Lithuanian resistance during World War II
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During World War II,
Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
was occupied by the Soviet Union (1940–1941), Nazi Germany (1941–1944), and the Soviet Union again in 1944.
Resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...
during this period took many forms. Significant parts of the resistance were formed by Polish and Soviet forces, some of which fought with Lithuanian collaborators. This article presents a summary of the organizations, persons and actions involved. Lithuania was defacto independent from June 24, 1941 until June 30, 1941 when Nazi Germany took full control of the area.


First Soviet occupation

In 1940, President Antanas Smetona fled to Germany, not wanting his government to become a puppet of the Soviet occupation. Soviet attempts to capture him were unsuccessful, and he was able to settle in the United States. In 1940, Jan Zwartendijk, the Dutch consul in Kaunas, and Chiune Sugihara, the
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese consul in
Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
, and his wife Yukiko disobeyed orders and saved thousands of Jewish refugees from Poland by granting them visas. In 1941, the
Lithuanian Activist Front The Lithuanian Activist Front or LAF () was a short-lived, far-right underground resistance organization established in 1940 after Lithuania was incorporated by the Soviet Union. The goal of the organization was to liberate Lithuania and re-estab ...
( lt, Lietuvos Aktyvistų Frontas) formed an underground government, and following the June uprising, the Provisional Government of Lithuania maintained sovereignty for a brief period.


Nazi German occupation

Soviet partisans began sabotage and guerrilla operations against German forces immediately after the Nazi invasion of 1941. The activities of Soviet partisans in Lithuania were partly coordinated by the Command of the Lithuanian Partisan Movement headed by Antanas Sniečkus and partly by the Central Command of the Partisan Movement of the USSR. In 1943, the Nazis attempted to raise a Waffen-SS division from the local population as they had in many other countries, but due to widespread coordination between resistance groups, the mobilization was boycotted. The Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (''Lietuvos vietinė rinktinė'') was eventually formed in 1944 under Lithuanian command, but was liquidated by the Nazis only a few months later for refusing to subordinate to their command.Peterson, Roger D. ''Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe''
p. 164
Cambridge University Press, 2001-05-07.
Lane, Thomas. ''Lithuania: Stepping Westward''
p. 57
Routledge (UK), 2002-08-23.
Mackevičius, Mečislovas

'' Lituanus'', Vol. 32, No. 4, Winter 1986. Ed. Antanas Dundzila. ISSN 0024-5089
There was no significant violent resistance directed against the Nazis. Some Lithuanians, encouraged by Germany's vague promises of
autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
, cooperated with the Nazis. Pre-war tensions over the Vilnius Region resulted in a low-level civil war between Poles and Lithuanians. Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian units, primarily the
Lithuanian Secret Police The Lithuanian Security Police (LSP), also known as Saugumas ( lt, Saugumo policija), was a local police force that operated in German-occupied Lithuania from 1941 to 1944, in collaboration with the occupational authorities. Collaborating with th ...
, were active in the region and assisted the Germans in repressing the Polish population. In the autumn of 1943, the Home Army began retaliatory operations against the Lithuanian units and killed hundreds of mostly Lithuanian Auxiliary policemen and other collaborators during the first half of 1944. The conflict culminated in the massacres of Polish and Lithuanian civilians in June 1944 in the
Glitiškės Glitiškės ( pl, Glinciszki) is a village in Vilnius district Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the muni ...
(Glinciszki) and
Dubingiai Dubingiai ( pl, Dubinki) is a town in Molėtai district in Lithuania. It is situated near Lake Asveja, the longest lake in the country. The town has 208 inhabitants as of 2017. History The settlement was first mentioned in 1334, when Teutonic kn ...
(Dubinki) villages. ''See also Polish-Lithuanian relations during World War II.'' Also in 1943, several underground political groups united under the
Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania or VLIK ( lt, Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas) was an organization seeking independence of Lithuania. It was established on November 25, 1943, during the Nazi occupation. After Wor ...
(''Vyriausias Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas'', or ''VLIK''). The committee issued a declaration of independence that went largely unnoticed. It became active mostly outside Lithuania among emigrants and deportees, and was able to establish contacts in Western countries and get support for resistance operations inside Lithuania (see
Operation Jungle Operation Jungle was a programme by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) early in the Cold War from 1949 to 1955 for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into Poland and the Baltic states. The agents were most ...
). It would persist abroad for many years as one of the groups representing Lithuania in exile.Kaszeta, Daniel J
Lithuanian Resistance to Foreign Occupation 1940-1952
'' Lituanus'', Volume 34, No. 3, Fall 1988. Ed. Antanas Dundzila. ISSN 0024-5089
Lithuanian Freedom Army The Lithuanian Liberation Army (sometimes also named as Lithuanian Freedom Army) ( lt, Lietuvos laisvės armija or LLA) was a Lithuanian underground organization established by Kazys Veverskis (codename Senis), a student at Vilnius University, on ...
during Nazi Germany's occupation opposed German policies, but did not begin armed resistance. The armed struggle began in mid-1944 when Red Army reached the Lithuanian borders after the Minsk Offensive. The LLA became the first wave of the Lithuanian partisans, armed anti-Soviet guerrilla fighters. It attempted to become the central command of the armed struggle. However, the organization headquarters was liquidated by the Soviet security forces (NKVD and KGB) by April 1946. Many Lithuanian Freedom Army fighters joined Lithuanian partisans. Jewish partisans also fought against the Nazi occupation. In September 1943, the United Partisan Organization, led by
Abba Kovner Abba Kovner ( he, אבא קובנר; 14 March 1918 – 25 September 1987) was a Polish Israeli poet, writer and partisan leader. In the Vilna Ghetto, his manifesto was the first time that a target of the Holocaust identified the German plan to ...
, attempted to start an
uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
in the
Vilna Ghetto The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland. During the approximatel ...
, and later engaged in sabotage and guerrilla operations against the Nazi occupation. In July 1944, as part of its Operation Tempest, the Polish Home Army launched Operation Ostra Brama, an attempt to recapture that city. ''See also Polish–Lithuanian relations during World War II''. As of January 2008, 723 Lithuanians were recognized by Israel as Righteous among the Nations for their efforts in saving Lithuania's Jews from the Holocaust. The total number of people who helped the Jews may be much higher.Procuta, Genius
How Many Rescuers of Jews Were There?
'' Tėviškės Žiburiai'', Missisauga, Ontario, Canada, 1999-03-16.


Second Soviet occupation

Lithuanian partisans, known as the Forest Brothers, began
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
against the Soviet forces as soon as the
front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * ''The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
passed over them in 1944, and continued an armed struggle until 1953. The core of this movement was made up of soldiers from the Territorial Defense Force who had disbanded with their weapons and uniforms and members of the
Lithuanian Freedom Army The Lithuanian Liberation Army (sometimes also named as Lithuanian Freedom Army) ( lt, Lietuvos laisvės armija or LLA) was a Lithuanian underground organization established by Kazys Veverskis (codename Senis), a student at Vilnius University, on ...
, established in 1941. The underground had extensive clandestine radio and press.Lane
p. 58
/ref> Thousands of people engaged in active and passive resistance against the Soviet authorities. The various resistance organizations eventually united under the
Movement of the Struggle for the Freedom of Lithuania Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters or Movement for the Struggle for Lithuanian Freedom ( lt, Lietuvos laisvės kovos sąjūdis or LLKS) was a resistance organization of the Lithuanian partisans, waging a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in ...
(''Lietuvos Laisvės Kovų Sąjūdis'', or ''LLKS''), issuing a declaration of independence in 1949 that would ultimately be signed into law by the independent Republic of Lithuania in 1999.
Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendmen ...

''Law on the February 16, 1949 Declaration by the Council of the Movement of the Struggle for Freedom of Lithuania''
Law No. VIII-1021, 1999-01-12, Vilnius.
The most famous of these partisans is probably Juozas Lukša, author of several books during the resistance and the subject of a recent film. While armed resistance ended in the 1950s,
nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...
continued in various forms (e.g. through Lithuanians living abroad, the Catholic press, safeguarding local traditions and the Lithuanian language, the Sąjūdis movement, etc.), until 1991 when Russia recognized the independence declared by Lithuania on March 11, 1990.


Significance of February 16

February 16, the date that Lithuania first declared its independence in 1918, played an important symbolic role during this period. The call for volunteers for the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, the VLIK declaration of independence, and the LLKS declaration of independence were all made on February 16. This day has become a national holiday in Lithuania.


See also

*
Occupation of the Baltic states The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet ...
* Guerrilla war in the Baltic states *
Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany During World War II, in the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded Estonia in July–December 1941, and occupied the country until 1944. Estonia had gained independence in 1918 from the then warring German and Russian Empires. How ...
* Estonian anti-German resistance movement 1941–1944 * Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany * Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 *
Latvian resistance movement Latvian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Latvia **Latvians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to what is modern-day Latvia and the immediate geographical region **Latvian language, also referred to as Lettish **Latvian cuisine **Latvi ...
*
Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 led to the military occupation of Byelorussia until August 1944 with the Soviet Operation Bagration. The western parts of Byelorussia became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941, and ...
*
Belarusian resistance movement Belarusian resistance movement are the resistance movements on the territory of contemporary Belarus. Wars in the area - Great Northern War and the War of the Polish Succession - damaged its economy further. In addition, Russian armies raided the P ...
*
History of Poland (1939–1945) The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses primarily the period from the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to the end of World War II. Following the German–Soviet non-aggression pact, Poland was invaded by Nazi ...
*
Polish resistance movement in World War II The Polish resistance movement in World War II (''Polski ruch oporu w czasie II wojny światowej''), with the Polish Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance movement in all of occupied Europe, covering both German a ...
* Collaboration during World War II * Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact


References


Further reading

*Remeikis, Thomas
The Decision of the Lithuanian Government to Accept the Soviet Ultimatum of June 14, 1940
'' Lituanus'', Vol. 21, No. 4, Winter 1975. ISSN 0024-5089 {{Authority control Eastern European World War II resistance movements Jewish Lithuanian history Resistance in Lithuania World War II resistance movements Lithuanian Resistance in World War II