The Cemetery Project

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EUROPE
 

Lithuania

 

 

ALYTUS, LITHUANIA

Broken Mogen David is the central monument at the memorial in the forest outside Olita (Alytus). Hundreds of Jews of the shtetl were murdered on the first Sunday of September 1941.

       
The Jews of Olite (Alytus) were all marched into the forest outside the shtetl. And on the first Sunday of September 1941 they were all murdered. About one hundred and twenty Jews were killed on that day. Their bodies were left for years where they died.

Finally when the Baltic States declared their independence when the Russians left, honor was given to their remains by being placed in a memorial among the trees of the forest--all that remained of the bodies were placed in nine mass graves under silver pyramids.

ARIOGALA (ROGALE), LITHUANIA



Lithuanian and Yiddish
monuments at the
mass grave site
in Ariogala (Rogale). 


The monument in Yiddish
states that here was spilt
the blood of 662 Jewish
men, women and children
in August 1941.
They were from Ariogala
and vicinity, and they were
murdered by local Lithuanians.

BABTAI (BOBT), LITHUANIA



Mass grave site located in the woods of Babtai (Bobt), approximately two kilometres from the town, on the right side of the road in the direction of Memel (Klaipeda) on the bank of the river Nevi-aza. 


 On July 17 - Aug. 31, 1941, 
ninety-one Jewish men, women and children from Babtai and Vandziogala were killed here.

BIRZAI, LITHUANIA

 

This stone was put up by the (few surviving) Jews of Birzai when they returned to Birzai after the war.  

JURBARKAS, LITHUANIA

 

 

KAUNAS (KOVNO), LITHUANIA



Monument in the old Jewish cemetery to the victims of the first mass killing of the Jews of Kaunas on 26 June 1941.


Monument for the Jews who died in the Kaunas ghetto between 1941-44,
at the still-active, new Jewish cemetery in Kaunas.
 


Children's memorial outside of synagogue in Kaunas.


Monument to the Kaunas Jewish ghetto cemetery.


Monument at the entrance to the Jewish ghetto.


Monument at
the 4th Fort.


Monument at
the 7th Fort.


At the 9th Fort--
"Eternal remembrance of the victims of Fascism."


Monument at
the 9th Fort. Erected in 1984, 105 feet high.


Memorial at the 9th Fort, in remembrance of the 30,000 Jews (prob. 50,000-80,000) from Lithuania and other European countries who were massacred there.

9th Fort.

Tower at 9th Fort.

Tunnel at 9th Fort.
 

KEDAINIAI (KEIDAN), LITHUANIA



Memorial at mass grave site
where the Jews of Kedainiai,
Seta, and Zeimiai were massacred
on 5 Elul 5701 (28 August 1941). 
The figure of 2076 on the plaque
is erroneous. It is estimated that at least
3,200 Jews died in this location.

KELME, LITHUANIA

 
According to the United States Holocaust Institute, 2000 Jews of Kelme were murdered in July 1941.
 
The memorial indicates "On July 26,1941, 485 Jews from Kelme and surroundings have been murdered."

 

 

KRAKES (KROK), LITHUANIA



Lithuanian and Yiddish monuments
at the mass grave site in Krakes (Krok),
located about 1.5 kilometres from Krakes
in the village of Pashtinukai, about
500 meters to the left of the road to Rasein. 


On 10 Elul 1941 (Sept. 2, 1941), the Jews of Krakes were murdered here, along with Jews from Kedainiai, Ariogala, Baisogala, Gudziunai, Grinkiskis, Patsiunel, Dotnuva, and other places.  Number of victims 1125 Jewish men, women and children. The date of Sept. 5, 1941 on the Lithuanian monument is incorrect.

KUPISKIS, LITHUANIA   (photos in the top row courtesy of Kupiskis ShtetLinks)

 



The Kupiskis Wall of Memory Holocaust Memorial
is located on the wall of
the old synagogue,
 which is now the town library.
 

Memorials to the Jews of Kupiskis killed in the Holocaust

 

Inscription reads
in part:
"In Remembrance: In everlasting memory of the Jews of Kupiskis, Men, Women and Children who were tortured and murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices, in the
Summer of 1941..."

 
 
To the memory of the victims
of the Lithuanian, Jewish genocide
?? and men of other nationalities,
by the Nazis with their local helpers
exterminated in 1941.

 
The inscription talks about the
Hitlerite murderers and their
local assistants in 1941--
about 1000 Kupishoker Jews were killed--
men, women and children.

 

 LOZDZIEJE (LAZDIJAI), LITHUANIA


Marker directing visitors to the site of
the mass grave.

Entrance to the
Lozdzieje memorial site.

"On this spot, the Hitler collaborators on 3 Nov 1941murdered 1,535 Jews--men, women, children of Lazdijai..."

PANERIAI (PONAR), LITHUANIA


"Eternal memory of 70,000 Jews of Vilnius and its environs who were murdered and burnt here,
 in Paneriai, by Nazi executioners and their accomplices."

Map of
memorial grounds
 

"From July 1941 until July 1944 the Hitlerist occupiers and their local assistants annihilated 100,000 people, of them 70,000 Jews--men, women and children."

Ponar was the killing field of Vilnius.

Memorial to 70,000 Jews of Vilna and the vicinity who were murdered and burned in the killing fields of Ponar by the Nazis and their assistants in the years of the Holocaust- 5702-5704 (1941-1944). May their souls be bound in the knot of life.
 


This memorial mentions the last thousand Vilner victims. It gives the date of July 5, 1944.


The pits of Ponar.


The Pits of Ponar.

PANEVEZYS, LITHUANIA



Memorial to the Ponivezh ghetto,
with a map:
"On this territory from
July 7th to August 17, 1941
there was a Jewish Ghetto."


This memorial, outside of Ponivezh,
does not mention Jews,
but was in a forest, at a killing site.
Of 4500 murdered there,
 possibly 3500 were Jews.

cemetery memorial, left:

PLUNGE, LITHUANIA


Memorial in the killing field.


Yakov Bunka, pictured here, is the creator of these many wooden memorials in Plunge.


 

These memorials were carved from trees in the woods.

PUSALOTAS, LITHUANIA



This plaque was put up in July 2005 at the site of the old shul, now used as a flour mill.

ROKISKIS, LITHUANIA   (courtesy of Rokiskis ShtetLinks)



Bajorai mass
grave marker


Bajorai killing site

The Jews from the Rokiskis district were murdered at Bajorai,
also known
as Velniaduobe.



Plaque at killing
site reads:
The plaque reads "In this place Hitlerists and their local helpers on August 15 and 16, 1941 cruelly killed
3207 Jews - children,women,men.  Let the memory of them be blessed."
 

 

Monument at mass grave.
Monument, located at the site of the mass graves (in the Iodupe forest near Rokiskis) of the several thousand Jews who were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian police on August 15 and 16, 1941.  

Close up of monument inscription:

The inscription reads: "Here rest those killed by Lithuanian-German nationalists on 15-16 of August, 1941".

SAKIAI, LITHUANIA

 

Site of mass graves in Sakiai,
1941-1944.

 

SALANTAI, LITHUANIA

   

SAULIAI, LITHUANIA

SETA (SHAT), LITHUANIA



Monument is on the grounds of where the Jewish cemetery once stood. The Jews of Seta were not murdered on this site (see Keidan). Yarzheit date for the Jews of Seta is 5 Elul 5701 (28 August 1941).

SIMNAS, LITHUANIA



Memorial to the Jewish
community of Simnas.

SKUODAS, LITHUANIA

SVENCIONYS (SWIECANY), LITHUANIA



This memorial is inscribed with 
the names of some of
the seventeen Svencionys area shtetls where Jews  were murdered.


These are for the local Jews who were
murdered elsewhere, whose place of burial is unknown.


This memorial names the rest of the seventeen area shtetls from the Svencionys area.


The inscription reads:
"Here lie 8000 Jews from Svencionys and its vicinity, who were murdered by the German Nazis and their local assistants on the
15th and 16th of Tishrei 5702 (October 7th and 8th 1941)."

VANDZIOGALA, LITHUANIA



Memorial in the forest Boreko,
approximately one kilometre from Vandziogala near the Jewish cemetery.


Between July 11-31, 1941 and between Aug. 28 - Sept. 2, 1941, 305 Jewish men, women and children were killed here.

VIDUKLE, LITHUANIA

"On this place the Hilteristic murderers and their local collaborators killed about one-hundred women and children in August 1941."

VILIJAMPOLE, LITHUANIA



Holocaust memorial near
Vilijampole Jewish cemetery.

VILNIUS (VILNA), LITHUANIA


"Here, on the site of the former Judenrat (Vilnius Ghetto Council). We remember thousands of murdered Lithuanian Jews and say:
'This should never happen again!'"
 


Plaque and map at
site of Vilna ghetto.
"On this site stood the tower of the small Vilna ghetto. Through it, from 6 September 1941 until the 29th of October 1941, 11,000 Jews were sent to their death."

 


Vilnius ghetto memorial


This is a memorial to leaders and members of the social democratic Jewish Labor Bund, which was founded in Vilna in October 1897. It is meant to replace pre-war memorial stones that were placed on the graves of Arkady Kremer, Dr. Pavel Rozental, Sofia (Chaya Sarah) Stupel-Kahan and Mordkhe Virgili-Kahan, the grave of the Yiddish writer and Bundist A. Waiter and those of the martyrs of the police assault on Vilna workers in 1905. The text is in Yiddish and Lithuanian. This monument was dedicated in 1991.


Memorial to Sugihara who, from his diplomatic office in Helsinki, Finland, saved the lives of thousands of Polish Jews fleeing German-occupied Poland. The memorial to him now stands outside the Holocaust Museum in Vilnius.


 

 

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