DISINFO: The ex-President of Lithuania was an assistant to Minsk butcher
SUMMARY
During the Great Patriotic War systematic purposeful extermination of the Belarusian people took place, first of all by the regular German army, but also by collaborators from some of the neighboring states who joined them [...].
During some punitive operations, Lithuanian and Latvian nationalist collaborators played a more active role, one of them is “the well-known figure Antanas Impulevicius, nicknamed the Minsk Butcher. He appointed Valdas Adamkus as his assistant. [...]
The [criminal] investigation [in Belarus] is verifying information that Voldemaras Hubertas Laimutis Adamkavicius, later known as Valdas Adamkus, voluntarily joined and gave an oath to the so-called Fatherland Defense Army.
RESPONSE
False claim exploiting a recurring disinformation narrative about Nazi/Fascist Baltic States.
The claims made by the Belarusian authorities and state-controlled media are not backed by any historical or material evidence.
Lithuanian authorities dismissed the Belarusian probe as an attempt to distract from the current crisis in Belarus. According to the researcher from Vilnius University:
“It shows clearly how the Minsk regime views Lithuania, the West,” [...] “It’s an attempt to show us as killers, criminals, and so on.”
During the years of the German occupation of Lithuania (1941–1944) military-police units under the jurisdiction of the Nazis were formed. The Second Auxiliary Police Service Battalion was formed in Kaunas in August 1941 and was led by A. Impulevičius. The batallion was sent to Minsk district to fight against Soviet partisans and participated in mass killings of Jews, POW's, Soviet partisans and their supporters. The crimes of A.Impulevicus continue to be investigated by historians.
Valdas Adamkus is a former President of Lithuania (1998-2003; 2004-2009). He was born in 1926. During World War II Adamkus fought with Lithuanian insurrectionists against Soviet rule, published an underground newspaper during the Nazi occupation, and then resumed the fight against the returning Soviet army. In 1944 he fled to Germany and in 1949 he immigrated with his family to the United States. There is no evidence to suggest that his path at any time crossed with A.Impulevicius.
See related disinformation claims alleging that EU's historical revisionism contributes to neo-Nazi trends in Ukraine and the Baltic states; Latvia protects Nazi criminals; Baltic States laugh at the memory of millions who perished in Holocaust.