LITHUANIA REGION “The Main Gate” of the Kaunas ghetto; pen-and-ink drawing by survivor Esther Lurie, 1943. USHMM WS #73488, COURTESY OF SARA MILO Copyright © 2012. Indiana University Press. All rights reserved. Indiana University Copyright © 2012. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 : Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe, edited by Martin Dean, and Geoffrey P. Megargee, Indiana University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vgtulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3014863. Created from vgtulibrary-ebooks on 2018-12-08 03:09:47. 5528-41848_ch10_10P.indd28-41848_ch10_10P.indd 11031031 112/21/112/21/11 55:52:52 PPMM LITHUANIA REGION (GENERALKOMMISSARIAT LITAUEN) Pre- 1939: Lithuania and parts of Poland; 1940– 1941: Lithuanian SSR and parts of the Belorus sian SSR; 1941–1944: Generalkommissariat Litauen, including part of the initial territory of Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien (transferred on April 1, 1942), Reichskommissariat Ostland; post- 1991: Republic of Lithuania and part of Hrodna voblasts’, Republic of Belarus The German and local Lithuanian authorities established were residing in Lithuania on the eve of the German occupa- around 115 ghettos in Generalkommissariat Litauen. Of tion of the country in late June 1941. The Soviet deportation of these, 38 were established in what became under the German people from Lithuania in 1940– 1941 was blamed by many Lith- civil administration, Gebiet Schaulen- Land; 25 in Gebiet uanians on the Jews, even though a considerable proportion of Kauen-Land; and 22 in the area of Gebiet Ponewesch- Land, those deported were themselves Jewish. Following the German which was not formally split off from Gebiet Schaulen- Land invasion, more than 8,000 Jews managed to fl ee into the interior until November 1941. In Gebiet Wilna- Land, as it existed of the Soviet Union, but many were turned back at the Latvian initially in August 1941, there were 15 ghettos; another 15 ghet- border or were overtaken by the rapid German advance. Some tos, holding around 7,000 Jews, were added, however, when a Jews fl eeing on the roads were killed by Lithuanian partisan strip of territory was included from Generalkommissariat units, which were patrolling in search of Red Army stragglers. Weissruthenien in April 1942. In Lithuania, the arrival of German forces in late June Ghettoization began within a few days of the occupation in 1941 was accompanied by the rapid establishment of a local these regions and was effectively completed by the end of Sep- Lithuanian administration and police forces, supported by tember 1941, when a remnant ghetto was formed in Swieciany. the partisan units (often recruited from former Lithuanian The more than 80 ghettos and temporary holding camps es- rifl emen’s organizations [Šaulys]) that had formed on the So- tablished for Jews in a number of smaller Lithuanian towns viets’ retreat. These interim organizations played an impor- and villages in the summer of 1941 were almost all liquidated tant role in the implementation of a wide range of anti- Jewish within a few weeks or months by November 1941. The Telšiai regulations and mea sures, including the ghettoization and ghetto outlasted most other short-lived ghettos by a few weeks, mass murder of Jews in a number of Lithuanian towns. with the last inmates being shot at the end of December 1941. Initially, Lithuania came under the German military admin- Effectively these sites were destruction ghettos, serving the istration, run mainly by the offi ces of the military comman- purpose of concentrating the Jewish population prior to the dants (Ortskommandanturen and Feldkommandanturen) based killing Aktions. By January 1, 1942, the Germans and their in the towns. However, from the start, units of Einsatzgruppe A Lithuanian collaborators had murdered more than 150,000 (German Security Police) played a major role in security mat- Jews in the territory of Generalkommissariat Litauen. ters, especially the arrest and shooting of Jews. During the Many of the smaller temporary ghettos in Lithuania were summer, authority was transferred to a German civil adminis- established in synagogues, prayer houses, farm buildings, or tration, headed by Generalkommissar Theodor Adrian von barracks or on a few streets in the poorer section of town. Renteln, which completed the pro cess of ghettoization together The ghetto in Kaišiadorys, for example, consisted of a large with the local Lithuanian administration and police, subordi- grain storage building, where Jews from the town and other nated to the German Gebietskommissare and the Kreischefs. places nearby were held for two weeks under appalling living In the fi rst weeks of occupation, Einsatzgruppe A, sup- conditions. ported by SS, Order Police, Wehrmacht units, and Lithua- From the end of 1941 until late 1943, most of the remain- nian auxiliaries, conducted a number of killing Aktions in ing Jews in Lithuania (ca. 43,000 people) were confi ned within Lithuania directed mainly against suspected Communists the three main ghettos of Wilno, Kaunas, and Šiauliai. The and adult male Jews accused of having supported Soviet rule. only other ghetto that continued to exist until 1943 was the At this time, orders were issued for Jews to wear yellow Swieciany ghetto. However, some of the 15 ghettos added stars. Jews were strictly forbidden to leave their places of resi- from Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien in April 1942, in- dence without an offi cial permit, to engage in any form of cluding those of Oszmiana, Michaliszki, and Soly, survived business, to attend the market, or to use the sidewalk. Local for another year. These ghettos were subordinated adminis- authorities imposed additional restrictions that varied some- tratively to the Wilno ghetto and gradually consolidated in what from place to place. Jewish stores were closed down; the fall of 1942. The Germans liquidated them in March and Jewish men were beaten, humiliated, and arrested; and Jewish April of 1943, with some of the inmates being transferred to homes were looted. Some synagogues were burned down the Wilno ghetto or to labor camps in Lithuania, while several shortly after the start of the German occupation. Copyright © 2012. Indiana University Press. All rights reserved. Indiana University Copyright © 2012. thousand were murdered at Ponary. Forced labor for Jews was also imposed quickly in most Including Jewish refugees from Poland who arrived follow- towns, often or ga nized with the assistance of a Jewish Coun- ing the September Campaign of 1939, more than 200,000 Jews cil (Judenrat). Jews were employed mainly on clearing rubble, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 : Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe, edited by Martin Dean, and Geoffrey P. Megargee, Indiana University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vgtulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3014863. Created from vgtulibrary-ebooks on 2018-12-08 03:09:47. 528-41848_ch10_10P.indd 1032 12/21/11 5:52 PM LITHUANIA REGION 1033 the imprisoned Jews, as there were problems feeding them and no more suitable accommodations were available.2 Throughout Gebiet Kauen- Land, ghettos were set up some- what sporadically over the period from mid- July until mid- September, when the ghetto in Lazdijai was established. This was also among the last ghettos to be liquidated in early No- vember 1941. A number of ghettos in the area were liquidated in quick succession in early September 1941, including those in Vilkaviškis, Butrimonys, Alytus, and Merkin|. This intense wave of killings was coordinated by Einsatzkommando 3, as- sisted by Lithuanian policemen. As throughout Lithuania, however, the destruction often took place via a series of Ak- tions spread over several weeks. In Jonava, for example, 497 Jewish men and 55 Jewish women were shot on August 14, and only then were the remaining Jews, mostly women, children, and the el der ly, confi ned to a remnant ghetto for two more Mid- 1930s portrait of Theodor Adrian von Renteln, Gebietskommissar Litauen. USHMM/PHOTOGRAPHED FROM ERNST KIENAST (ED.), DER DEUTSCHE REICHS- TAG 1936: III. WAHLPERIODE NACH DEM 30. JANUAR 1933; MIT ZUSTIMMUNG DES HERRN REICHSTAGSPRÄSIDENTEN (BERLIN: R. V. DECKER’S VERLAG, G. SCHENCK, 1936) construction work, cleaning streets, and other public projects in the towns; sometimes they worked in agriculture or other labor outside the towns, such as road repairs and digging peat. In some places, local farmers could rent Jews as day laborers. The pro cess of ghettoization in Lithuania is relatively well documented in each of the four separate subdivisions (Gebiete). The earliest improvised ghettos were reportedly established at the end of June or early July 1941 as, for example, in Vyžuonos and Palanga. Planning for a ghetto in the city of Kaunas began in early July, and on August 7, orders were issued for the reset- tlement of Jews into ghettos in Kreis Kauen by August 15, the date set for closing the Kaunas ghetto. The same order also in- cluded instructions for the establishment of small units of Jew- ish Police (5 to 15 people) and Jewish Councils (of about 12 A map that accompanied a secret undated report on the mass murder people) to manage the internal affairs of the ghettos.1 In Gar- of Jews by Einsatzgruppe A, submitted into evidence by US and British liava, in mid- August 1941, local policemen and partisans forced prosecution teams at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. the Jews of the town and neighboring villages into the local The map is titled “Jewish Executions Carried Out by Einsatzgruppe A,” stamped “Secret Reich Matter,” and indicates that the Einsatzgruppe Copyright © 2012. Indiana University Press. All rights reserved. Indiana University Copyright © 2012. synagogue, where they were confi ned for around two weeks in murdered 136,421 Jews in Lithuania. The Kauen (Kaunas) and an improvised ghetto.