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In honor of the victims, authentic memorabilia were read at the event when, at the beginning of the Nazi occupation, Jews were forced to carry horse manure into a garage yard and then fatally beaten.
Faina Kukliansky, president of the Lithuanian Jewish community, emphasized that with the beginning of the Nazi occupation, there was no place for Jews in Lithuania, most of them died at the hands of Germans and Lithuanians who collaborated with her.
At the same time, he emphasized the heroism of the 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 were hiding” spoke the head of the community at the event.
Premiere: We remember to create a shared memory.
Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania, Yossef Levy, said that Lithuania and Israel are good friends, but to foster this friendship, it is necessary not to keep silent 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, in which the tortured and desecrated people were transported to the Jewish cemetery of Žaliakalnis.
A memorial to brutally murdered Lithuanian Jews was unveiled at the Žaliakalnis Jewish Cemetery, where the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre are believed to have been buried.
“The sky is crying over what happened 80 years ago. Perhaps, while I was in Lietūkis’s garage today, another ray of sunlight appeared. Jewish men also had a glimmer of hope that they would survive, but as they traveled this path, the heavens wept. Thanks to all who were and I think we honor in a significant way the memory of the murdered people, ”said Tadas Daujotas, the organizer of the event.
en.wikipedia.org / photo from informnapalm.org/ Image on the territory of the Lietūkis garage after the massacre
Brutal massacres
More on the Lietūkis Massacre 15 minutes told Alfredas Rukšėnas, chief historian of the Genocide and Resistance Studies Department.
On June 17, 1941, in Berlin, Reinhard Heydrich, SS Obergrupenführer, head of the Upper Reich Security Board, and other members of the Third Reich leadership instructed the commanders of the task forces and units not to obstruct the forces. who sought to exterminate the communists and Jews in the occupied Soviet Union.
On the contrary, it had to be encouraged.
That’s what happened. Walter Franz Stahlecker (b.1900), SS brigadier, commander of Task Force 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 Nork, other people.
These forces were disloyal to the Provisional Government of Lithuania, the Headquarters of the Armed Forces 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 Lietūkis garage, which was near Žalgirio Street and Vytautas Avenue, in front of the 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, that is, in the Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce, was the headquarters of the leadership of the 16th German Army. The garage yard could be seen through the headquarters window.
The tragedy began around 9-10 a.m. when German soldiers and administrative workers began herding Jews in groups to the garage. From the beginning, the Jews were not killed, but forced to clean the garage of horse manure, another rubbish left over after the partial departure of the German army.
All this was accompanied by brutal bullying: Jews were watered with gut water, flogged, forced to flee in a circle, humiliated in other ways. The victims were beaten by both partisans and German soldiers.
“It just came to our attention then. It must be said that the massacre was carried out in a brutal manner.” – 15 minutes assured A.Rukšėnas.
Turned into a massacre
After a while, when the Jews resisted the torturers, the intimidation turned into massacres. White-collar workers began killing Jews by beating them with metal crowbars and other tools.
According to the historian, it is not known that German soldiers also died. The victims were not shot.
There have been episodes in which a group of victims has been killed by the same clerical worker (approximately 16 to 25 years old). He was even proud of what he was doing: climbing on the murdered bodies, according to the historian, playing the harmonica. In the works of foreign historians, this person is called a “death dealer.”
“The victims who were lying on the pavement of the garage yard were resurrected with a jet of water. Victims who moved or stood up were again beaten to death. Using water, the victims were tortured in various other ways during the massacre. One of them is putting a hose in his mouth. After killing one group of Jews, they brought another, “said A. Rukšėnas.
According to the historian, the massacre lasted about 18 hours. The Germans then ordered the dispersal of the execution (including the women), and the bodies of the victims were piled up in a truck, removed and buried in the old cemetery.
According to some data, around 50-60 Jews were killed in the garage, according to others, around 60, according to thirds, around 70 Jews. Their lives were extinguished in great pain and suffering.
The perpetrators of the killings are prisoners
A.Rukšėnas recalled that the former Minister of Industry of the Provisional Government of Lithuania, Adolfas Damušis, a Lithuanian expatriate, also wrote about these massacres. He named AJKlimaitis and his men as participants in the garage massacre, who acted on WFStahlecker’s instructions: “A. Klimaitis is responsible for the slaughter. It was his men who beat the Jews. “
Among the killers there may have been white-collar workers who did not belong to AJKlimaiitis.
Victims who moved or stood up were beaten again.
Most of the AJKlimaitis men were released prisoners serving their sentences in Kaunas Forced Labor Prison. According to the historian, they suffered very serious injuries and were aggressive at the time, with the slightest stimulus affecting their emotions.
The historian recalls that another Lithuanian emigrant, the 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 act of June 27, 1941 states that “despite all measures to be taken against Jews for their communist activities and to the detriment of the German army, partisans and designated residents to prevent public executions of Jews. It has been experienced that these actions are carried out 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 partisans loyal to the LAF and the Armed Forces Headquarters not to join the aforementioned pogrom forces.
Accidental and unidentified victims
When asked if all the details of the story are known, the historian replied that the details have not been clarified; In abundance, this story has many surviving question marks.
The main problem is the identification and listing of victims.
According to the historian A.Rukšėnas, the attitude towards the victims is uneven. The extreme views that the victims were only Soviet security workers, communists, young communists, or that there were no Marxists among the victims are not correct.
“The limited knowledge suggests that there were people of different beliefs (including the Marxist) and different occupations among the victims. Among them there was still no high-ranking Soviet security officer.
The following people died in the garage: Chaim Zukerman (shop owner), Peisach and Moish Goldberg (school brothers), Schliom Goldstein (musician), Yitzhk Green (soap factory worker), B. Komas (shopkeeper) , Yitzhak Kurlianchik (water supplier), Jurgis Štris, father of Alexander Strom, political scientist and lawyer), Nona Aronov and their three children. The workers of the printing press of Spindulis Sinchel Neuman, Abram Weiss, Josel Monželis, Chaim Malnik, Erasmus Gruntmeyer, Emil Timler could have died “, indicated the historian.
13 years ago a monument was built to commemorate the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre
Rukšėnas claims that he has found the names of 5 Jews, who were taken from the Kaunas police station by German soldiers on June 27 around 11 o’clock, but it is not clear where they took him. The impression was that they could have been found in Lietūkis’s garage.
About 1,000 Jews died in Kaunas
According to the historian, the June 27, 1941 massacre in the Lietūkis garage was just one of the most prominent episodes of Jewish pogroms in Kaunas.
The pogrom also took place in Vilijampolė, where between 600 and 800 people died from June 25 to 27, elsewhere.
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 the researchers, is doubtful. Possibly it included not only murdered but also arrested Jews.
A commemorative sign has been revealed
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust around the world. The commemoration was the Lietūkis garage massacre, which took place in Kaunas on Monday night.
On June 28, on Kaunas Miško Street, next to the monument to the victims of the “Lietūkis” garage massacre, his memory was honored and the 80th anniversary of these terrible events was commemorated.
There was also a road march whereby the tortured and desecrated people were transported to the Jewish cemetery in Žaliakalnis. The march was organized by the international “March of Life” movement.
A monument dedicated to the brutally murdered Lithuanian Jews was inaugurated here, where the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre are believed to have been buried.
The event was attended by foreign ambassadors in Lithuania, leaders of Jewish communities, members of the Seimas and representatives of the self-government.
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