and it�*s notjust jonas noreika.�*s bad — but genocide is over—the—top, genocide is over—the—top and it really, it really upsets me that my countrymen, first of all, did it, and it also upsets me that my countrymen first of all did it and it also upsets me that theyjust can�*t admit they did it. they should. but notjust your countrymen, your grandfather, and not just your grandfather, but if i am honest with you, your story suggests that your own grandmother and your own mother knew and lied, and covered up, and you have to deal with that. i—i know. all i can say is they�*re products of their generation. i don�*t think my mother knew as much as my grandmother. i think my mother got as far as hearing about it and then going into denial, and i followed her footsteps for about ten years, so i think that�*s far as she got and just called it communist propaganda. my grandmother, though, knew. i�*m convinced my grandmother knew. that�*s very hard for you to accept because it�*s gonna going to fundamentally change the way y

but according to his granddaughter, jonas noreika was no hero.e had the blood of thousands ofjews on his hands. now she has chosen to speak out, angering many in lithuania. so what happens when truth trumps family loyalty? silvia foti in chicago, welcome to hardtalk. hello, thank you. yours is an extraordinary story to tell. let's begin by establishing why you chose to dig so deep into the life of your grandfather, who, of course, was a man you had never met, because he was executed by the soviets in 1910. so why did you go so deep into his life? um... it's kind of... i sort of stumbled into it, to be honest. i got the story from my mother on her deathbed, and i thought i was going to write about a hero when i started this. i had no idea about his dark past, and it really only came about when i was burying my mother in lithuania and visiting the school named after him, when the director just very casually mentioned that, "your grandfather was accused of killing jews." and i almost fainted when he said that because that was the very first time i h

working in jonas noreika's offers, working injonas noreika's offers, describing how the commandant,at is jonas noreika, commandant, that isjonas noreika, said to him i have issued the order to shoot every last one of them. that is extraordinarily powerful, but aggers in a court of law people would say that is oral testimony, some might even say it is hearsay. it is not written documentary evidence. i5 written documentary evidence. is that something of a problem for you? is that something of a problem foryou? now is that something of a problem for you? now in lithuania, everything you have written, and we can see the book you have written behind you, everything you have written is coming under the closest of close scrutiny. are you absolutely sure, in your mind, but this accusation you are laying at the door of your own grandfather of being, notjust grandfather of being, not just an grandfather of being, notjust an accessory, but being a key part of the first months of the holocaust in lithuania, it is absolutely irrefutable, is that? , , , ., that? in my mind, yes. you know, in — th