What comes to mind as I reflect on Sylvia Foti's article in the NY Times, National Collaborator or National Hero/ A Test for Lithuania, is the adage, "You can't see the past with today's eyes." My grandparents came from Lithuania, too and as I read her story, flashbacks of incidents and words came to mind.
When my grandfather came to the USA he opened what was then called a "general store." Many Lithuanians shopped in his store. Years later I heard opinions such as: "he overcharged his own people;" "he gypped his customers;" "he had his thumb on the scale." Do I believe this? Yes, because in my family, the family came first. Not morality, not the general good, and certainly not the eighth commandment. Why, because the family came first, then the eighth commandment and general good.
I remember the story of a salesman asking my grandfather if he worried about an employee's stealing. His response was to the effect of "Well, they're stupid if they don't. I don't pay them much." See, it was expected. It was the nature of the business to outsmart the other guy.
Nowadays, we're appalled, just as Sylvia Foti is. You can't judge the past with today's morality.
You might get a feel of what I am saying when you visit the middle east, or a Caribbean country and start to haggle over the price of something. You just might be overcharged. You might be gypped. You might "be taken." "They saw you coming!" But the sellers don't see it that way. In doing business, they outsmarted you. After all, the seller has to feed his family and his business is his means of so doing.
Did Jonas Noreika murder people? Yes. But think of the times. Lithuania is a country that is usually overrun, if not by enemies in the east, then enemies in the west, and don't forget the south. He probably joined the side where he could protect his family the best. Tragically, that job included murdering Jews. What could he do that wouldn't have sent repercussions upon his family?
Unfortunately, Jonas Noreika chose wrong. You are the choices you make in life.
Today it's the fashion to discredit our national heroes. Columbus murdered the peaceful indigenous people! Washington owned slaves! Tear down our statues! And strip Jonas Noreika of all honor!
If history teaches us anything, it should show today's readers not to be judgemental. People are people. No one is purely righteous. Today's moral eyes cannot judge the past. Circumstances, environment, family, culture, and politics have to be taken into consideration before we mount a high horse.
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