Lithuanian official quits over Shoah denial
Interior Ministry specialist resigns after saying Nuremberg trials gave 'a legal basis to the legend about the six million supposedly murdered Jews'
An official at Lithuania's Interior Ministry has resigned after calling the Holocaust a "legend" in an article condemned by Western ambassadors, the ministry said on Thursday.
Lithuania's 200,000-strong Jewish community was almost wiped out during the Holocaust, and now numbers only a few thousand.
The official, a senior specialist at the ministry, said in a magazine article the Nuremberg trials after World War II had given "a legal basis to the legend about the six million supposedly murdered Jews".
The Allies set up a special court in Nuremberg, Germany, to try Nazis for war crimes.
The official's article drew strong condemnation from a group of Western ambassadors, who sent a letter to the interior minister and other top officials on Wednesday.
"This amounts to denial of the Holocaust and merits the strongest condemnation," they said in the letter. "Indeed, it would certainly be liable to legal process under the laws of many countries."
Interior Minister Raimundas Palaitis said in a statement he regretted the official's "personal interpretation of history".
He said the comments had nothing to do with the ministry's official position.
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