Archival evidence shows the Holocaust in Lithuania was not only imposed by Nazis but also enabled and administered by local institutions and actors.

I inherited a secret. In Lithuania, my grandfather, Jonas Noreika, is honored as a national hero. In the historical record, he was complicit in the murder of Jews. I did not learn this from Lithuania’s enemies, but from Lithuania’s own archives—its books, its documents, and official accounts. Once seen, it cannot be unseen.

What I discovered about my grandfather is what I discovered about my country. The more closely I read primary sources, the clearer the pattern became: the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry did not occur in spite of the nation. In essential ways, it occurred through it.

Lithuania prefers a story in which ghettos were imposed solely by Nazi Germany, with Lithuanians as passive witnesses. That version collapses under scrutiny.

In the Kaunas Ghetto diary of Avraham Tory, a German officer tells Jewish leaders plainly that Lithuanians themselves demanded separation: they no longer wished to live alongside Jews and insisted on a ghetto. The choice offered was stark—continued chaos and violence, or forced relocation. Within weeks, Kaunas was cleared of Jews.

The ghetto may have been a German instrument, but its justification was Lithuanian. It translated a local demand into policy.

Orders and Preparation

The institutional record is explicit. On July 10, 1941, Kaunas officials—Mayor Palčiauskas and military commander Jurgis Bobelis—ordered the creation of a ghetto in Slobodka. Historians identify both men as participants in the mass murder of Jews. Preparations for deportation had begun even earlier.

This was not improvisation under German pressure. It was coordinated action involving Lithuanian authorities.

Violence in the Streets

The official decrees reflected what was already happening on the ground. On June 22, 1941, as Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Lithuanian mobs celebrated openly. Jews were dragged from homes,........

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