CENTURIES WILL NOT SUFFICE

Bringing full context to the Lithuanian Holocaust

Author: Prit Buttar Publisher: Amberley Publishing Price: £25 Released: Out now

As an author, Prit Buttar has a commendable history of trudging through the deepest and darkest mud of the Eastern Front of World War II to bring its stories to new audiences. These often challenging and desperate tales have too often been sidelined in favour of well-trodden tales from the Western Front or to bigger picture overviews of the powerful figures. As Buttar outlines in his intro, that bigger picture vantage also tends to sum up the human cost in numbers so large that they become difficult to fully absorb, and so here he tries to focus in on one area; the Holocaust in Lithuania.

But while that target may be contained, there is no lack of context here. Buttar takes us back to the origins of the Nazi’s Einsatzgruppen (meaning task force, but essentially death squads), to the politics at play in the Molotov–ribbentrop Pact. We even head back into Medieval history to learn more about the struggles for independence in Lithuania and the role the Teutonic Knights played. And, of course, we delve into the backstories of the people who led the execution of Jews in the region and the backstories of their victims. We also learn about some of the heroic people who stood up to these crimes, saving as many as they could, including Japanese and Dutch diplomats or even a German Army officer who couldn’t abide what was happening behind the front line. Engaging, potent and informative, this is another excellent work from Buttar.