1 Killing site(s)
Kazimiera K., born in 1920:
Witness: Noškus, the youngest son of Kremeris, married a girl from Jurbarkas. The war broke out on June 22nd, and they left for Jurbarkas the day before. The war began at night. We heard everything—the roaring of the explosions—and father said it was the war. Noškus and his wife took a steamer and went to Russia, where they stayed for the duration of the war. They returned after the war ended and uncovered the bodies of their friends, brothers, and sister, Leikė. I don’t know where they took the bodies, but most likely, they were buried in a common grave in Jurbarkas. That’s what I’ve heard. We used to cut grass in the field where the grave was located. You could still see a hollow there.
Y.U.: Did he only take the bodies of his relatives and friends?
Witness: No, all the bodies were reburied. He even invited a doctor. All the corpses were removed from that grave and taken to Jurbarkas. The grave was in a field near the Mituva River. That area is flooded every year.
Y.U.: Is there a monument at that site?
Witness: No, there is no monument.
(Testimony N°YIU130LT, interviewed in Veliuona, on March 3, 2015)
"I personally saw how people mentioned in the report were taken to the river Mituva near Stakiai village to be shot; the distance from Stakiai village was one kilometer. The shooting was directed by police chief of Raudonė volost and other white partisans led by him. […] At that moment I was in Šambarava. The participants mentioned in the list shot the people mentioned in the report. Those killers took the lives of 23 people." [Deposition of Hirsch Feinstein, Jewish resident of Stakiai village, born in 1901, taken on the 22nd of March, 1945, p.86; State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK); GARF 7021-94-427/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
Stakiai is located approximately 60 km (37.3 mi) east of Tauragė, the regional center. According to the 1923 census, the village had 190 inhabitants. Among them were several Jewish families, including the Fortūna, Šolumas, Vaitmanas, Vinikas, Kremeris, Mesnikas, and Falšteinas (Feinstein) families. The local Jews were primarily involved in petty trade and farming. Joškus and Cipkė Mesnikas owned a shop, while Šolumas Volfovičius also had a shop. However, after it was robbed, he began baking buns and buying calves’ skins. Vaitmanas did the same. The Kremeris and Vinikas families rented land from farmers, as Jews were not allowed to own land at the time. Fainstein’s family ran a flour mill. Fortūna’s family, one of the most influential in Stakiai, operated a large shop where his wife and children worked. Fortūna even hired a special teacher to teach his children Hebrew at home. His oldest son, Mankus, ran a photography studio, while their daughter made hats.
Although there was no synagogue in Stakiai, local Jewish men gathered at the Fortūna household on Friday evenings to pray. The Jews of Stakiai buried their dead in the nearby town of Veliuona, where Fortūna, who died before the Second World War, was also buried.
The annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in 1940 marked a turning point for the Jewish community in Stakiai. The nationalization of Jewish shops, including Fortūna’s, led to economic decline, and community institutions, including Zionist organizations, were forcibly disbanded. This period also saw the deterioration of relationships between Lithuanians and Jews, as some Jewish residents joined the Communist Youth movement, further straining communal ties. By the eve of the Second World War, around 30 Jewish residents remained in Stakiai.
Stakiai was occupied by German troops on June 23, 1941. A new administration was immediately established by local Lithuanians. Jews from the surrounding area attempted to flee eastward, but most were forced to return home. In July 1941, the Jews of Stakiai were allowed to remain in their homes, but a curfew was imposed, restricting them from being outside between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. Some Jews were subjected to forced labor, such as repairing roads or mucking manure.
At the end of July, after being falsely accused of choking a cow belonging to a Lithuanian woman, the local Jews were beaten and rounded up in the house of Joškus Mesnikas. They remained there under guard until August 9, 1941. On that day, 23 Jews from Stakiai were taken to a field near the Mituva River, about one kilometer from the village, where they were forced to undress and lie down in a pit that had been dug in advance by requisitioned Lithuanian men. They were then shot to death by Lithuanian policemen from Raudonė. The pit was subsequently filled in by the same men who had dug it.
After the massacre of the Jews in Stakiai, the victims’ best clothes, furniture, and other belongings were taken by the perpetrators, while other possessions were distributed among the local inhabitants. Fortūna’s shop was turned into a hall for projecting movies.
Five Jews from Stakiai, including two brothers from the Feinstein family, managed to survive the shooting by hiding in a nearby forest. In the autumn of 1943, they were joined by a few families from the Kaunas ghetto, bringing the total number of survivors to around 60. Most of them were killed in the summer of 1944 when the bunker was discovered by the retreating Germans. According to sources, only nine people, including the Feinstein brothers, survived the slaughter.
After the war, the bodies of the 23 Jews from Stakiai, who had been buried in the grave by the Mituva River, were exhumed and reburied in Jurbarkas. This was done on the initiative of Noškus, Kremeris’ youngest son, who had just returned from Russia, where he had spent the war with his wife.
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