Kudirkos Naumiestis | Marijampolė

Kudirkos Naumiestis was named after the famous doctor, writer and author of the Lithuanian national anthem, Vincas Kudirka, in 1934, but since 1639, it was known as Vladislavovas. Old tombstones in the town’s Jewish cemetery date back to the beginning of the 18th century. The town was repeatedly ravaged by wars, fires and epidemics, but continued growing due to its favorable location on the state border, good communication and trade with Germany. Germans would come to the town to buy cheaper food, providing additional income for the local producers and traders. Importing different goods from Germany was also a profitable business for the residents of Kudirkos Naumiestis. 2305 Jews lived in the town in 1908, but emigration and the First World War reduced this number to 981 by 1923. When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, they closed the border passage next to Kudirkos Naumiestis, significantly reducing the income of local traders and causing the closure of 24 shops. The Jewish population further decreased in the following years. About 800 Jews lived in the town in 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. This number included several dozen families expelled from Poland in 1939. The German army entered the town without resistance on the first day of the war, on June 22, 1941.

Several Jews became the victims of sporadic shootings on the first days of the war. Two of them were accused of killing a German soldier; one was shot when he opened the door to see what was happening outside. Anti-Jewish measures and forced labor were introduced in the very beginning of the German occupation. Jews were forced to work in road construction, street cleaning, etc. During the first week of July, all the Jewish men of the town were rounded up, forced to hand over their valuables and taken to the Jewish cemetery to be killed. The victims were brought in groups of 50, placed on the edge of the pit and shot. The next group of victims had to push the bodies that fell on the edge into the pit. In total, 192 people were killed during that mass shooting, including a number of Lithuanian communists. Executioners organized a celebration in the town on the same evening. Witnesses helped Yahad investigators locate another mass shooting place in the Kataučizna Forest, outside Kudirkos Naumiestis, where at least three survivors and escapees were shot. Their bodies were reburied in the town after the war. After the execution of men, Jewish women and children were forced to perform the same labor tasks. In the second half of August they were confined to a ghetto that was created on two streets of Kudirkos Naumiestis. They were kept there till mid-September and then were murdered in the Paražniai Forest, 4 km outside the town. According to witnesses interviewed by Yahad, mass shootings of Jews of Kudirkos Naumiestis and its surroundings also took place in Žyniai.

For information about the mass executions in Paražniai and Žyniai, please refer to the corresponding village profiles

Go to the Townpage on the JewishGen Kehilalinks website

Go to the Townpage on the Holocaust Atlas website