Find and identify the remains of 11 partisans and their supporters.

In the Vilnius Orphan Cemetery, partisans sentenced to death by the Soviet occupiers and shot dead were found, who supplied Vytautas Miškinis – Viesulis (shot in 1962) to the Sartai District Chief of Staff of the Bear Team of the Vytautas District and they shot for 35 years. of the remains of a partisan sentenced to death (shot in 1963).

2019 The remains of 34 partisans have been hummed again in the Leipalingis cemetery of the Druskininkai municipality, of which the remains of 7 partisans and 2 sponsors have already been identified, and the remains of 3 other people are being identified.

Alfonsas Bubnelis, a 16-year-old sponsor, Vytautas Kauzonas, an 18-year-old liaison officer, and Petras Vilkelis – Barzdukas, 39, the leader of the Vytenis homeland of the Dainava district, were identified in Leipaling. Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Medicine, student Antanas Šerkšnas – Bijūnas, 31 years old. Bolius Sotnikas – Milžinas, as well as supporters of the Juozapavičius homeland from the Dainava district Šainūnas team: 19-year-old and 25-year-old Petras Videika – Klevas. Vlad Amchie-Neris.

All these participants in the fight for freedom were killed in the parish of Leipalingis.

Four of them died in 1949. March 9, when the occupants discovered a bunker in the village of Norkūnai (partisans Bolius Sotnikas – Milžinas and Juozas Barkauskas – Vėjūnas were killed) and a bunker in the house of Ona Paliutienė in the village of Smališkė (the partisans Petras Vilkelis – Barzdukas were recognized by him). From the badly damaged remains, it can be assumed that the MGB had thrown a grenade into the bunker at O. Paliutienė’s house.

1949 November 14 the partisans Vladas Amšiejus – Neris and Petras Videika – Klevas and two liaison officers, of whom Vytautas Kauzonas was recognized, were killed after a smog agent organized a fictitious meeting in the Panara desert.

The partisan Antanas Šerkšnas – Bijūnas was assassinated in 1947. during an ambush organized by the Chekists at the junction of the villages of Dulgininkai and Valančiūnai.

The Chekists buried the remains of 16-year-old Alfonsas Bubnel, the youngest participant in the resistance, in the courtyard of the Leipalingis NKVD headquarters.

1991 At the initiative of Leipalingis residents, the remains of 34 post-war resistance participants were excavated from various parts of the city and buried in the Leipalingis Cemetery. 2019 At the initiative and order of the Lithuanian Center for Research on Genocide and Resistance, the remains were hummed again, comparisons of the remains and related DNA samples were made and a senior expert from the State Forensic Medicine Service established the identity of the dead. Dr. Jūratė Jankauskienė, anthropological research was conducted by Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Anthropology, dr. Justina Kozakaitė.

Searching for the remains of partisans and based on archival data fragments in 2017. The Lithuanian Research Center on Genocide and Resistance (LGGRT) also organized and coordinated the archaeological investigation at the Vilnius orphanage cemetery. The partisans Adolfas Ramanauskas – Vanagas and Albinas Ivanauskas – Topolis were found in 2019. – Antanas Kraujelis-Siaubūnas and Juozapas Streikas-Stumbras, 2020 – The remains of Vytautas Miškinis – Viesulis and Pranciškus Prusaitis – Lapė.

At the request of the LGGRT Center, Vilnius University archaeologist dr., Carried out a complex archaeological investigation of the orphanage cemetery. Gintautas Vėlius; The search and identification of the remains in the Orphanage and Leipaling Cemetery was coordinated by the Head of the LGGRT Center’s Memory Department. Councilor Eugenijus Peikštenis, carried out a historical investigation and collected samples from relatives. historians Rimantas Zagreckas and Dalius Žygelis.

This year the archaeological investigation will continue in the Orphanage Cemetery, the remains not yet found will be registered in Leipaling and the remains already found will be identified.