Chapter 4 Kaunas/Kovno From an independent state to a (forcedly established) Soviet republic The Lithuanian Activist Front in Berlin and the Underground at home At the onset of the Second World War, Kaunas (referred to by its Jewish popula- tion as Kovno) was the capital city of Lithuania� A temporary capital, as it were, for the Lithuanians considered Vilnius – which had been seized by Poland (and was referred to as Wilno in Polish) – to be their traditional and proper capital as not- ed in their Constitution� The anniversary of seizure of Vilnius by General Lucjan Żeligowski, 9th October 1920, was commemorated by the Lithuanians as a national day of mourning� Diplomatic relations between the two countries were only estab- lished in the spring of 1938, following an ultimatum from Poland� Before this oc- curred, demonstrations under the banner “Vilnius is ours!” were held in Lithuania, whereas crowds exclaimed, “Leader, lead us to Kowno [i�e� Kaunas]!” in Poland� In 1939, Poland and Lithuania clearly endeavoured to come to agreement and recon- ciliation, but ultimately failed to arrive at a political and military alliance�295 The Third Reich did not observe the emerging Polish-Lithuanian rapproche- ment passively� Endeavours were taken to incite the Lithuanians to stand up against Poland and regain Vilnius� A few days before the war broke out, Colonel Kazys Škirpa, the Lithuanian envoy to Berlin, arrived in Kaunas and tried to persuade the Lithuanian Government to take steps to this effect� A Germano- phile, Škirpa was envoy to Warsaw in 1938 but earlier had served for ten years as Lithuania’s military attaché in the German capital� Soon thereafter, Professor Augustinas Voldemaras came to Lithuania� Living in France at that time, Volde- maras, an extreme nationalist, had once been Prime Minister� His return home probably had something to do with the Germans’ intention to use him in a politi- cal game that was to lead to Lithuania’s involvement on their side� Voldemaras was arrested when he crossed the border, and the Lithuanian Government was 295 An admirably unbiased discussion of the difficult issues stemming from these two neighbouring of nations can be found in two basic monographs on this subject-matter authored by Piotr Łossowski: Po tej i tamtej stronie Niemna. Stosunki polsko-litewskie 1883–1939, Warsaw 1985; and, Stosunki polsko-litewskie 1921–1939, Warsaw 1997� 159 Tomasz Szarota - 9783653996821 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 06:19:41PM via free access warned by France and Great Britain of the consequences that might be inflicted in case their Polish ally was confronted� As a result, Lithuanian President Atanas Smetona declared his country neutral on 1st September 1939� This status was maintained throughout the Polish campaign, although Germany continued to pressure Lithuania to stand up against Poland�296 Resulting from the German-Soviet agreements, following its forty-day occu- pation of Wilno (19th September to 27th October 1939), the Red Army withdrew from the city and Lithuanian troops entered it on 28th October 1939� This by no means meant that Stalin had quit the idea to seize Lithuania; for the time being, he watched the European developments attentively� The day the German army entered Paris, the Lithuanian Government received an ultimatum demanding that Lithuania be subjected to the Soviet Union’s interests� The following day, 15th June 1940, saw Soviet troops seize the country again� On 21st July 1940, the newly “elected” People’s Seimas (parliament) announced in Kaunas the estab- lishment of the socialist republic of Lithuania and resolved to join the Soviet Union,297 which was eventually declared on 3rd August 1940� Lithuania was to regain its independence fifty years later: the free Republic of Lithuania was pro- claimed on 11th March 1990� It is not my task to describe life in Lithuania under the so-called “second Bol- sheviks”, that is, between 15th June 1940 and 22nd June 1941� Even though the poorer sections of the populace, including destitute Jews as well as some mem- bers of the progressive (that is, Left-inclined) intelligentsia, could have initially entertained some hope for the slogans of social justice to be put into practice, with ethnic feuds coming to an end, these illusions were soon to be dispelled� The Soviet occupation entailed political repressions, shortages of goods, wide- spread pauperisation, and hindered, if not obstructed, religious practice� The Polish and Lithuanian people grew disillusioned, and so did the Jews, as they were being deprived of their shops and craft workshops, religious schools, and houses of prayer� However, Soviet authority was supported by a significant por- tion of Jewish youth who willingly joined the local Komsomol� 296 This topic is touched upon by P� Łossowski in his earlier book Litwa a sprawy polskie 1939–1940, Warsaw 1982� 297 It is regrettable that no monograph similar to Jan Tomasz Gross’s Studium zniewo- lenia. Wybory październikowe 22 X 1939, Krakow, 1999, dealing with the elections for the National Assemblies of West Ukraine and West Belarus, has been written so far about the election in Lithuania� According to Henryk Wisner, the decision to move the Lithuanian capital to Vilnius (Wilno) was taken on 26th August 1940; cf� H� Wisner, Litwa. Dzieje państwa i narodu, Warsaw 1999, p� 223� 160 Tomasz Szarota - 9783653996821 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 06:19:41PM via free access The subject of our central interest here is the situation in Kaunas region – a part of Lithuania that housed no sizeable clusters or hubs of Poles, and where Jews constituted a considerable proportion of the inhabitants, particularly in cities and small towns� Describing the sentiments in the area, General Stefan Rowecki, Commander of the Home Army, wrote in a report dated 19th February 1941: “The Lithuanians’ hatred toward the Bolsheviks is widespread�”298 These feelings further intensified as on 14th June 1941 the Soviet authorities commenced the de- portations of some 30,000–40,000 inhabitants of Lithuania – including approxi- mately 7,000 Poles and 6,000–7,000 Jews – into the depths of the USSR, an action that lasted a number of days�299 As the Lithuanian-American historian V� Stanley Vardys wrote: “Since these mass cruelties, with no provoking incentive behind them, occurred a mere week before the outbreak of the German-Russian war, they were a decisive factor in the Lithuanians’ attitude to the German attack� The offensive was joyously welcomed by a majority of almost all strata of the popula- tion, as it seemed to be the only possibility to be liberated from the unmerciful Bolshevik regime� This attitude toward Hitler’s war against the Soviet Union is clearly different from the stance prevailing in the Western Europe� For instance, Germany’s invasion of Denmark was rightly deemed to have been an aggressive act� But the Lithuanians, similarly to the Latvians and Estonians, perceived the German troops in the first days of the war roughly in the manner the Dutch saw the British seizing Amsterdam in 1945�”300 It is true that the expectations of the Lithuanians of the coming of the Germans as liberators was to a great extent caused by the system of Soviet rule� However, it should not be forgotten that both at home and abroad there were those who never accepted that their own state had ceased to exist� Most of them expected the Third Reich to prove helpful in regaining it for themselves – but they were wrong, as it occurred soon after� The 17th of November 1940 saw the setting up in Berlin, on the initiative of Col� Škirpa, of a Lietuvių aktyvistų frontas – Lithuanian 298 Armia Krajowa w dokumentach, vol� I, London 1970, p� 462� 299 The number of the deportees varies by source� Michael MacQueen mentions 35,000 (incl� 6,000 Jews and 7,500 Poles); cf� M� MacQueen, “Polen, Litauer, Juden und Deutsche in Wilna 1939–1944”, [in:] W� Benz and M� Neiss (eds�), Judenmord in Litauen. Studien und Dokumente, Berlin, 1999, p� 61� Referring to the documents published in 1990 by Henrikas Sadzius, H� Wisner makes the number much lower – 12,682; cf� Wisner, op� cit�, p� 224� 300 V� Stanley Vardys, “Litauen: Sowjetrepublik mit Widerwillen� Die Entwicklung seit 1940”, [in:] Die baltische Nationen Estland, Lettland, Litauen, ed� by B� Meissner, Köln 1990, p� 173� 161 Tomasz Szarota - 9783653996821 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 06:19:41PM via free access Activist Front (LAF), whose role was that of a national committee in exile� It was formed of representatives of a number of political parties or factions, but the truly powerful ones were the followers of former President Smetona, on the one hand, and the adherents of his rival, Augustinas Voldemaras, author of the failed fascist putsch of 7th June 1934, on the other� Once Lithuania was made part of the Soviet Union, a wave of refugees flowed into Germany, among whom were numerous politicians and military officers� Berlin became a hub of Lithuanian irredentism� For fairly obvious reasons, the German authorities took steps to make a use of the strivings of the Lithuanians for their own purposes; the Lithuanians, on their part, cared very much about establishing contacts with the Germans and gaining their support� Due to a shortage of documents, not much can be said today about the details concerning the Berlin talks between the Lithuanians, on the one hand, and the exponents of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA), the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, military intelligence –