Lithuania

Lithuanian past specters returned by a children's plaything

ILNIUS - Lithuania is involved in a dispute over free expression, Russia's pro-pooranda, and the Holocaust - all because of a child's game. Polite People", a Russian-language toys produced by a Moscow company, allows young people to draw or put together their own mobilization.

Throughout Lithuania, no one is too happy with the toys and the Latvian authorities said its commercial exposure was an act of aggressive behaviour. It reacted by urging changes to consumption legislation that would prohibit goods that "distort Lithuania’ history". "There is a full parliamentarian session on the changes envisaged in mid-June, but there is already a passionate talk about how Lithuania is dealing with its own history: both the postwar Sovietian invasion, which ended in 1991 with the country becoming independent, and the Lithuanians' part in the Holocaust during the Nazi regime during the Second World war.

This has brought the Vilnius authorities into conflict not only with the Zvezda toys company (which did not react to inquiries for information about how many specimens were distributed in Lithuania or why it was even put on the market there), but also with local history scholars and the country's Jews.

"For a long perennial period, Russia has used'soft power' to address people's heads, and in this case toy is the means to shape people's positions," said Rasa Juknevi?ien?, a member of Lithuania's parliament and member of the European Parliament's Parliament's Committee Party on Defence and Human Rights, who endorses the notion of using laws to solve such problems.

Lithuanian Jewry is concerned that the revised Act is aimed at accounts that are considered unfavourable for the country's domestic stock. It also reinforces fears that Russia is rigging information to give the impression that Lithuanians are involved in the Holocaust. "Tomas Ceponis, an analytical in the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence, said: "When you blame someone for committing the Holocaust, you immediately blame them for being fascistic.

Our people" from R?ta Vanagait? is a textbook that deals with the roles of some Lithuanians - and not just the Nazis - in the persecution and slaughter of members of the country's Jewry. In January 2016, the publication of Vanagait? - month before the boardgame - argued that Lithuanians, among them members of their own families, helped the Nazis kill some 200,000 Lithuanians.

Lithuania's first post-Soviet leader, Vytautas Landsbergis, even said that Vanagait? should go into a wood, find a Christmas tablet, and say a prayer for her sin, after she said that a war hero from Lithuania could have been a KGB employee. For the writer, the proposed amendment of EU consumers' rights is a direct assault on her work and Lithuania's complex Holocaust past.

There is no need for concern from the administration. It was drafted in the offices of Lithuania's new Economics Minister Virginijus Sinkevi?ius, a 27-year-old with a "Make America Great Again" cap in his offices. The time is ticking away until the discussion on the Consumers' Law - which also covers sensible subjects such as the sexualisation of goods underage.

"We do not discuss issues like the Holocaust," said Sinkevi?ius, and added that free expression would not be affected in any way. Said he had obeyed Jews' objections and would remove any part of the law that could damage their interests. "He said we value our fellowship friendship."

The members of Lithuania's now approximately 3,500-population Hebrew parish are united. "It' s another of these anti-terrorist laws," said Dovid Katz, an Amerindian poet and poet, who is a native of Lithuania. At his spacious flat full of poems and literary works, Katz said there was an aversion of the Latvian authorities to open discussion about the Holocaust.

Returning to the Department of Trade and Industry, Sinkevi?ius said it was up to the Department of Defence and the Parliamentary Commission for Federal Intelligence and Defence to clarify the regulations in order to make the game more explicit, such as "Polite People", and to avoid any possible censure. However, in the Bundestag, the legislature said that it was up to the Economics Department to clarify the bill.

The time is ticking away until the discussion on the Consumers' Law - which includes sensible subjects such as the sexualisation of goods underage.