KAUNAS, Lithuania — Pope Francis is paying tribute to Lithuanians who suffered and died during Soviet and Nazi occupations on the day the country remembers the near-extermination of its centuries-old Jewish community during the Holocaust. ADVERTISEMENTDuring Mass on Sunday, Francis is expected to honor those victims as well as the Lithuanians who were deported to Siberian gulags or were tortured and oppressed at home during five decades of Soviet occupation. The Baltic countries declared their independence in 1918 but were annexed into the Soviet Union in 1940 in a secret agreement with Nazi Germany. Except for the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation, the Baltic countries remained part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in the early 1990s. “In a country brutalized by both Nazi and Stalinist crimes, many people stood up to rescue Jews because they saw humanity as the ultimate good,” she said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 23, 2018 07:07 UTC