Grant Arthur Gochin is the author of “Malice, Murder and Manipulation: One Man’s Quest for Truth”. The book documents his family history of oppression in Lithuania. Gochin recently discussed “Lithuanian Holocaust Fraud” during a presentation hosted by The Gross Family Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Holocaust. During our conversation, Gochin shared his work as an activist.
“I was an activist in the South African liberation struggle and recognized that the majority of whites fighting Apartheid were Jewish. When I immigrated to America I began volunteering to teach literacy in the inner cities and noticed most of my co-volunteers were Jewish. I became involved in the gay rights movement and the volunteers were almost exclusively Jewish. Yet, when it came to feeding food insecure Jews, or assisting Holocaust survivors, there was a total absence of non-Jewish volunteers. Jews were so busy taking care of everyone else, that we were not taking care of our own and nobody else was stepping in to care for us. I recognized the disinformation and lack of gratitude to those who came before us to lead the civil rights movement and to lay the groundwork for the rights we have. I wanted to honor them and ensure that the truth was told about them. I knew Holocaust survivors when I was growing up. They were the finest people who ever lived. It was impossible to conceive of anyone mistreating such extraordinary people. When I came to learn that there were a huge number of ‘food-insecure’ survivors, even in America, my focus began to change. Since then, my efforts have developed in many tangents which today focuses on Holocaust truth and antisemitism.”
“I am actively involved in Jewish affairs focusing on historical justice and have spent the past twenty years documenting and restoring signs of Jewish life in Lithuania,” Gochin continued.
“I have served as the Chair of the Maceva Project in Lithuania. My grandmother was from a village called Raguva in Lithuania. I went to Lithuania and the
cemetery was overgrown, impassable and had reverted to nature. For me to look for family graves, I would have to clearcut the cemetery. I approached the city council with no response. Then I approached the high school. I offered to fund a library for the school if the students would do the work to clean and restore the cemetery. No response. Finally, I hired a crew to clearcut the cemetery and the authorities arrested my workers. I realized that it was the government’s intention that Jewish cemeteries revert to nature so that nobody would see them and it would not raise the question – ‘where are the Jews now?’ It was a variation of Holocaust denial. An Estonian Jewish man named Aleksandr Avramenko began restoring cemeteries and I worked with him. Later, Sergey Kanovich took over the organization and together we cleaned, restored, documented and translated many dozens of cemeteries. There is currently a massive Jewish cemetery project underway with a museum being built, called ‘The Lost Shtetl’. Once that project launched I concluded that the one cemetery could stand as an example for the whole country.”
Gochin expressed why he wrote “Malice, Murder and Manipulation.”
“I was the very first Jew to apply for citizenship restoration in Lithuania. I uncovered Lithuania’s ‘No Jew’ citizenship policy. Through my research I exposed that the Lithuanian Government was using the identical tactics to deny my application that they used against my great grandmother in 1922. Their antisemitism caused the deaths of many of my relatives and the incredible suffering of the remainder. In 1922, my great grandmother had no means to defend herself against hatred of Jews and so was their victim. I decided that victimization of Jews by Lithuania was utterly unacceptable so I fought back. I exposed the Lithuanian Government’s ‘No-Jew’ citizenship policy and led an international media campaign to expose them. Because of my work and work of others, Lithuania had to change their citizenship laws, and now, decades later, they welcome Jews as citizens. Because of my work, an estimate 6,000 South African Jews now hold Lithuanian citizenship, which gives them European protection against a viciously antisemitic and threatening South African government.”
Gochin expressed how his grandfather inspired his work.
“After my grandfather died I recognized how little I understood about him as a man, so I began to research him and his history. It was a history of utter deprivation and intense suffering and loss. For his whole life, he deprived himself so he could help others – anonymously. He embodied Maimonides’ Levels of Charity in a way nobody else ever has. He wanted no recognition. He claimed no credit. He deprived himself and helped many. And nobody knew. And when I learned what and who he really was, I have since tried to emulate my life according to what I only learned about him after he died. He is my inspiration for repairing cemeteries, for helping those who cannot help themselves and never wanting one iota of credit for what he did. My Grandfather, Sam Gochin, embodied the true principles of being a ‘Litvak’. If I can be half the man he was, I will be very satisfied.”
