2 Killing site(s)
Vytautas B., born in 1928:
"Y.U.: Were there many Jews living in Krekenava before the war?
Witness: Yes, a great many. There were about 25 shops in the town, and they were all owned by Jews.
Y.U.: Were all the shops located in the center of town?
Witness: Yes, around the main square. There wasn’t a fountain yet, but the square hosted a huge market. […]
Y.U.: Were there any streets in Krekenava inhabited exclusively by Jews?
Witness: No, there weren’t any such streets. Jews mostly lived in the center, while the streets farther from the center were mainly inhabited by Lithuanians.
Y.U.: What did the Jews sell in their shops? Did you ever go there to buy anything?
Witness: They sold everything, including clothes and fabrics. There were also Jewish craftsmen: a blacksmith, a lime burner, tailors, hatters. My father used to take me to a Jewish shop, where a Jewish man would measure me and say, "That will fit you." It was just like it is nowadays. […]
Y.U.: Do you remember the surnames of any Jewish shop owners in Krekenava? […]
Witness: Zalmanas owned this house and the one next to it. My father rented an apartment from him. Nachmanas was a very wealthy Jew. Did you see the grocery "Aibė"? That was his shop. He had plenty of goods, and we used to go there just to look at them. He even sold radios." (Testimony N°YIU157LT, interviewed in Krekenava, on June 27, 2015)
Krekenava is situated approximately 30 km (18.6 mi) southwest of Panevėžys. The first Jews began settling there at the end of the 17th century. According to the 1897 census conducted by the Russian Empire, there were 1,505 Jews living in Krekenava, comprising 69% of the total population. In 1915, the majority of Krekenava’s Jews were forced into exile in Russia. During the interwar period, when Krekenava became part of independent Lithuania, only a third of these Jewish refugees were able to return. According to the 1923 census, the town had 527 Jewish residents, accounting for 50% of the total population.
Local Jews were primarily engaged in commerce, the service sector, and artisanal work, with some also involved in agriculture. The town had multiple Jewish stores and small enterprises, including two flour mills and a roof manufacturing factory. Jewish artisans offered services as butchers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, lime burners, and more. Krekenava was home to a synagogue, a Beit Midrash (study hall), a Hebrew-language school, and a library with around 2,000 books in Hebrew and Yiddish. During the interwar period, Jews became more active in the town’s social and cultural life, including participation in Zionist movements.
When Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, the economic situation in Krekenava worsened as the nationalization of Jewish shops and businesses led to shortages of goods and rising prices. Community institutions, including Zionist movements and youth groups, were disbanded.
On the eve of the German invasion on June 22, 1941, there were about 60 Jewish families living in Krekenava. Some attempted to evacuate to the east, but most were forced to return by Lithuanian activists.
Krekenava was occupied by German troops on June 25, 1941. Lithuanian activists, known as "White Armbanders," established a new administration and a police force. In the first days of the occupation, the new authorities began implementing anti-Jewish policies in the town. The first victims were a group of Jewish men, including some of the wealthiest and most influential residents of Krekenava, who were tortured for several days in the town’s jail. Afterward, they were divided into two groups and taken to separate execution sites to be murdered. The first site is known as "Priest’s Fields," while the second, which Yahad managed to locate, is situated near the Nevėžis River, at the foot of the hill where the church stands. As of today, there is no monument to commemorate the Jewish victims at this location.
Following this, a group of young Jewish women was arrested by Lithuanian activists, raped in the same jail, and then killed. Shortly afterward, a group of Jewish men deemed fit for work was imprisoned in the Beit Midrash for several days before being forced into labor on the road leading to Panevėžys, where they were subsequently killed.
The remaining Jews of Krekenava, mostly women, children, and some men, were then rounded up with their belongings and confined to a ghetto established in the synagogue and nearby houses. They were held there for several days without food or water. On July 27, 1941, these victims were taken toward Kėdainiai and murdered at the edge of the forest between the old and new cemeteries of Krekenava. A monument dedicated to the memory of 190 victims—including 60 Jewish children, 50 adults, and several Soviet activists murdered in July and August 1941—was later erected at this execution site.
According to other sources, a number of Jewish women and children from Krekenava were taken to the Pajuostė Forest near Panevėžys, where they were executed on August 23, 1941, alongside other Jews from the Panevėžys area.
For more information about the killing of Jews in the Pajuostės, please follow the corresponding profile.
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