In honor of the victims, authentic memories were read at the event when, at the beginning of the Nazi occupation, Jews were forced to carry horse manure in a garage yard and later fatally beaten.
Faina Kukliansky, the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish community, emphasized that with the beginning of the Nazi occupation, Jews had no place in Lithuania – most of them died in the hands of Germans and Lithuanians who collaborated with it.
At the same time, she emphasized the heroism of Jewish rescuers.
“In 1941, no one forbade the killing of Jews, they simply had no right to live. Those who have gathered here have accidentally survived thanks to those good people, the rescuers. Thanks to the beautiful forests of Lithuania, where families hid, ”the head of the community spoke at the event.
Premiere: We remember in order to create a shared memory.
Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Yossef Levy said that Lithuania and Israel are good friends, but in fostering this friendship, it is necessary not to keep quiet about the fact that Lithuanians also participated in the Holocaust.
The words of Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė were also read at the event: “We remember and let this memory not separate, but connect. We remember so that we can all build a common future together and not repeat the mistakes of the past. ”
With the summer rains, the participants of the event took part in a march on the road, which tortured and desecrated people were transported to the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery.
A memorial to the brutally murdered Lithuanian Jews was unveiled in the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery, where it is believed that the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre were buried.
“Heaven is crying because of what happened 80 years ago. Perhaps, while staying in the garage of Lietūkis today, another ray of sunlight appeared. The Jewish men also had a ray of hope that they would survive, but as they drove this path the heavens wept. Thank you, who all went and I believe that we meaningfully honored the memory of the people who were killed, ”said the event organizer Tadas Daujotas.
en.wikipedia.org / photo by informnapalm.org/Image in the territory of “Lietūkis” garage after the massacre
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Brutal massacres
More about the massacre of Lietūkis 15min Alfredas Rukšėnas, Chief Historian of the Department of Genocide and Resistance Studies, said.
On June 17, 1941, in Berlin, the head of the Reich Security Board, SS Obergrupenführer Reinhard Heydrich, and other members of the Third Reich leadership instructed the leaders of the operational groups and their units not to obstruct forces seeking to exterminate communists and Jews in the occupied Soviet territories.
On the contrary, it had to be encouraged.
That’s what happened. Walter Franz Stahlecker (b. 1900), the SS brigadier, commander of operative group A (Einsatzgruppe A) arrived in Kaunas in the early morning of June 25, 1941, where he used Algirdas Jonas Klimaitis, a journalist from Voldemar, to organize and carry out the Jewish pogrom. ) and a platoon led by him (about 20 men), Voldemarite officers, Maj. Kazį Šimkų, ltn. Bronze Norkus, other persons.
These forces were disloyal to the Lithuanian Provisional Government, the Armed Forces Headquarters, and the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), announced on June 23, 1941.
It all started with bullying
According to the historian A.Rukšėnas, the events of June 27, 1941 in the garage of Lietūkis, which was near Žalgirio Street and Vytautas Avenue, in front of Kaunas Cemetery, are the second most famous episode of the Jewish pogrom.
The victims were beaten by both partisans and German soldiers.
About 200 meters away, ie at the Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce, was the headquarters of the leadership of the 16th German Army. The garage courtyard could be seen through the headquarters window.
The tragedy began at about 9-10 a.m. when German soldiers and white-collar workers began driving Jews in groups to the garage. From the very beginning, the Jews were not killed, but forced to clean the garage of horse manure, other rubbish that remained after the German military partial departure.
All this was accompanied by brutal bullying: Jews were watered with water from the gut, beaten with scourges, forced to flee in a circle, humiliated in other ways. The victims were beaten by both partisans and German soldiers.
“It simply came to our notice then. It must be said that the massacre took place brutally, ” – 15min assured A.Rukšėnas.
Turned into a massacre
After a while, when the Jews resisted the torturers, the bullying escalated into massacres. White-collar workers began to kill Jews by beating them with metal crowbars and other tools.
According to the historian, it is not known that the German soldiers were killed as well. The victims were not shot.
There have been episodes where a group of victims have been killed by the same white-collar worker (approximately 16-25 years old). He was even proud of what he was doing – climbing on the murdered bodies, according to the historian, playing harmonica. In the works of foreign historians, this person is referred to as a “death dealer”.
“The victims lying on the pavement in the garage yard were resuscitated with a stream of water. Those victims who moved or stood up were beaten again until they died. Using water, the victims were tortured in various other ways during the massacre. One of them is putting a hose in your mouth. After killing a group of Jews, another was brought, “said A. Rukšėnas.
According to the historian, the massacre lasted about 18 hours. The Germans then ordered the dispersal of the execution (including women) to be dispersed, and the bodies of the victims were stacked in a truck, taken out and buried in the old cemetery.
According to some data, about 50-60 Jews were killed in the garage, according to others – about 60, according to thirds – about 70 Jews. Their lives were extinguished in great pain and suffering.
The perpetrators of the massacre are prisoners
A.Rukšėnas recalled that Adolfas Damušis, a former Lithuanian Minister of Industry of the Lithuanian Provisional Government and an expatriate Lithuanian, also wrote about these massacres. He named AJKlimaitis and his men as participants in the massacre in the garage, who acted on WFStahlecker’s instructions: “A. Klimaitis is responsible for the massacre. It was his men who beat the Jews. “
Among the killers may have been white-collar workers who did not belong to AJKlimaiitis.
Those victims who moved or stood up were beaten again.
Most of AJKlimaitis’ men were released prisoners who served their sentences in Kaunas Hard Labor Prison. According to the historian, they suffered very severe injuries and were aggressive at the time, with the slightest stimulus affecting their emotions.
The historian remembers that another Lithuanian emigrant, journalist Henrikas Žemelis, met with one of the participants in the massacre. The latter told him, “I was furious at the time, and now I have no idea how I could have done it.”
According to A. Rukšėnas, the Provisional Government of Lithuania did not support the actions of the perpetrators of pogroms. Its minutes of June 27, 1941, state that “notwithstanding all measures to be taken against Jews for their communist activities and to the detriment of the German army, partisans, and designated residents to avoid public executions of Jews. It has been experienced that these actions are done by people who have nothing to do with the Activist Headquarters, the Partisan Headquarters, or the Provisional Government of Lithuania. “
This can be seen, according to the historian, as an invitation to the partisans loyal to the LAF and the Armed Forces Headquarters not to join the aforementioned pogrom forces.
Unidentified and accidental victims
Asked if all the details of the story are known, the historian replied that the details have not been clarified – abundantly, this story has many surviving question marks.
The main problem is the identification and listing of victims.
According to historian A.Rukšėnas, the attitude towards victims is unequal. Such extreme views that the victims were solely Soviet security workers, communists, communist youth, or that there were no Marxists among the victims are not correct.
“The limited knowledge suggests that there were people of different beliefs (including Marxist) and different occupations among the victims. There were still no high-ranking Soviet security officials among them.
The following people died in the garage: Chaim Zukerman (shop owner), Peisach and Moish Goldberg (school brothers), Schliom Goldstein (musician), Yitzhkin Green (soap factory worker), B. Komas (trader), Yitzhak Kurlianchik (water supplier), Jurgis Štris father of Alexander Strom, a political scientist and lawyer), Nona Aronov and his three sons. The workers of the Spindulis printing house Sinchel Neuman, Abram Weiss, Josel Monželis, Chaim Malnik, Erasmus Gruntmeyer, Emil Timler could have died, “the historian listed.
A monument was built 13 years ago in memory of the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre
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A.Rukšėnas states that he has found the names of 5 Jews, who were taken out of Kaunas police station by the German soldiers on June 27 at about 11 o’clock, but it is not clear where they took them. The impression was that they could have found themselves in the garage of Lietūkis.
About 1,000 Jews died in Kaunas
According to the historian, the massacre of June 27, 1941 in the garage of Lietūkis was only one of the most prominent episodes of Jewish pogroms in Kaunas.
The pogrom also took place in Vilijampolė, where about 600-800 people died on June 25-27, in other places.
By order of the German occupation authorities, on June 29, 1941, the pogroms in Kaunas were stopped.
According to historical data, according to A.Rukšėnas, about 1,000 Jews died during the pogrom in Kaunas, and according to WFStahlecker – about 3,800, but the reliability of this number, according to researchers, is doubtful. Possibly included not only murdered but also arrested Jews.
A memorial sign has been unveiled
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust around the world. The commemoration was the massacre of the Lietūkis garage, which took place in Kaunas on Monday evening.
On June 28, in Kaunas Miško Street, near the monument to the victims of the “Lietūkis” garage massacre, their memory was honored and the 80th anniversary of these terrible events was commemorated.
There was also a march on the road by which the tortured and desecrated people were transported to the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery. The march was organized by the international movement “March of Life”.
A memorial dedicated to the brutally murdered Lithuanian Jews was unveiled here, where the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre were believed to have been buried.
The event was attended by foreign ambassadors to Lithuania, leaders of Jewish communities, members of the Seimas, and representatives of self-government.
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