Film touches nerve in revealing truth about Lithuanian Holocaust cover-up

Documentary J’Accuse! is changing the conversation in Lithuania about its brutal past. GILLIAN KLAWANSKY talks to director MICHAEL KRETZMER.

When filmmaker Michael Kretzmer set out to expose the truth behind Lithuania’s Holocaust distortions, he only dared dream of the ripple effects his film has since had. Since its premiere at Australia’s prestigious Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) last November, J’Accuse! has won multiple awards, been showcased around the world and most notably, is slowly spurring change in Lithuania. 

The film tells the largely unspoken truth of those killed in Lithuania and their murderers who have since been lauded as heroes. Some 95% of the Lithuanian Jewish population were decimated in the Holocaust, yet those who murdered 220,000 people are still glorified as heroes in the country.

J’Accuse! is a movie with a mission, centred around the unlikely alliance between dissident campaigners Grant Gochin, whose ancestors were murdered by celebrated Lithuanian nationalist Jonas Noreika, and Silvia Foti, Noreika’s granddaughter, who discovered and exposed her grandfather’s crimes.

Gochin, a South-African born American, has spent over 30 years working to investigate and prosecute more than a dozen Lithuanian leaders who were complicit or active in Lithuanian Holocaust activities, while Chicago-based Lithuanian Foti published a book exposing her infamous grandfather.

After unwittingly producing a piece of Lithuanian war propaganda, Kretzmer decided to dedicate his life to exposing the truth about what really happened. Born to South African parents in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Kretzmer had one Latvian and three Lithuanian grandparents. He later moved to England, where he worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for the BBC and other international broadcasters. While he had an idea of the atrocities committed against his Lithuanian ancestors, it was only in 2019 that Kretzmer eventually turned his lens on the country.

“Our grandparents never talked about it, our parents, if they knew about it, never talked about it and the reasons were obvious,” he says. “How can you possibly bring healthy children into this world if you discuss this horror? It’s a horror beyond imagination.” Therefore, while he grew up conscious of his Judaism and of the Holocaust, Kretzmer never fully investigated the Lithuanian Holocaust. “I think because it was just too personal and too awful to even imagine.”

When a cousin invited him, in 2019, to attend the unveiling of a monument in the Lithuanian city of Biržai, where 2400 Jews were murdered in 1941, Kretzmer confronted his history. “At the ceremony, there was a drape over this memorial, and when it dropped, I found myself looking at literally scores of Kretzmers. My entire family lay buried in that pit. It was the first time I really had some indication of the personal cost to us.”

He also looked at his immediate family dynamics through new eyes, his grandmother and mother’s depression, his father’s anger and the family’s general sense of discomfort and alienation.

Having taken along a camera, most likely as a form of emotional protection, Kretzmer documented the ceremony and made a small film. “I got almost everything wrong in this film, as I captured what I saw, which was, in fact, a great propaganda exercise.” Lithuanians sang schmaltzy songs at the graveside with government ministers in attendance and the event was highlighted on the Lithuanian evening news.

On the back of that film, Kretzmer was offered a substantial sum by the Lithuanian government to make a film about the country, which he eventually realised was another propaganda exercise. “I realised I was being used and I was so insulted that I made a promise to myself that I would first correct the mistake of my last film, and then second, tell the truth,” he says. “When I realised what was happening in Lithuania – a systemic Holocaust distortion – I promised myself and God that I would devote my life to making a proper film about this – and I did.”

While he expected his low-budget film to eventually disappear on YouTube due to the lack of interest in Holocaust films, Kretzmer was surprised to see it gain traction. Connecting with the granddaughter of his beloved former Hebrew teacher, who agreed to watch the film, Kretzmer was thrilled when it was accepted by JIFF and became one of the top four films screened there. Since then, worldwide momentum has steadily built. J’Accuse has now been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, most notably through its online screening by the South African Jewish Report Newspaper.

More importantly, it is beginning to change the dialogue with Lithuania. “The reason that this has happened is because of the power of the South African Jewish community, which is 90% Litvak (Lithuanian),” says Kretzmer. “After three generations, we were ready to take this up and to start this fight.”

J’Accuse! has become a phenomenon, particularly in the Jewish Litvak world. While he makes no claim on this achievement, Kretzmer believes the film touched a nerve. “When people saw this, they saw their own lives, and I believe it fostered in them a desire for justice.”

While there have been stern notices from the German and American governments condemning Lithuanian Holocaust revisionism, the best example of the film’s tangible success, says Kretzmer, is the recent midnight removal of the statue of Jonas Noreika from a plinth outside the Institute of Sciences in central Vilnius.

“They won't admit that they've been lying about the Holocaust for years, so they say they're simply cleaning the statue. Yet, they removed it because they knew it was a huge embarrassment as there was a NATO summit there last week.”

While Kretzmer is proud of this and other achievements, he says he wouldn’t be surprised if the monument was reinstated. “This is because the Lithuanians are so contemptuous of the Jewish people and to be honest, I understand why. We've never made a fuss, we accept their lies, and we’re polite and nice to them.

“This must change, we cannot accept this – friends who validate mass murderers are not our friends. For me, it's an issue of Jewish honour, pride, and justice. If the Holocaust is to have moral meaning, we must defeat them. Maybe we won't get the result, but at least we won't be compliant with them anymore.”

Kretzmer says the time for justice has come, mainly because of Foti’s courage in blowing the lid on Lithuanian Holocaust lies. “We need the support of the Jewish community across the world,” he concludes. “We're getting it, but many of us are still habitually pragmatic in the face of this kind of antisemitism. One of our principal objectives is to change that dynamic so we can be prouder, stronger, and braver in our demand for justice for our families. It’s time we assert ourselves. We are an astonishing people, and we should behave like it.”

J’Accuse! will be screened in Melbourne on Sunday, July 23, and in Perth on Monday, July 24, followed by live panel discussions with Kretzmer, Gochin and Foti.