Jonas Noreika

Jonas Noreika
Noreika in 1925
Born(1910-10-08)8 October 1910
Šukioniai, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire
Died26 February 1947(1947-02-26) (aged 36)
Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Cause of deathExecution by shooting
Resting placeTuskulėnai Manor, Vilnius, Lithuania
NationalityLithuanian
Other namesGenerolas Vėtra ("General Storm")
Alma materVytautas Magnus University
Known forPlungė massacre
SpouseAntanina Krapavičiūtė
AwardsOrder of the Cross of Vytis (1997)
Conviction(s)Treason
War crimes
Criminal penaltyDeath

Jonas Noreika (October 8, 1910 – February 26, 1947) was a Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan and Nazi collaborator.

In July 1941, he led the Lithuanian Activist Front in the Telšiai district. Noreika later served as the Šiauliai district's governor when the Germans occupied Lithuania, where he signed orders putting the district's Jews in a ghetto and confiscating their property.

Noreika was one of the 46 Lithuanian authority figures locked up in the Stutthof concentration camp between March 1943 and January 25, 1945 for resisting Nazi mobilization. He was arrested by the Soviets in March 1946 and executed on February 26, 1947.

Early life

Noreika was born in Šukioniai in western Lithuania in 1910. He did law at Vytautas Magnus University, and then became a soldier. He wrote for the military press, served on a military tribunal, and was later promoted to captain.

In 1933, Noreika published an antisemitic booklet titled Hold Your Head High, Lithuanian!!!, which called for a boycott of Lithuanian Jews on nationalistic grounds. In 1939, in the military magazine Kardas, he wrote an essay, "The Fruitfulness of Authoritarian Politics", praising Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

World War II

First Soviet occupation of Lithuania

Soviet forces occupied Lithuania in June 1940. Noreika was released into the reserves that October. He is credited as the leading organizer in Samogitia of the anti-Soviet Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF).

Nazi occupation of Lithuania

Collaboration

On July 20, Noreika led a "Manifestation of Freedom and Friendship with Germany," where a crowd of thousands approved a resolution he had written in support of Lithuania's independence, the German Army, the Reich and Adolf Hitler and the Lithuanian Activist Front.

Samogitian local leaders chose Noreika to lead the Iron Wolf-associated Žemaičių žemė ("Land of Samogitia") delegation, which negotiated unity between Lithuania's Provisional Government, the Lithuanian Activist Front and the Lithuanian Nationalist Party.

The Holocaust in Lithuania

In July 1941, Noreika's men held the 1,800 Jews of Plungė in a synagogue for two weeks. For days, Lithuanian nationalists under him took groups of 50 Jews at a time and killed them near the village of Milašaičiai. On July 12, the nationalists started fires to blame it on the Jews. Noreika then ordered Plungė's Jews to be massacred. They forced the remaining Jews to somewhere near Kaušėnai to be killed on 12–13 July.

Noreika was appointed governor of the Šiauliai district on August 3, 1941. On August 22 and September 10, 1941, he ordered all Jews of the district to be sent to ghettos. Many Jews were shot on the spot instead. He was also sent by the Nazis on a propaganda trip to Germany from January 31 to February 16, 1943 as part of a group of 14 Lithuanian officials. 95% Lithuanian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Arrest

Noreika was arrested and dismissed from his position of governor on February 23, 1943, for failing to fulfil orders to raise a Waffen-SS division from the local population. On 17 March, the Nazis again arrested Noreika along with 45 other Lithuanian political, intellectual and religious figures, sending them to the Stutthof concentration camp on 26–27 March.

Second Soviet occupation of Lithuania

In 1944, when the Germans retreated, Noreika was evacuated with other prisoners. The Soviets moved Noreika with other former concentration camp inmates to barracks in Stolp (Słupsk, Poland). There, in early May 1945, he was mobilized into the Soviet Army.

Post-war

In November 1945, Noreika returned to Vilnius, where he found work as a legal advisor to the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

Anti-Soviet resistance

Along with Ona Lukauskaitė-Poškienė and Stasys Gorodeckis, Noreika founded the National Council of Lithuania to coordinate anti-Soviet partisan movement across the country. Noreika assumed the rank of general and the nom de guerre Generolas Vėtra ("General Storm"). Soviet authorities arrested Noreika and his colleagues on March 16, 1946. He was sentenced to death on November 27, 1946, executed on February 26, 1947, and buried in a mass grave by Tuskulėnai Manor.

Legacy

Government of Lithuania

In 1997, the Lithuanian state awarded Noreika with the Order of the Cross of Vytis, first degree. Memorial plaques were also placed in front of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights.

Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania

Noreika has been criticized by numerous groups and scholars for his active role in the Holocaust in Lithuania. In 2019, the state-run Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (LGGRTC) denied these claims, and argued that Noreika had saved the lives of Jews in Šiauliai.

International Commission for the Crimes in Lithuania

A sub-commission of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania found the LGGRTC's findings offensive, opposing the commemoration of Noreika.

Grant Gochin

In 2018, Grant Gochin, a South African Jew of Litvak ancestry, filed a lawsuit against the LGGRTC for the charge of Holocaust denial, in support of which Noreika's granddaughter Silvia Foti filed an affidavit. Lithuanian courts dismissed the lawsuits however.

Silvia Foti

On January 27, 2021, the New York Times published an opinion piece by journalist Silvia Foti, Noreika's granddaughter, in which she wrote:

I learned that the man I had believed was a savior who did all he could to rescue Jews during World War II had, in reality, ordered all Jews in his region of Lithuania to be rounded up and sent to a ghetto where they were beaten, starved, tortured, raped and then murdered.

Zev Meir Friedman

In March 2023, over 100 students and teachers from the Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence, New York, protested outside New York City's Lithuanian Consulate. When Rambam's dean Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman contacted the Lithuanian Consulate, consulate officials denied that Noreika had ever killed anyone. Rabbi Friedman noted:

“ They are denying that history. We can’t bring back the people that died, but at the very least, Lithuania should not honor a guy that killed Lithuanians. ”

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Litvaks (Yiddish: ליטװאַקעס) or Lita'im (Hebrew: לִיטָאִים) are Jews who historically lived in former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, the adjacent areas of modern Russia and Ukraine). Over 90% of the population was killed during the Holocaust.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Ašmenskas, Viktoras (1997). Generolas Vėtra (in Lithuanian). Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. ISBN 978-9986-757-08-5.
  2. 1 2 3 Zingeris, Emanuelis; Sužiedėlis, Saulius; Baker, Andrew; Dieckmann, Christoph; Liekis, Šarūnas; Matthäus, Jürgen; Polonsky, Antony; Porat, Dina; Tauber, Joachim; Zeltser, Arkadi (April 11, 2019). "A Response to the Statement of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania of 27 March 2019, 'On the Accusations Against Jonas Noreika (General Vėtra)'". International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 "Jewish students protest Lithuania's glorification of Nazi collaborator". Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). April 10, 2023. Retrieved June 3, 2025.
  4. ↑ Higgins, Andrew (September 10, 2018). "Nazi Collaborator or National Hero? A Test for Lithuania". The New York Times.
  5. 1 2 Balčiūnas, Evaldas (March 1, 2012). "The Posthumous Remaking of a Holocaust Perpetrator in Lithuania: Why is Jonas Noreika a National Hero?". Defending History. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  6. ↑ Noreika, Jonas (1933). Pakelk galvą, lietuvi!!! [Hold Your Head High, Lithuanian!!!] (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Kaunas. Retrieved March 20, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ Noreika, Jonas (1939). "Autoritarinės politikos vaisingumas" [The Fruitfulness of Authoritarian Politics]. Kardas (in Lithuanian) (1): 11–13. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  8. 1 2 Blynas, Zenonas (2007) [1941]. Rudis, Gediminas (ed.). Karo metų dienoraštis (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos institutas.
  9. ↑ Pakalniškis, Aleksandras (1982). Septintoji knyga (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Chicago. Retrieved March 20, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ Gochin, Grant Arthur (June 14, 2018). "Query Regarding Jonas Noreika's Criminal Gang". In Search of the Truth. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020.
  11. ↑ Dean, Martin, ed. (2012). "Žagarė". Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. II. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 1154, 1108. ISBN 978-0-253-35599-7.
  12. ↑ Shafir, Michael (2016). "Ideology, Memory and Religion in Post-Communist East Central Europe: A Comparative Study Focused on Post-Holocaust". Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies. 15 (44): 67–68. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  13. ↑ "Tikros ramybės ženklai Vokietijoje". Tėvynė (in Lithuanian). 26 February 1943.
  14. ↑ Vokietaitis, Algirdas; Grušys-Žilvinis, Juozas (2001). Lietuvos laisvės kovotojų sąjunga 1940–2000 (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Kaunas: Judex. pp. 433–434. ISBN 978-9986-851-51-6.
  15. ↑ Davoliūtė, Violeta (December 19, 2018). "Between the Public and the Personal: A New Stage of Holocaust Memory in Lithuania". Cultures of History Forum. doi:10.25626/0092.
  16. 1 2 Aderet, Ofer (February 2, 2019). "The Woman Accusing Her Lithuanian 'Hero' Grandfather of Mass Murder in the Holocaust". Haaretz.
  17. ↑ Katz, Dovid (April 11, 2018). "Lithuania's Museum of Holocaust Denial". Tablet.
  18. ↑ "Dėl kaltinimų Jonui Noreikai (Generolui Vėtrai)" (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. March 27, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Vilniaus apygardos administracinis teismas: Sprendimas" (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. March 27, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  20. ↑ Voveriūnaitė, Simona (December 18, 2019). "Išplatino naujausią tyrimą apie Generolą Vėtrą: pats prisidėjo prie žydų gelbėjimo". DELFI (in Lithuanian).
  21. 1 2 Grossman, Ron (January 14, 2019). "She thought her grandfather was a Lithuanian hero. Research leads her to ask, was he a patriot or a Nazi?". Chicago Tribune. Chicago.
  22. ↑
  23. ↑ "Lithuanian court rejects lawsuit against state honours for Nazi collaborator". European Jewish Congress. March 27, 2019.
  24. ↑ Foti, Silvia (January 27, 2021). "Opinion | No More Lies. My Grandfather Was a Nazi". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2021.