a list of inaccuracies and misinterpretations that have compromised the important and politically sensitive case made in the book and suggests that its main fallacy lies in the groupist approach. The idea of collective (rather than individual) moral qualities and responsibility makes the problem of reconciliation with the traumatic past unresolvable in principle.