The issue of Polish and Lithuanian relations during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

is a controversial one, and some modern

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n and Polish historians still differ in their interpretations of the related events, many of which are related to the Lithuanian collaboration with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and the operations of Polish resistance organization of

Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

on territories inhabited by Lithuanians and Poles. Several common

academic conference An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...

s started bridging the gap between Lithuanian and Polish interpretations, but significant differences remain.

Background

Polish–Lithuanian relations were strained during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, mostly due to the conflict over the

Vilnius Region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territory ...

(which had a Polish majority but was seen by Lithuanians as their historical capital).Michael MacQueen, ''The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania'', Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 12, Number 1, pp. 27-48, 1998

/ref> This conflict resulted in enmity within local communities and the mutual harsh treatment of the Polish and Lithuanian ethnic minorities living in both countries. The tensions had begun to diminish by early spring of 1938 (see 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania), when both nations restored normal relations, and telephone, mail, rail, and road communications were established. The rapprochement was however stopped when Germany invaded Poland on the first day of September 1939. Germany had proposed Lithuania join in the invasion to gain control of the disputed Vilnius Region. However, despite Lithuania's antipathy towards Poland, the Lithuanian government was distrustful of Germany and refused. Lithuania thus remained neutral and independent in the initial days of

. On September 17, the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

began following its Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Vilnius Region was soon occupied by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, which intended to place it inside the borders of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. On September 19, Lithuanian envoy in Moscow Ladas Natkevičius claimed Lithuanian rights to Vilnius, which was now occupied by the Red Army and was out of Polish control. After the new German-Soviet border was established on September 28, the Soviets invited the Lithuanians to talks. Negotiations lasted from October 3 to 10. The result of the talks was the " Treaty on Mutual Assistance and Transfer of Vilnius and Vilnius Region to Lithuania," under which, in exchange for Vilnius, Lithuania agreed to establish Soviet military bases on its territory. The agreement came as a result of immense Soviet pressure, and Lithuanian diplomats had no illusions that the presence of Soviet troops meant preparation for annexation. During negotiations, the Soviets threatened the possibility of annexing Vilnius to Soviet Belarus, and even the possibility of reconstituting the Lithuanian-Belarusian SSR. The Polish envoy in Kaunas, Franciszek Charwat, submitted a protest note on behalf of the Polish government. The Lithuanian side responded that Vilnius was and is an inseparable part of Lithuania, which Poland occupied since 1920. According to Polish military attaché , the Lithuanians' response was even harsher, they were to state that they did not recognize the Polish government in Paris and for them Poland ceased to exist. In response, Charwat left Lithuania, thus officially breaking off Polish-Lithuanian relations and restarting a strong feeling of hostility between the two countries. Nevertheless, the pressing matter for Lithuania now became resisting Soviet pressure: most of the better politically oriented Lithuanian intelligentsia realized that the takeover of the Vilnius region was merely a prelude to the occupation of Lithuania by Soviet forces. Ultimately, on 15 June, the Red Army invaded Lithuania, soon followed up by invasions of the two other Baltic States,

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. On 3 August, Lithuania was formally annexed to the USSR as the Lithuanian Socialist Soviet Republic.Breslavskienė L, Lietuvos okupacija ir aneksija 1939-1940: dokumentų rinkinys, Vilnius: Mintis, 1993. Lithuania remained under the Soviet Union for nearly a year, until on 22 June 1941,

began an invasion of the Soviet Union and crossed the border into Lithuania, thereafter occupying it.

Conflicting ideologies

The Vilnius Region had a complex demographic history. This was further aggravated by Germans forcibly relocating Lithuanian families to the region from western parts of Lithuania. Lithuania Ponary Monument

A significant number of Lithuanians started collaborating with the German occupiers,Piotrowski, 1998
p.163
/ref>Snyder
p.84
/ref> Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliunas, ''The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews'', Rodopi, 2004,
Google Print, p.3
/ref> Leonidas Donskis, ''Identity and Freedom: mapping nationalism and social criticism in twentieth-century Lithuania'', Routledge, 2002,
Google Print, p.74
/ref> a prominent example being the

Lithuanian Activist Front The Lithuanian Activist Front or LAF () was a Lithuanian underground resistance organization established in 1940 after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940), Soviets occupied Lithuania. Its goal was to free Lithuanian Soviet Socialist ...

, many members of whom came from the National Unionists whose pre-war slogan was 'Lithuania for Lithuanians'. The Lithuanian government, encouraged by the Germans, hoped that the Germans would grant Lithuania as much autonomy as it has granted

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. Even through LAF faded after 1941, and Germans never granted the Lithuanians the autonomy they desired, elements within the Lithuanian government, collaborating with Germans, engaged in the program of ethnic and racial purification, targeting Jews, Poles and other non-Lithuanian ethnic minorities.Snyder
p.82
/ref> Anti-Polish rhetoric and violence became common under the Juozas Ambrazevičius government in 1941 (followed by the role of Petras Kubiliūnas as a puppet counsel to the German rulers).Piotrowski, 1998
/ref> Kubiliūnas led the puppet-Council advising the German government of the "general District Lithuania" ( Generalbezirk Litauen) led by Generalkommissar of Lithuania Theodor Adrian von Renteln. Some Lithuanian clergy called for

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

s of Poles, stating that the Poles were worse than the Jews and offered

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

s for killing Poles. A Lithuanian professor wrote a pamphlet on "Why Should we hate the Poles", and LAF campaigned for the establishment of ghettos for Poles, requirement for them to wear identifying badges, and reduction of their food rations, claiming that "under Soviets, we killed 50% of Poles, under Germans we will kill the other 50%". One of the most infamous series of incidents took place in the Paneriai () district of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, where from 1941 to 1943 Germans and Lithuanians massacred tens of thousands of Jews and Poles.Kazimierz Sakowicz, Yitzhak Arad, ''Ponary Diary, 1941-1943: A Bystander's Account of a Mass Murder'', Yale University Press, 2005,
Google Print
Piotrowski, 1998
p.168
/ref> Around 1943, one of the political factions of the Government Delegation for Poland for the Vilnius region, the Vilnius Democratic Concentration () – the underground union of leftist Polish parties, partly because of the pro-Nazi stance of Lithuanian authorities, and partly influenced by the nationalist stance of Polish ''

Endecja National Democracy (, often abbreviated as ND or known as ''Endecja''; ) was a Polish political movement that operated from the second half of the 19th century, during the partitions of Poland, until the end of the Second Polish Republic. It e ...

'' party, stated a plan to occupy Lithuania after the war, submit it under the rule of Polish General Commissariat and to re-educate "corrupt" Lithuanians. Arūnas Bubnys. ''Armijos Krajovos ištakos ir ideologija Lietuvoje'' (Beginnings and ideology of Armia Krajowa in Lithuania). Armija Krajova Lietuvoje, pp. 6-13. A. Bubnys, K. Garšva, E. Gečiauskas, J. Lebionka, J. Saudargienė, R. Zizas (editors). Vilnius – Kaunas, 1995. On 1 March 1944, the Polish issued declaration expressing preparation to fight for

Eastern Borderlands Eastern Borderlands (), often simply Borderlands (, ) was a historical region of the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic. The term was coined during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic with ...

(Vilnius,

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Lida Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...

Novogrudok Novogrudok or Navahrudak (; ; , ; ) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Novogrudok District. As of 2025, it has a population of 27,624. In the Middle Ages, the city was ruled by King Mindaugas' son V ...

, and

Pinsk Pinsk (; , ; ; ; ) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of t ...

). However, such declarations of local Polish politicians differed significantly from the official statement and actions of the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...

, which was the only country among the anti-Nazi coalition which declared its support for the cause of Lithuanian post-war independence.Antypolski film w litewskiej telewizji
Article from

Rzeczpospolita () is a traditional Polish term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "rzeczpospolita", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage" "thing, matter" and "common" is analogous to the Latin ''rēs pūblica' ...

reprinted on the pages by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.. Anna Pisarczyk
Wyboista droga do pojednania
"MAGAZYN WILEŃSKI", 4/2006 Although Lithuanian and Polish resistance movements had common enemies – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – they never became allies. The main obstacle in allying was the question of Vilnius – the

Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovere ...

and the Polish resistance regarded Vilnius as part of Poland, while Lithuanian resistance regarded Vilnius as the capital of Lithuania. Lithuanian resistance saw the Soviet Union as the main enemy and Nazi Germany as its secondary enemy. Polish resistance saw Nazi Germany as the main enemy and was much more ambiguous on the Soviet Union. Only in 1944–1945, after the Soviet reoccupation, did Lithuanian and Polish resistance start cooperating in the fight against the Soviets.

Armed conflict

Lithuanian authorities had been aiding Germans in their actions against Poles since the very beginning of German occupation in 1941, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Poles. Thousands of Poles were killed by Lithuanian collaborators working with Nazis (like the German subordinated

Lithuanian Security Police The Lithuanian Security Police (LSP), also known as ''Saugumas'' (), was a local police force that operated in German-occupied Lithuania from 1941 to 1944, in collaboration with the occupational authorities. Collaborating with the Nazi Sipo (sec ...

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

, 2001-02-14
''Litewska prokuratura przesłuchuje weteranów AK''
(Lithuanian prosecutor questioning AK veterans), last accessed on 7 June 2006] or the

Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force The Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (; , LVR) was a short-lived Lithuanian volunteer military unit created in spring 1944, during the last year of the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II, German occupation of Lithuania in World ...

under the command of general

Povilas Plechavičius Povilas Plechavičius (1 February 1890 – 19 December 1973) was a Lithuanian military officer and statesman. His military career began in the Imperial Russian Army as a yunker during World War I. Then, Plechavičius climbed the ranks of the i ...

, 2004-09-01
''W Wilnie pojednają się dziś weterani litewskiej armii i polskiej AK''
(Today in Vilnius veterans of Lithuanian army and AK will forgive each other), last accessed on 7 June 2006 many more were deported into Germany as

slave labour Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

.Piotrowski
p.168p.169
/ref>) Tadeusz Piotrowski notes that thousands of Poles died at the hand of Lithuanian collaborators, and tens of thousands were deported. Aleksander Krzyzanowski

In autumn 1943, Armia Krajowa started operations against the Lithuanian collaborative organization, the

, which had been aiding Germans in their operation since its very creation. Polish political and military underground cells were created all over Lithuania, Polish partisan attacks were usually not only in Vilnius Region but across the former demarcation line as well. Soon a significant proportion of AK operations became directed against

allied Lithuanian Police and local Lithuanian administration. During the first half of 1944 AK killed hundreds of Lithuanians serving in Nazi auxiliary units or organizations: policemen, members of village self-defence units, servants of local administration, soldiers of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force and other Nazi collaborators. Civilians on both sides increasingly numbered among the casualties. In response, Lithuanian police, who had murdered hundreds of Polish civilians since 1941, increased its operations against the Poles, executing many Polish civilians; this further increased the

vicious circle A vicious circle (or cycle) is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with detrimental results. It is a system with no tendency toward equilibrium (social, economic, ecological, etc.), at least in the shor ...

and the previously simmering Polish–Lithuanian conflict over the Vilnius Region deteriorated into a low-level

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

under German occupation.

Timothy Snyder Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the history of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust. He is on leave from his position as the Richard C. Levin, Richar ...

, Yale University Press, 2003, , ''The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999'' The scale of disruption grew over time; Lithuanian historian noted, for example, that AK was able to paralyze the activities of many Lithuanian educational institutions in 1943. Stanislovas Buchaveckas. ''Rytų Lietuvos Mokyklos ir Armija Krajova 1941-1944 m.'' (Schools in Eastern Lithuania and Armia Krajowa in 1941-1944). Armija Krajova Lietuvoje, pp. 40-56. A. Bubnys, K. Garšva, E. Gečiauskas, J. Lebionka, J. Saudargienė, R. Zizas (editors). Vilnius – Kaunas, 1995. In May 1944, in the

battle of Murowana Oszmianka The Battle of Murowana Oszmianka of 13–14 May 1944 was the largest clash between the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish resistance movement organization Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) and the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force ...

AK dealt a significant blow to the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force which has been terrorizing local Polish population. See als
review
/ref> At that time, Aleksander Krzyżanowski, AK commander of Vilnius region, commanded over 9000 armed Armia Krajowa partisans. On 23 June 1944, in response to an earlier massacre on 20 June of 37 Polish villagers in

Glitiškės Glitiškės () is a village in Vilnius district, Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, borde ...

(Glinciszki) by Lithuanian Security Police rogue AK troops from the unit of the 5th Vilnian Home Army Brigade (under the command of

Zygmunt Szendzielarz Zygmunt Szendzielarz (12 March 1910 – 8 February 1951, nom de guerre "Łupaszka".) was the commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Brigade of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and after the Second World War fought against the Red Army. The unit also co ...

"Łupaszko" who was not present at the events) committed a massacre of Lithuanian policemen and civilians, at Dubingiai (Dubinki), where 27 Lithuanians, including women and children, were murdered. These rogue units were acting against specific orders of Krzyżanowski which forbade reprisals against civilians In total, the number of victims of Polish revenge actions at the end of June 1944 in Dubingiai and neighbouring towns of

Joniškis Joniškis (; Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Juonėškis''; ) is a city in northern Lithuania with a population of about 9,900. It is located 39 kilometers north of Šiauliai and 14 kilometers south of the Lithuania–Latvia border. Joniškis i ...

, , , and

Giedraičiai Giedraičiai is a town in Molėtai district municipality, Lithuania with about 700 residents. It is located some 45 km north of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, on the banks of Lake Kiementas. It is the capital of an elderate. The town, a ...

, was 70–100 Lithuanians, including many civilians. Rimantas Zizas. ''Armijos Krajovos veikla Lietuvoje 1942-1944 metais'' (Acitivies of Armia Krajowa in Lithuania in 1942-1944). Armija Krajova Lietuvoje, pp. 14-39. A. Bubnys, K. Garšva, E. Gečiauskas, J. Lebionka, J. Saudargienė, R. Zizas (editors). Vilnius – Kaunas, 1995. The Massacre at Dubingiai was the only known massacre carried out by units of AK. Further escalation by either side was cut short by the Soviet occupation of Vilnius region two weeks later. Polish and Lithuanian historians have to yet reach an agreement on the number of victims. Polish-Lithuanian historian Jarosław Wołkonowski puts the number of Lithuanians killed by rogue AK elements at under 100. An estimate by a Lithuanian investigator Rimas Bružas is that about 500 Lithuanian civilians were killed by Poles during the war. A state commission was established by the Government of Lithuania to evaluate activities of Armia Krajowa in Lithuania which had to present conclusions by 1 December 1993. Not a single member of Armia Krajowa, many veterans of which live in Lithuania, has been charged with any crimes as of 2001. A Lithuanian historian

Arūnas Bubnys Arūnas Bubnys (born November 7, 1961) is a Lithuanian historian and archivist. He started his studies at Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and l ...

stated that there were no

mass murders Mass murder is the violent crime of killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more person ...

carried out by AK (with the only exception being Dubingiai), but that AK was guilty of some war crimes against individuals or selected families; he also notes that any accusations of

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

are false and have an underlying political motive, among them a counteraction to the accusations of widespread Lithuanian collaboration with Germany and crimes committed by units such as the Lithuanian Security Police (see also

Holocaust in Lithuania The Holocaust resulted in the near total eradication of Lithuanian (Litvaks) and Polish Jews in '' Generalbezirk Litauen'' of the ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' in the Nazi-controlled Lithuania. Of approximately 208,000–210,000 Jews at the ...

Postwar developments

The postwar assessment of AK's activities in Lithuania was a matter of controversy. In

Communist Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

the actions of AK in general, and particularly the actions of commanders and units operating in Lithuania, were presented in a very negative light (see Cursed soldiers). The Communist regime executed or imprisoned commanders of the AK ''en masse'' after the war for political reasons, preventing any fair legal examination of crimes they may have committed during wartime.

"Łupaszka", after several years in the postwar underground, was arrested by the Polish Communist authorities, sentenced to death and executed on 8 February 1951, for his anti-communist activities. The assessment of his actions outside of Communist Poland was different, and in 1988 he was posthumously awarded the

Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', ) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was established in 1792 by the last King of Poland Stanislaus II of Poland, ...

, the highest Polish military award, by the Polish government in exile. Similarly, the Lithuanian general Povilas Plechavičius who was engaged in fighting the Polish and

Soviet partisans Soviet partisans were members of Resistance during World War II, resistance movements that fought a Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla war against Axis powers, Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Territories of Poland an ...

received a medal from the Lithuanian president in post-Soviet Lithuania.

Przewodnik Katolicki Przewodnik may refer to: * Przewodnik, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, a village in north-central Poland *Przewodnik, one of the ranks in Polish Scouting Ranks in Polish Scouting are common to the majority of Scouting organisations in Poland, in ...

(10/2004) by Grzegorz Górny
''Awantura o generała''
(Quarrel about a general). Last accessed on 7 June 2006. For these reasons, the AK is considered to be a controversial organisation in today's Lithuania in a manner somewhat similar to the view taken of

. Similarly, in Lithuania, many heroes of Lithuanian resistance against the Soviets are blamed as Nazi collaborators who cooperated in the murder of the Poles and Lithuanian Jewry, which caused controversy in Poland. In 1993, Lithuanian Government established commission consisting from historians to evaluate Armia Krajowa activities in Lithuania.

Tomas Venclova Tomas Venclova (born 11 September 1937) is a Lithuanian poet, prose writer, scholar, philologist and translator of literature. He is one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. In 1977, following his dissident activities, ...

distanced himself from the commission and called it a "pathetic spectacle" and "anti-Polish propaganda campaign" in one of his essays., as cited in: , see als
review
/ref> On 20 August 2004, Lithuanian government revoked the ban on using the name 'Armia Krajowa' in public spaces and allowed the renaming of the Polish veterans' organization to include the name of AK. On 9 September 2004, veterans of AK and some veterans of Local Lithuanian Detachment signed a Declaration of Peace. This initiative was encouraged by

President of Lithuania The president of the Republic of Lithuania () is the head of state of the Republic of Lithuania. The president directs and appoints the executive branch of the Government of Lithuania, represents the nation internationally and is the commande ...

Valdas Adamkus Valdas Adamkus (; born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; November 3, 1926) is a Lithuanian politician, diplomat and civil engineer who served as the fifth and seventh president of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009. Adamku ...

Prime Minister of Lithuania The prime minister of Lithuania (, , colloquially also referred to as the premier ) is the head of government of Lithuania. The prime minister is appointed by the President of Lithuania, president with the assent of the Lithuanian parliament, th ...

Algirdas Brazauskas Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas (, 1932 – 2010) was a Lithuanian politician who served as the fourth president of Lithuania from 1993 to 1998. He also served as the prime minister of Lithuania from 2001 to 2006. Brazauskas was the first democr ...

and

President of Poland The president of Poland ( ), officially the president of the Republic of Poland (), is the head of state of Poland. His or her prerogatives and duties are determined in the Constitution of Poland. The president jointly exercises the executive ...

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served the maximum two terms as the president of Poland from 1995 to 2005. His tenure as President was marked by modernization of Poland, rapid economi ...

, whose representative,

Andrzej Majkowski Andrzej is the Polish form of the given name Andrew. Notable individuals with the given name Andrzej * Andrzej Bartkowiak (born 1950), Polish film director and cinematographer * Andrzej Bobola, S.J. (1591–1657), Polish saint, missionary and m ...

, together with Lithuanian president and prime minister, was present at the reconciliation ceremony. Veterans of Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force who signed the declaration did so without approval of

Union of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force's soldiers Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Union ...

(). Romas Bacevičius. ''Dievo pagalba išvengęs mirties'' (Saved from death by God). Sidabrinė gija, 11 February 2005, No. 1 (11)
/ref>

Citations

References

, Yale University Press, 2003, , ''The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999'' * Tadeusz Piotrowski, ''Poland's Holocaust'', McFarland & Company, 1997, . * A. Bubnys, K. Garšva, E. Gečiauskas, J. Lebionka, J. Saudargienė, R. Zizas (editors). ''Armija Krajova Lietuvoje''. Vilnius-Kaunas, 1995 * * *

External links

* Jan Sienkiewicz in "Kurier Wileński" on Zbigniew Kurcz, „Mniejszość polska na Wileńszczyźnie", Parts 51–55 on World War II relations
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Polish-Lithuanian Relations During World War Ii Poland in World War II Lithuania in World War II Lithuania–Poland relations