Kalveliai | Vilnius

Execution of Jewish inmates in Kalveliai labour camp

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:

Field

Memorials:

Yes

Period of occupation:

1941-1944

Witness interview

Helena, (born in 1926) shared her memories during the interview:
"Y.U.: What kind of place was the site of the barracks before the Jews were gathered there?
Witness: A merchant, named Pisyuk, used to live in Kalveliai, not far from the current customs office. He was also Jewish. He owned those barracks. It was known as the Shnury settlement.
Y.U.: Did you ever pass by the camp or the barracks when the Jews were imprisoned there?
Witness: We used to go to Kalveliai and Lavoriškės. We lived on a farmstead back then and we passed that place quite often. But I didn‘t think much about what was happening there.
Y.U.: Were the barracks fenced in?
Witness: No, they were not fenced in before the Jews were taken there.
Y.U.: And were they fenced in when the Jews were imprisoned there?
Witness: Yes, they were fenced in with barbed wire."
(Witness N°55, interviewed in Kalveliai, on April 3rd 2014)

Historical note

The history of Kalveliai dates back to the end of the 19^th century, when a railway was constructed through the territory and peat extraction began nearby. Before WWII, Jews made up more than half of the town’s population. They ran shops, a bathhouse, a bakery, an inn and other businesses. There was also a synagogue in Kalveliai. 

Holocaust by bullets in figures

According to witnesses interviewed by Yahad, the Jews of Kalveliai were brought away from the town on foot and shot elsewhere in the Vilnius region, most likely in Paneriai or Vėliučionys. In 1942, a provincial labour camp, as part of the Vilnius ghetto, was established in the Margiai peat bog, several kilometers northwest of Kalveliai, near the Nemėžėlė village. 320 Jews worked there in May 1943. The camp was liquidated on July 8th, 1943, under the direction of Oberscharführer Bruno Kittel, the head of the Gestapo in Vilnius. He arrived at the camp and gave a speach encouraging the Jews to work and to avoid contact with Soviet partisans active in the region. But once Kittel left the barracks, they were attacked with grenades. A mass execution by machine-gun was later carried out nearby. 240 Jews were killed that day, including men, women and children.

Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania

Other links

• Read Yahad-In Unum’s report of the research trip in this area
• Go to the LitvakSIG website, whose mission is to preserve Litvak heritage by discovering, collecting, documenting and disseminating information about the once vibrant Jewish community of Lithuania.

Nearby villages

• Vėliučionys
• Bezdonys

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