Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius has strongly condemned recent acts of anti-Jewish vandalism in the capital Vilnius. Lithuanian police discovered Nazi slogans drawn on a former concentration camp after Adolf Hitler’s 124th birthday on 20 April. The slogans "Heil Hitler," “Jews out” in German and a swastika were scrawled on the pavement near the HKP 562 labor camp in Vilnius. Linkevicius said in a statement: "It is especially horrific that these anti-Semitic slogans appeared near two historically sensitive sites for the Jewish nation."
He added: “I strictly condemn the act of vandalism committed at the time when we are commemorating the victims of the Vilna Ghetto, as the Seimas [parliament] of Lithuania has passed a resolution, and will be assembling today to mark the 65th anniversary of Israel’s independence in Vilnius. We cannot tolerate incitement to ethnic hatred in a democratic state, which respects all ethnic minorities. I will raise this issue as a member of the government. In compliance with the laws of Lithuania, the perpetrators responsible for drawing swastikas shall not go unpunished, as the Lithuanian law prohibits the display of such symbols."
Today, a few thousand Jews live in Lithuania, an ex-Soviet nation of three million people that joined the European Union in 2004.