INTERNATIONAL SISTER CITY SQUABBLE

The winds of glasnost are fanning sparks in Fort Worth-an effort by the city to establish a sister city tie with Kaunas, Lithuania. There is a glowing ember of controversy because one Cowtown resident was among 3.500 survivors of the Kaunas concentration camp, where 35,000 Jews were held during World War II.

Several months ago. Fort Worth Mayor Bob Bolen wrote the mayor of Kaunas to suggest the idea. Committees were formed to study the exchange, but apparently, no one checked the history books.

“The committee was unaware of the past there,” says Ellen Mack, the Jewish community’s representative to the Soviet sister city effort who was appointed after Kaunas was chosen. “It was not even thought about.”

Brigitte Altman. one of the survivors of the camp, has not forgotten. A shy, modest woman who has lived in Fort Worth since 1952. Altman endured the hell of 1941 when more than 14,000 Jews were shot in the Kaunas ghetto and buried in ditches they were forced to dig themselves. She also lost many relatives at the hands of rural Lithuanian gangs.

“I know this is a different time and bridges must be built with a new generation,1’ Altman says. “I am very disturbed, but at the same time I hope that the program will succeed.”

Similar plans around the country have caused trouble for other cities. Closer to home, the Dallas City Council this year will decide whether to select Riga, in Latvia, as a sister city. Riga, only 160 miles from Kaunas, is infamous as the site of the Nazi-era murders of 130,000 Jews. Morris Stein, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, objects to the selection of Riga and says the Jewish community will not support the plan.

“The mayor has been spooked about Riga.” says council member Jerry Rucker. “Riga is all dressed up and ready for a marriage. But some people will never accept the connection. There are only a few, but they are hard core.”

“Many Jews have moved from Russia to Dallas.” says Dr. John Loud, Russian studies director at Texas Christian Uni versity and chairman of Fort Worth’s Soviet sister city study group. “And therefore there is an interest group and pressure is exerted on the mayor. We don’t have that in Fort Worth. But we are still consulting with Jewish families. I don’t see a snake fight here, unlike Dallas.”