Kaunas mayor rejects reproaches regarding respect for head of 1941 Provisional Government

An urn with the remains was welcomed at Vilnius International Airport on Thursday and will be transferred to Kaunas where the remains will be buried on Sunday.

"As a nation, we have to evaluate the Provincial Government's attempts to restore the state's independence. It's strange to me that there are attempts to link honorable Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis with pro-Nazi activities without official evidence," the Kaunas mayor told BNS on Thursday.

Kupčinskas reminded critics, including the Israeli ambassador, that no charges were filed against Brazaitis following an investigation by the US Congress.

"The US congressional subcommittee dropped the investigation in 1974 and did not turn to judicial institutions, found no evidence that activities of the Provisional Government had been in some way related to pro-Nazi activities," the Kaunas mayor said.

"Of course, larger countries are also trying to re-write history. Brazaitis himself fell victim to the Nazi and Soviet aggression. It's rather hard for the State of Lithuania to spread its authentic history," Kupčinskas said.

In his words, critics very often cite "only categorical evaluations in some publication, but there are no official documents."

Earlier on Thursday, the Jewish Community of Lithuania said it was offended by "solemnity surrounding the reburial ceremony of this controversial politician."

"This figure is linked to activities of the marionette Provisional Government, repressive and discriminatory laws aimed at ingratiating with the Nazi regime, as well as to statements by the Lithuanian Activist Front inciting massacres of Jews and creating the environment for the barbarian execution of "justice" by the crowd," the Community said in a statement.

"Paying official honor to such personalities distorts the Lithuanian Holocaust education programs and the truth stated in them. We believe that it discredits modern Lithuania. We are saddened, and it's regrettable that the State of Lithuania shows such disrespect to Jewish citizens who were killed here and those who survived the Holocaust," the statement said.

Brazaitis died in the US in 1974 and was buried there. He was one of the leaders of the anti-Soviet resistance and the Lithuanian Activist Front in 1940-1941.

He led the Provisional Government in June-August 1941, and was later an active member of unarmed anti-Soviet resistance.

Avoiding arrest during the war, he changed his name to Brazaitis and fled to Germany in 1944 and moved to the United States in 1951 to become an active figure in the Lithuanian expat community.

More than 90 percent of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish community of about 200,000 were annihilated by the Nazis and their local collaborators during the German occupation in 1941-1944.