Vanagaitė’s book, which came out in Lithuania in early 2016 (it is due to appear in Polish in 2017), has by now sold around fifteen thousand copies. This is an unprecedented figure for a country of just about 3 million Lithuanians where nonfiction bestsellers usually have a print run of a few hundred and thousand if that, and higher numbers are hardly ever reached. In short, from a publisher’s perspective, Vanagaitė’s book in Lithuania—and, of all things, on the “controversial topic of the Holocaust,” as a Lithuanian historian at Vilnius University informed me 5 years ago, upon my return to Lithuania after 10 years abroad—has been a colossal publishing success.
Vanagaitė’s book has unquestionably struck a sensitive cord with the Lithuanian public—and, to everyone’s astonishment—with all of its segments. Without any hesitation, her book attacks, in the full sense of this word, the current form of Lithuanian collective memory, ever more nationalist and dogmatic over the past 26 years of independent self-governance and stumbling efforts at liberal democracy. This same memory, however, has not garnered much support among the younger generation of Lithuanian activists who did not experience the Soviet Union for long. It resonates even less with a number of intellectuals and scholars who have come to question the Lithuanian nationalist take on its gruesome wartime history. [...]
In my view, the publication of Vanagaitė’s book in Lithuania is timely. It encourages its reader, if somewhat clumsily to my taste, to engage in self-reflection and critical thinking. After all, isn’t this a condition of growth for a mature person and society? I understand, of course, that collective memory, like any kind of memory, tends to cling to things that are beautiful and worthy of admiration and worship. It is through goodness that we give meaning to our life and the world around us. But memories, like human beings, are also fallible. I think it is high time we look at human nature in all of its dimensions. Or, to paraphrase Vanagaitė, we, Lithuanian citizens, have to learn the truth about ourselves, or “our people.”
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