The LAF Leaflet from the 19th of March, 1941: A Provocation, a Falsification or a Real Document?

Abstract

This article concerns the leaflet of the Lithuanian Ac­tivist Front, dated 19 March 1941. The leaflet, titled Dear enslaved brothers! has two different versions. One version has a sentence which calls that “The trai­tor will be pardoned only provided he proves beyond doubt that he has killed one Jew at least”. Another version of this document does not have the same sen­tence, but holds a remark that it is a multiplied copy of the document.
Archival resources show that the version of this leaflet with the already mentioned sentence was found in the house of anti-Soviet activist Osvaldas Žadvy­das during rummaging. The interrogations of the par­ticipants of the anti-Soviet underground movement in Lithuania show that the leaflet came from Berlin to Lithuania on 23 March 1941. This leaflet was mul­tiplied and circulated in various places of Lithuania. The interrogation of one of the major LAF signalmen Mykolas Naujokaitis underlines that all documenta­tion and leaflets were sent from Berlin to Lithuania by an active Voldemarist and Head of the LAF Com­mission of Relations with Lithuania Stasys Puodžius.
This article underlines that the authorship of the leaflet with the mentioned sentence belongs to the le­adership of the LAF Berlin branch and the fraction of Voldemarists.