E. Zingeris addressed the Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis and Mayor of Kaunas District Valerijus Makūnas whereat the memorial plaque was unveiled in Vilkija (Kaunas dstr.) to the chaplain of the 12th police battalion during World War II (who actively participated in the massacre of Lithuanian citizens of the Jewish nationality) Zenonas Ignatavičius.
In his address the chairman of the Commission Emanuelis Zingeris once again drew attention to the important issue to be tackled related to our commemoration policy. According to E. Zingeris there are a number of cases in Lithuania when public commemoration (monuments, commemorative plaques, etc. unveiled) has been bestowed upon persons for their participation in post-war partisan resistance, whose reputation is not clean due to their activities during the Nazi occupation. E. Zinger underlined that while respecting, appreciating and acknowledging the resistance of our post-war heroes to the Soviet occupation authorities, as one of the most outstanding events in our country’s history, he could not accept the practice in some places of Lithuania when those anti-Soviet resistance participants, who collaborated with the Nazi occupation regime and even participated in the genocide of Jewish fellow citizens, were publicly honored and commemorated. Such cases, according to E. Zingeris, cast a stain on all the partisan resistance. These cases are used internationally for the propaganda purposes by forces, hostile to Lithuania, for neglecting and discrediting all the armed post-war resistance. The unveiling of the memorial plaque to chaplain Z. Ignatavičius has already received a negative reaction from the international community. According to E. Zingeris, persons who participated in the Holocaust (regardless of their merits and activities against the Soviet occupation) should not be publicly introduced to the society as heroes and a role model for the younger generation.