1 Killing site(s)
Stefonas Kaziemiras D., born in 1931:
"Y.U.: Were there no Jews left in Girkalnis the next day [after the shooting]?
Witness: No, but one Jewish man came to my parents, and another arrived later. I don’t know how they managed to escape. One of them was Abromiukas. We had many plum trees in our garden and an open space surrounded by them. Abromiukas hid among those trees, and my mother would bring him food. He stayed there for a week or more. Then I left, so I don’t know what happened afterward. Someone told me that my father brought the Jewish man to our neighbor Čepas. Čepas had a cellar under his barn, and the Jewish man stayed there for some time. Then he disappeared, and I don’t know what happened to him after that. There were two Jewish men hidden in our garden: Šmuiliukas and Abromiukas." (Testimony N°YIU135LT, interviewed in Ariogala, on March 20, 2015)
"After the arrival of the Germans in 1941, at the end of August—I don’t remember the exact date—at 3 o’clock in the morning, the police summoned me to dig pits in the village of Kurpiškė. In total, about 80 local residents were mobilized to dig the pits. We started digging at 3 AM and continued until 2 PM. Three pits were dug in total: two were 30 meters long, and the third was 20 meters long. The width of the pits was about 3 meters, and their depth was more than 2 meters.
At around 2 PM, while we were still working on the third pit, people of Jewish origin, ranging from infants to the elderly, began to be brought for execution. The first group of eight people arrived on foot, but later groups were transported by vehicles and horse-drawn carts. In total, three vehicles made several trips to bring people.
As I heard, all the Jewish people had been gathered and held under guard in the town of Biliūnai, in Girkalnis volost. They were brought to the pits from there for the shootings. I don’t know how many trips the vehicles made, but the shootings lasted from 2 PM until 10 PM that day and continued the next day from around 9 AM to 4 PM. In total, about 1,600 people were executed.
The shootings were carried out with machine guns. Those who weren’t killed outright were finished off with rifles or gun butts. The bodies were placed into the pits in rows, then covered with 15–20 cm of soil before a new row of victims was laid on top. Two of the large pits were completely filled this way, and the smaller pit was more than half filled with corpses. Everyone was forced to undress before being executed.
The Jewish population had been gathered from the volosts of Girkalnis, Raseiniai, and Betygala. During the shootings, the "Security" chief K*** came from Raseiniai with a German, whose name and rank I don’t know but who was likely also a member of the "Security." This German took photographs of all the perpetrators involved in the shootings as well as of the victims standing at the pits." [Deposition of Konstantin K***, born in 1907, Russian, local farmer requisitioned to dig pits, taken on the 21st of March, 1945; Extraordinary State Commission to investigate German-Fascist Crimes Committed on Soviet Territory Reel#19 Part 5, pp.14-16]
"Between August 25 and September 6, 1941, 843 Jews of Rasainiai [Raseiniai], including 16 Jewish men, 412 Jewish women and 415 Jewish children, were liquidated." [Report of Karl Jaeger, commander of Einsatzkommando 3a, made in Kauen [today Kaunas], on December 1, 1941; Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0716-0005-004]
Girkalnis is located approximately 10 km (6.2 miles) southeast of Raseiniai, the district center, and 70 km (43.5 miles) northwest of Kaunas, the regional capital. The town was first mentioned in written sources after the 15th century and had become a county center by the mid-18th century. According to the 1897 census, when Girkalnis was part of the Russian Empire, the town had 530 Jewish residents, who accounted for 82% of its total population. However, during the interwar period, when Lithuania was an independent state, the Jewish population decreased significantly, partly due to the emigration of younger generations abroad. By 1923, only 213 Jews remained in the town.
Girkalnis was home to a synagogue (Prayer House) and a Jewish cemetery. Lithuanian and Jewish children attended the same school. The Jewish community played a significant role in the town’s economy, with local Jews primarily involved in commerce and artisanal trades. Some also engaged in agriculture. Jewish residents operated various businesses, including three textile shops, two butcher shops, one smithy, one grocery store, and others. During this time, the Jewish community actively participated in Girkalnis’s social and cultural life, including involvement in Zionist youth movements.
The annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in 1940 marked a turning point for the Jewish community in Girkalnis. The nationalization of Jewish-owned businesses led to economic decline, and community institutions, including Zionist organizations, were forcibly disbanded.
On the eve of the war, there were 27 Jewish families living in Girkalnis. Meanwhile, a thriving Jewish community existed in the nearby town of Raseiniai, and a smaller Jewish population resided in the village of Betygala.
Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, Girkalnis fell under the control of new authorities, including Lithuanian partisans known as the "White Armbanders," who established a new administration and police force. From the very first days of the occupation, these authorities began persecuting and humiliating the local Jewish population, including the desecration of holy books and the torture of the town’s rabbi. Individuals suspected of loyalty to the Soviet regime were among the initial targets, with six Communists executed on July 8, 1941. Around August 13, 1941, seven local Jews were taken to the village of Kurpiškė and murdered.
The remaining Jewish men, women, and children of Girkalnis—between 120 and 128 people in total—were rounded up by the Germans and detained for about a week in several houses and barns in the town, including the house of a Jewish merchant, Šmuiliukas. On August 21, 1941, they were transported by truck to Kurpiškė village (referred to in some sources as Kadagynė Forest). There, they were forced to undress and were shot in groups at the edges of pits dug in the fields.
The executions continued over the following days. On August 23, 1941, Jews from Betygala were also murdered at the same site. Between August 25 and September 6, 1941, 843 Jews from Raseiniai were brought to the site and killed. The mass executions were carried out by Girkalnis policemen, members of the "White Armbanders" from Girkalnis and Raseiniai, and German soldiers, under the supervision of Girkalnis police chief S. Lukminas. Local Lithuanians were requisitioned to dig and fill the pits, numbering between three and seven. According to sources, approximately 1,000 Jews were murdered in Kurpiškė village. However, Soviet records estimate the number of victims to be around 1,650.
After the massacre, belongings of the victims were divided among the perpetrators, while some items were distributed to local inhabitants.
Despite the horrific events, some Jews managed to survive. Two Jewish men from Girkalnis, Šmuiliukas and Abromiukas, avoided capture and went into hiding with the help of local Lithuanians.
For more information about the killing of Raseiniai Jews, please refer to the corresponding profile.
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