1 Killing site(s)
Stasė S., born in 1924:
"Y.U.: Do you remember any Jews who lived in Pumpėnai?
Witness: Yes, there was Judelis, Freidė, Mazanskis, Dinkė, Benskus, Panda, Jokelis, Sorkė, Gečkis, and Milkis, who owned a restaurant. There used to be two restaurants in the town. The cultural center is now located in one of them. [...]
Y.U.: Was the Jewish school located near the synagogue?
Witness: The synagogue and the Jewish bathhouse were nearby, but the Jewish school was further away. Jews got along well with Lithuanians, but the two communities lived separately. The Jews had their own hospital in Panevėžys. It was a very good hospital. Being treated there felt like being cared for by God. You had to pay for the medicines, but not for the doctors’ work. They took great care of their patients. [...]
Y.U.: Do you remember any Jewish religious ceremonies?
Witness: They celebrated Saturdays, as well as Christmas and Easter. They baked matzos for Easter, which they ate for seven weeks. Sometimes, they shared them with Lithuanians. My mother used to bake them too. It was a difficult task because she was only allowed to use a certain amount of flour, and putting in more than planned was considered a bad omen. Jews were good people. They didn’t swear or fight. They didn’t quarrel within their families and didn’t drink much. [...]
Y.U.: Was there a Jewish priest?
Witness: Yes, there was a rabbi with a big beard.
Y.U.: Was he an old man?
Witness: Middle-aged. He had a family, unlike Christian priests who were celibate. His house is still here. There was also a special Jewish butcher for hens. On Saturdays, Jews ate fried chicken. We prepare big meals like that only for Christmas and Easter, but Jews did it every Saturday. They paid their maids, who knew how to prepare everything." (Testimony N°YIU167LT, interviewed in Jurgėnai, on June 30, 2015)
Pumpėnai is a small town in northeastern Lithuania, situated approximately 24 km (15 mi) north of Panevėžys. The town was first mentioned in written sources in 1556 and was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795. Pumpėnai was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in Lithuania. In the mid-18th century, the Karaite community that had previously lived there was replaced by Rabbinic Jews. In 1766, there were 583 Jewish residents in the town. At the beginning of the 19th century, a rabbi was burned to death after being falsely accused of blood libel. A memorial was erected in his honor in the synagogue yard. However, in 1861, the old synagogue was destroyed by a fire that ravaged much of the town, and a new synagogue was constructed in 1881 near the old cemetery.
The Jewish community of Pumpėnai continued to grow, and by the end of the 19th century, Jews constituted the majority of the town’s population. According to the 1897 census conducted by the Russian Empire, there were 1,017 Jews in Pumpėnai, making up 69% of the total population. Local Jews were primarily engaged in small trade, the service sector, and artisanal work, while others found opportunities in agriculture or cheese production. The wealthiest and best-educated Jewish men looked after the needs of their community, but despite their efforts, many young Jews emigrated abroad, mainly to South Africa, due to difficult economic conditions.
In 1915, during the First World War, the Jews of Pumpėnai were forced into exile in Russia. In the interwar period, when Pumpėnai became part of an independent Lithuania, some of them returned home, only to find their properties destroyed. This led to a new wave of emigration and a decrease in the Jewish population. According to the 1923 census, the town was home to only 372 Jews, comprising 33% of the total population. During this period, local Jews became more active in the social and cultural life of the town, with many participating in the Zionist movement. Jewish children attended the Hebrew Tarbuth school. There were multiple Jewish stores and small enterprises, as well as a Jewish bathhouse and a Jewish cemetery. Jewish artisans in Pumpėnai offered services as shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, barbers, and more. When Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, the economic situation deteriorated as the nationalization of Jewish shops and businesses led to a shortage of goods and rising prices. Community institutions were disbanded. On the eve of the German invasion, there were about 300 Jewish residents left in Pumpėnai.
Pumpėnai was occupied by German troops on June 26, 1941. Lithuanian activists quickly established a new administration and a police force. Anti-Jewish policies were implemented in the first days of the occupation, during which Jewish valuables were looted, and Jews were forbidden from walking in public places or communicating with non-Jewish residents. Wearing distinctive yellow symbols became compulsory.
Starting on July 15, 1941, most of Pumpėnai’s Jews were forced to move into a ghetto, which was set up in a designated area comprising several houses surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. Several Jewish families were transferred to the Pasvalys ghetto. The Jewish inmates of the Pumpėnai ghetto were confined under overcrowded conditions without provisions and were coerced into forced labor on road construction projects. During the existence of the ghetto, or possibly during its liquidation, four Jewish men were taken to the Pumpėnai Jewish cemetery, where they were lined up at the edge of a pit, facing it, before being shot by shooters following orders from a German officer. The pit was then covered by two requisitioned Jewish men under the supervision of guards.
On August 26, 1941, the ghetto was liquidated in an Aktion carried out by a detachment of Einsatzkommando 3, assisted by Lithuanian policemen. The Jews of Pumpėnai, including men, women, and children, were rounded up in the synagogue and the nearby Jewish bathhouse. Their homes were searched for fugitives. The assembled Jewish detainees were then transferred to the Pajuostės forest near Panevėžys, where they were executed alongside other Jewish victims. The Jews who had previously been transferred to the Pasvalys ghetto were executed in the Žadeikiai forest around the same time.
The family of the Jewish pharmacist were the last Jewish victims murdered in Pumpėnai, several weeks after the mass execution.
In the 1990s, a new plaque was erected at the Jewish cemetery, bearing the inscription ’May they rest in peace’ in Yiddish and Lithuanian.
For more information about the killing of Jews from Pumpėnai, please follow the corresponding profile.
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