In his letter posted on Facebook on Wednesday evening, Rolandas Kriščiūnas said that “hundreds of thousands of our citizens were killed, exiled, tortured, raped, separated from their families” after the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania.
“The decision to display and promote the symbols associated with mass murder of innocent people cannot and should not be viewed as an ordinary business decision. The promotion of such symbols resonates with a big pain for many centuries,” the ambassador said.
“I don’t believe that the Walmart leadership deliberately chose to insult millions of innocent victims or their off-springs, or to side with those who stand accused of crimes against humanity. But in this case, the T-shirts and other products with the symbols of mass murder should be immediately withdrawn,” he said.
Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 to 1941 and in 1944 to 1990.