1 Killing site(s)
Norbertas G., born in 1928: "A Jewish woman and her daughter managed to escape during the mass shooting of Jews locked up in the ghetto at the Antanašė Manor. For a time, they hid in the sauna building. A few days later, they went to Obeliai, hoping to find help and food. The local population was afraid to help them, as there were posters all over town forbidding them to help Jews under pain of punishment. The woman and her daughter were denounced by the local inhabitant who they had asked for help. He took them to the police station, where the police chief ordered a local man to take them to the Antanašė manor on his cart. Once they got there, they were shot dead in a pit which had previously been used as a latrine. My mother, who was visiting my uncle at the time, witnessed the shooting. The bodies are still buried there, with no monument to commemorate their grave." (Testimony N°YIU252LT, interviewed in Obeliai, on April 22, 2016)
Antanašė is a small village situated approximately 103 km (64 mi) northeast of Panevėžys and around 16 km (10 mi) east of Rokiškis, the district center. Antanašė is well known for its manor, first mentioned in written sources in the 17th century. While there is no information available about its Jewish residents, Antanašė borders the nearby town of Obeliai, where an important Jewish community, numbering a few dozen Jewish families, once resided. The Jewish inhabitants of Obeliai were involved in various professions, including trade and crafts.
Antanašė was occupied by German troops on June 26, 1941. In the summer of 1941, Jews from Kamajai, Rokiškis, Pandėlys, and Obeliai, mainly women, children up to the age of eight, and the elderly, were confined in the ghetto created in the Antanašė Manor. The ghetto consisted of the main building and the adjacent barn, all surrounded by a 2.5-meter-high barbed wire fence and guarded by "White Armbanders". Wearing distinctive Star of David symbols became compulsory for the ghetto inmates. Every day, small groups of Jews were subjected to forced labor at the railway station and on surrounding farms. The ghetto of Antanašė was liquidated on August 25, 1941, when 1,160 Jews were murdered at the edge of Degsnė forest, located around 1.5 km from the ghetto.
During this period, isolated shootings of Jews in hiding took place in the surrounding area, particularly in the nearby pine forest, where, according to accounts from local witnesses, a number of Jews were murdered and buried. Additionally, the Yahad team managed to locate the mass grave of a Jewish woman and her daughter, executed in a pit near Antanašė Manor. The victims were prisoners of the Antanašė ghetto who managed to escape during the mass shooting carried out on August 25, 1941. After hiding for several days, they returned to Obeliai, hoping for help and food. Instead, they were denounced and taken to the police station, from where they were taken to Antanašė Manor to be killed and buried in a pit previously used as a latrine. According to some accounts, the Jewish woman was raped before being executed. There is no monument to commemorate the victims.
For more information about the killing of Jews from Obeliai ghetto please follow the corresponding profile.
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