1 Execution site(s)
Monika D., born in 1933: "A number of Jews were shot in the forest near the village of Steponiai over the course of at least four mass shootings. The victims were marched to the execution site on foot alongside the road connecting Rokiškis and Steponiai. The shootings usually were conducted early in the morning, before dawn, and my parents were used to hearing the bursts of gunfire and screams coming from the forest. Today, a monument had been erected at the execution site." (Testimony N°YIU261LT, interviewed in Steponiai, on April 26, 2016)
"In the end of July, 1941, one day in the morning a group of Soviet citizens was taken away from Rokiškis prison. At about midday, S. and other executioners got a cart ready, loaded a machine-gun onto it, took their weapons and left towards the shooting site, towards the Steponys [today Steponiai] forest where the shooting of Soviet citizens was carried out. In the evening of the same day S. got back to the prison on the same cart. I didn‘t see if he took part in the shooting." [Deposition of Vera Vasilyeva, born in 1905, a Russian peasant imprisoned in Rokiškis prison, taken on January 13, 1950, p. 132-133; War Crimes Investigation and Trial Records From the Former Lithuanian KGB Archives RG-26.004 Reel# 36 File P9157 BB]
Steponiai is a small village located near Rokiškis, the district center, situated approximately 90 km (56 mi) northeast of Panevėžys. According to an account from a local resident interviewed by Yahad, the village was predominantly inhabited by Lithuanians. Meanwhile, a significant Jewish community thrived in Rokiškis, where they began to settle from the second half of the 18th century. On the eve of the Second World War, the Jewish community in the Rokiškis district numbered several thousand residents.
Steponiai was occupied by German troops on June 27, 1941. Shortly afterward, Lithuanian activists, known as "White Armbanders", began persecuting and executing anyone considered loyal to the Soviet regime, including former Soviet officials, Communists, and members of the Communist Youth. After being held for some time in the Rokiškis prison, groups of victims were taken to the nearby forest on the outskirts of Steponiai village to be executed. According to the Jäger Report, between June 27 and August 14, 1941, 493 Jews, 432 Russians, and 56 Lithuanians—a total of 981 people—were murdered in the Steponiai forest. It is likely that this number includes all the victims executed in the Rokiškis district before August 14, 1941. A monument was erected at the execution site to commemorate the victims.
For more information about the killing of Jews from Rokiškis area please follow the corresponding profile.
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