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March 11, 2021

How a Nazi Collaborator Became a Lithuanian National Hero

Uncovering a dark family secret.

Growing up in a Lithuanian family in Chicago, Silvia Foti learned that her grandfather, Jonas Noreika, was a hero who led an anti-Soviet revolt in his native country in the aftermath of World War II. After the fall of Communism, independent Lithuania honored Noreika, naming streets and even a school after him. Foti was thus surprised when, researching her grandfather’s life, she discovered that he—like many who fought against Stalinism in Ukraine and the Baltics—was also a Nazi collaborator:

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