In 1978 she was appointed head of the theatre, cinema and TV section in Kultūros barai [lt] monthly magazine, and later worked at the Literatūra ir menas newspaper.
The book discusses the problem of participation of common Lithuanians in the execution of Jews and robbing of their property, a topic very much unpopular in the modern Lithuania.
[4] The claims were supported by her lifelong partner Efraim Zuroff, who accused The Hawk of taking part in The Holocaust, because he read so in the diaries of his main persecutor and torturer Nachman Dushanski.
[5] The claims were immediately rebuffed by numerous historians and social activists as being confessed under brutal torture (which at the time was already illegal even in the USSR), condition of coma, at some moments even physically unable to write his signature.
The Hawk's biographer historian Arvydas Anušauskas observed that it's "no surprise to hear such claims from a person who has never researched history", is unaware of how such cases are made, how they're falsified and censured to fit the dictatorial regime.
The Lithuanian General Attorney's office also started an investigation which was later cancelled because of "no evidence that Vanagaitė intentionally spread false claims, therefore they should be assessed in ethical and not legal terms".
[9] A week after her initial statements, R. Vanagaitė issued an apology for her "utterly misleading claims", based on the lies recorded in the KGB cases in an effort to conceal the traces of torture.