"Hitler's Admirers Shut Up"
Lietuvos Rytas
January 7, 2002

Officers of the State Security Department have issued written warnings to ten residents of Mazeikiai who were collecting information about Nazi ideology, admiring the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and were planning to set up a pro-Nazi organization called the "Lithuanian National Liberation Movement."

People from 16-21 years old who were involved in this were warned that setting up organizations directed against state as well as violations of ethnic equality might be regarded as criminal activities.

Security officers characterized the measures used against the residents of Mazeikiai as preventive.

An investigation was launched after the local Jewish cemetery was desecrated in Mazeikiai on November 2, 2001 with fascist graffiti on the gates, wall and tombstones.

Two weeks later, police detained a carpentry student of Mazeikiai polytechnic school, Egidijus Rozenbergas, age 17. He was accused of stabbing one resident of Mazeikiai in the back.

Mr. Rozenbergas admitted to having desecrated the cemetery. Notes and literature about Hitler's personality and activities, newspaper clippings about pro-Nazi actions and drawings of swastikas were discovered in his home.

Other suspects gave evidence about Rozenbergas's plans to set up a pro-Nazi group. A criminal case was instituted against him on charges of the desecration of the cemetery and bodily injury but he was not detained.

Many residents of Mazeikiai know Rozenbergas by sight because he liked wearing clothes with Nazi symbols. In the spring of 2001 he was expelled from Kalnenai high school in Mazeikiai for breaking school rules.

However, teachers at the school do not have any complaints regarding Rozenbergas's behavior and have praised him to the investigating officers.

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