Lithuanian Activist Front - Controversy

Controversy

LAF is a controversial organization because of its anti-Semitic and anti-Polish views and overall collaboration with the Nazi Germany. For example, LAF's manifesto-type essay "What Are the Activists Fighting for?" states: "The Lithuanian Activist Front, by restoring the new Lithuania, is determined to carry out an immediate and fundamental purging of the Lithuanian nation and its land of Jews ...".

When the June uprising began in the Polish-majority Vilnius Region, the LAF committed many atrocities (rapes, murders, pillage); even the Germans referred to their "allies" as "organized robbers". Also, a number of LAF government acts discriminated against Jews, one notable example being "Žydų padėties nuostatai" (English: Regulation on Status of Jews). LAF however did not support and unsuccessfully attempted to stop pogrom organized by Algirdas Klimaitis in Vilijampolė.

However while antisemitic in general, the front only called for Jew deportation, not for extermination, requesting "punishment" (not necessary death) only for those with "exceptional crimes against the country". Hence it is not possible to say the Front actually promoted the ideas of Holocaust in a way it has been arranged.

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