Double genocide theory
A display on anti-Soviet partisans at the Lithuanian Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, formerly known as the Museum of Genocide Victims, that has been criticised for its severe undercoverage of the Holocaust. | |
| Origin/etymology | Lithuania |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Holocaust trivialization |
| Context | Post-communism |
| Coined by | Dovid Katz |
Double genocide theory (Lithuanian: Dvigubo genocido požiūris, lit. 'Double genocide approach') is a term used to refer to the claim that the atrocities committed by the Soviet Union against Eastern Europeans constitute a genocide that was equivalent in scale and nature to the Holocaust, in which approximately six million Jews were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany. The theory first gained popularity in Lithuania after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, particularly in discussions about the Holocaust in Lithuania.
A more extreme version of the theory vindicates the actions of local Nazi collaborators as retaliatory by accusing Jews of complicity in Soviet repression, especially in Lithuania, eastern Poland, and northern Romania. Scholars have criticized the double genocide theory as a form of Holocaust trivialization.