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Juozas Ambrazevičius

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Ambrazevičius in 1925

Juozas Ambrazevičius or Juozas Brazaitis (December 9, 1903 – November 28, 1974), was a resistance fighter who opposed both the Soviet Union and the Nazis. He was a Lithuanian literary historian who became prime minister when the Nazis routed the Soviets from Lithuania. His own ideology and views are disputed.

Academic career in Lithuania

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Ambrazevičius studied literature at the University of Lithuania in Kaunas and the University of Bonn. Starting in 1927 he lectured on Lithuanian literature and folklore in Kaunas. By the end of the 1930s he was involved in numerous organizations for literature and science.

He also worked on the editorial staff of the national daily Lietuva (Lithuania) and the Catholic daily XX amžius (The 20th Century). He sometimes used the pseudonym "Servus" to write for these newspapers. During World War II he edited an underground periodical Į laisvę [lt] (Towards Freedom), which he later revived in Germany and the United States.

Lithuanian Activist Front

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As the Soviets occupied Lithuania, Ambrazevičius became a member of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) in Lithuania.[1] The LAF was founded in Berlin by Lithuanian ambassador Kazys Škirpa. Its goal was to rebuild a Lithuania independent of the Soviets under German protection.[2] Their early publications called for the expulsion of Jews from Lithuania and the requisition of their property and blamed them for the country's loss of independence.[3]

On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. On June 23, the June Uprising in Lithuania began, first in Kaunas and then throughout the country.[4][5] LAF representative Leonas Prapuolenis broadcast an announcement of the newly independent Lithuanian state and its formation of a provisional government.[6] Insurgents and TDA members organized and engaged in pogroms against the Jewish population.[7] One of the bloodiest occurred in the capture of Kaunas, when 3,500 Jews were killed.[7] When Einsatzgruppen A entered Kaunas, they found it already in the hands of Algirdas Klimaitis' 600-man Voldemarininkai militia.[8][9] Its commander, Franz Walter Stahlecker, explained in an October 15 report that after meeting with little enthusiasm from the Security Police, he had used Klimaitis' men rather than his own for the Kaunas pogrom.[10]

It had to be shown to the world that the native population itself took the first action by way of natural reaction against the suppression by Jews during several decades and against the terror exercised by the Communists during the preceding period. (Comprehensive report of Einsatzgruppe A up to 15 October 1941)

Ambrazevičius became acting Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Lithuania when Kazys Škirpa, originally envisioned for the role, was under house arrest in Berlin.[11] "The Provisional Government which was politically selected by the LAF and arose out of the June Uprising with acting prime minister professor Juozas Ambrazevičius at its head, did engage in political collaboration with the Third Reich" wrote Algimantas Kasparavičius [lt] of the Lithuanian Institute of History in 2017, citing antisemitic legislation passed by the Provisional Government, apparently unprompted, such as the August 1st proposed Regulations on the Status of the Jews for example.[12]

The LAF was in Kaunus when the Germans arrived but were preoccupied with the repair and control of the radio station, which the Soviets had sabotaged.[13]

Ambrazevičius served as prime minister from June 23, 1941 to August 5, 1941 and was also Minister of Education. He issued a decree July 29, 1941 at the request of the German authorities that expelled Jewish lecturers and Polish and Jewish students from the universities.[14] At Vytautas Magnus University, 31 people were dismissed, mostly Jews, but also Tatars, Russians, and Poles, as well as Lithuanians accused of supporting Soviet rule.[15]

The Germans never intended to rebuild an independent Lithuania, however, nor were the Lithuanians the only people the Germans allowed to believe that they were liberators. On August 5, 1941, the provisional government was dissolved by Germans, and on September 22, the LAF was dissolved.[16] However, the Germans did not abolish the local administration, and transformed the TDA battalions and Lithuanian police into the subordinated Lithuanian Auxiliary Police.[17]

Lithuanian Front

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After the LAF was liquidated, most of its members moved to the underground organization Lithuanian Front (Lithuanian: Lietuvių frontas; LF), headed by Juozas Ambrazevičius and Adolfas Damušis [lt].[18] This organization combined Catholicism[18] with nationalism and considered the Soviet Union's communist ideology its main enemy; Germany was a secondary enemy.[19] The organization did not intend to engage in armed struggle too early, and placed more emphasis on printing and press distribution. In 1942 it began publishing the "Bulletin of the Lithuanian Front" and in January 1943 "Freedom." The goal was to prepare Lithuanian society for a popular anti-Soviet uprising and the restoration of Lithuania within its borders.[18] Ambrazevičius ordered Petras Vilutis in May 1942 to form the "Kęstutis" military organization. Vilutis, after he left to study in Vienna, was replaced by Juozas Jankauskas [lt].[20] The purpose of the "Kęstutis" was to collect weapons and create military structures for the future uprising.[18]

According to Soviet reports, both LF and "Kęstutis" were in close contact with the Germans and the German intelligence service, and cooperated with them in fighting Soviet partisans and activists.[21] The LF's anti-Nazi resistance was passive; its main act of resistance was an extensive propaganda campaign against forming a Lithuanian volunteer Waffen SS Legion, which the Germans tried and failed to organize in 1943.[22]

In the spring of 1942, the LF and the Christian Democrats established the National Council. At the same time, a more pluralistic Lithuanian Supreme Committee was formed.[23] On 25 November 1943 both organisations founded the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK), Steponas Kairys became the chairman, and Adolfas Damušis from the LF his deputy.[24] Juozas Ambrazevičius became the chairman of the VLIK's political commission.[24] "Kęstutis" became the core of the Lithuanian armed forces reconstituted by the VLIK.[25] Although VLIK considered itself the sole representative of the Lithuanian state, it remained mainly a consultative committee of numerous organizations that retained autonomy.[26] VLIK tried to establish contacts with the Polish underground, as well as a channel to Western countries through Lithuanian diplomats who remained in neutral countries.[27]

VLIK and LF still did not undertake active resistance against the Germans, supported the establishment of Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force units of Colonel Povilas Plechavičius in cooperation with the Germans, but also documented German crimes and collected intelligence material.[24][28] In April 1944, the Germans began arresting VLIK members, and in June Adolfas Damušis was arrested. In July Ambrazevičius decided to leave Vilnius with the retreating German army and go to Germany.[25]

Emigration

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In the summer of 1944 Ambrazevičius left for Germany, and from there in 1948 for the United States, where he edited a Catholic daily named Darbininkas lit. 'The Worker', based in New York City, under the name Juozas Brazaitis.[29] He also continued working on the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania from exile and published a number of leaflets illustrating German and Soviet crimes in Lithuania and the Lithuanian resistance, for example, In the Name of the Lithuanian People (1946) and Appeal to the United Nations on Genocide (1951). In 1964 he published a book titled Vienų vieni (lit. 'All Alone') about the Lithuanian June Uprising.[30] The Kremlin actively opposed his activities. In the 1970s he became a subject of interest for the Soviet media and American hunters of Nazi collaborators, who accused him of having worked for the Third Reich. In reply, he published an extensive dossier of his World War II activities.[31]

Works

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His major works include

  • Theory of Literature (Literatūros teorija in 1930)
  • two-volume A History of World Literature (Visoutinė literatūros istorija in 1931-1932)
  • Vaižgantas (in 1936)
  • three-volume New Readings (Naujieji skaitymai)
  • Lithuanian Writers (Lietuvių rašytojai in 1938)

Remembrance

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In 2009 Ambrazevičius was posthumously awarded Lithuania's highest decoration, the Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great.[32]

Controversy arose over the ceremonial reburial with state honors of the remains of Juozas Ambrazevičius in May 2012.[33] Ambrazevičius' remains were transported back from the United States to Lithuania, met by an honour guard at Kaunas airport and reburied at Christ's Resurrection Church in Kaunas.[34] At the reburial ceremony in Kaunas, adviser to Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius said that a 1975 investigation by US Immigration had found no evidence of Brazaitis being involved in anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi activities.[35] The Kaunas mayor said: 'It seems strange to me that while there is no official proof, they are trying to identify the honourable Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis with pro-Nazi activity'.[33]

Simonas Alperavicius [lt], leader of Lithuania's Jewish community, protested the glorification of a person he said was had persecuted of Lithuania's Jews.[35] More than 40 of Lithuania's leading intellectuals, including many historians, protested the official honoring of Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis.[36] A subsequent clarification issued in 2019 by the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee said that the investigation had not been conclusive and did not amount to a "rehabilitation" of Ambrazevičius/Brazaitis. The investigation into his wartime activities ended after he died in 1974.[37]

References

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  1. ^ Buchaveck, Stanislaus. "Juozas Brazaitis". www.vle.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  2. ^ Vareikis 2009, p. 254.
  3. ^ Vareikis 2009, pp. 254–255.
  4. ^ Misiunas, Romuald J.; Taagepera, Rein (1993). The Baltic States: Years of Dependence 1940–1990 (expanded ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08228-1.
  5. ^ Narutis, Pilypas (1994). Tautos sukilimas 1941 Lietuvos nepriklausomybei atstatyti [Lithuanian uprising 1941 Struggle for independence - caught between Nazi Germany and Soviet Empire] (1st ed.). Illinois: Oak Lawn.
  6. ^ Zenonas Norkus (2023). Post-Communist Transformations in Baltic Countries: A Restorations Approach in Comparative Historical Sociology. Springer. p. 88. ISBN 9783031394966.
  7. ^ a b Wnuk 2018, pp. 60–61.
  8. ^ van Voren, Robert van (2011). Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania. On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics. Rodopi. p. 78. ISBN 9789401200707.
  9. ^ Gitelman, Zvi (1998). Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33359-8. pp.97,102
  10. ^ Bubnys, Arūnas (2003). "Lietuvių saugumo policija ir holokaustas (1941–1944)". Genocidas Ir Rezistencija (in Lithuanian). 13. ISSN 1392-3463.
  11. ^ Sužiedėlis 2006, p. 153.
  12. ^ Algimantas Kasparavičius (2017-02-06). "Lithuanian Political Illusions: The "Policy" of the Lithuanian Provisional Government and the Beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania in 1941". Jewish Community of Lithuania.
  13. ^ Bubnys, Arūnas (1998). Vokiečių okupuota Lietuva (1941–1944) (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Lietuvos tautinis kultūros fondas. ISBN 9986-757-12-6.
  14. ^ Veilentienė 2016, p. 198.
  15. ^ Veilentienė 2016, p. 198-199.
  16. ^ Wnuk 2018, pp. 61–62.
  17. ^ Wnuk 2018, pp. 82–83.
  18. ^ a b c d Arūnas Bubnys. "Lietuvių frontas" [Lithuanian Front]. Visuotine Lituviu Enciklpedija.
  19. ^ Wnuk 2018, p. 125.
  20. ^ Wnuk 2018, pp. 127–128.
  21. ^ Wnuk 2018, p. 128.
  22. ^ Wnuk 2018, p. 126.
  23. ^ Wnuk 2018, p. 130.
  24. ^ a b c Bubnys, Arūnas. "Lietuvių frontas". www.vle.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  25. ^ a b Wnuk 2018, p. 129.
  26. ^ Wnuk 2018, pp. 131–132.
  27. ^ Wnuk 2018, pp. 133–135.
  28. ^ Wnuk 2018, p. 133.
  29. ^ Malinauskaitė 2019, pp. 82–83.
  30. ^ Malinauskaitė 2019, pp. 101.
  31. ^ Roszkowski, Wojciech; Kofman, Jan (2016). Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 1925. ISBN 9781317475934.
  32. ^ "Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis' reburial reignites historic debate on Lithuania's 1941 provisional government". en.15min.lt. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  33. ^ a b Woolfson 2014, p. 57.
  34. ^ "Kaune perlaidojami 1941-ųjų Laikinosios vyriausybės vadovo Juozo Brazaičio palaikai". 15min.lt. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  35. ^ a b "Lithuania reburial of WWII leader angers Jewish groups". bbc.com. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  36. ^ "Lithuania's public figures condemn state reburial of controversial 1941 political leader Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis". en.15min.lt. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  37. ^ JAV Kongreso laiškas premjerui: neigia išteisinę J.Ambrazevičių-Brazaitį. 15min.lt. 15 October 2019.

Bibliography

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  • Sužiedelis, Saulius (2006). "Lithuanian Collaboration during the Second World War: Past Realities, Present Perceptions: Collaboration and Resistance during the Holocaust: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania". The Mass Persecution and Murder of Jews: The Summer and Fall of. Vol. 158.2004. pp. 313–359. This presentation is in part a modified summary and collation of my studies presented in earlier venues:
    My reports
    Foreign Saviors, Native Disciples: Perspectives on Collaboration in Lithuania, 1940–1945, presented in April 2002 at the "Reichskommissariat Ostland" conference at Uppsala University and Södertörn University College, now published in: Collaboration and Resistance during the Holocaust. Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, ed. David Gaunt et al
    My articles in Vilnius at the conference Holocaust in Lithuania in Vilnius 2002: The Burden of 1941, in: 'Lituanus' 47:4 (2001), pp. 47-60;
    Thoughts on Lithuania's Shadows of the Past: A Historical Essay on the Legacy of War, Part I, in: 'Vilnius (Summer 1998), pp. 129-146;
    Thoughts on Lithuania's Shadows of the Past: A Historical Essay on the Legacy of War, Part II, in: 'Vilnius' (Summer 1999), pp. 177-208...
Preceded by Prime Minister of Lithuania
23 June 1941 – 5 August 1941 		Succeeded by
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