Dargiškė | Klaipėda

/ The Old Jewish cemetery in Vainutas. It was built in the mid-19th century and is a reminder of the ancient Jewish community that existed in the town. Today, several graves are still present. ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum The site where the former synagogue of Vainutas was located. It was looted and heavily damaged by the Germans in late June 1941. Today, the original building no longer exists and a large house is located there. ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum Houses located on the territory of the former ghetto, near the former synagogue, where Jewish women and children were confined from July to September 1941. ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum Justinas R., born in 1929: "The Jews were very friendly and always willing to help, but the priest got angry and refused to baptize this child." ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum Justinas R., born in 1929, accompanying the Yahad team to the site where the Jews of Vainutas were executed. ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum The site located in the Dargiškė forest, situated 2.9 km north of Vainutas. In September 1941, circa. 130 Jewish women and children from Vainutas were brought here and shot in a mass grave by German security forces. ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum The monument located at the execution site, dedicated to the innocent Jewish victims who were murdered. ©Omar Gonzalez/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of the Vainutas Jews in Dargiškė

1 Sitio(s) de ejecución

Tipo de lugar antes:
Forest
Memoriales:
Yes
Período de ocupación:
1941 - 1944
Número de víctimas:
Approx. 130

Entrevista del testigo

Justinas R., born in 1929: "The shooting took place in the forest, about two kilometers from the city. I heard isolated gunshots the night before the day of the execution. The next day, trucks carrying Jewish women and children drove by. I heard isolated but frequent gunfire. In fact, three explosive bullets arrived in my yard. The shooting lasted from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Three days later, I went to the execution site and saw the pit, which had been well covered over. The massacre was carried out by a special unit that came in from somewhere else. They were assisted by some people who wore white armbands." (Witness n°377LT, interviewed in Vainutas on September 29, 2018)

Nota histórica

Dargiškė is a hamlet located 3 km (2 miles) north of Vainutas, in the Klaipėda region of southwestern Lithuania. The first traces of a Jewish community in Vainutas date back to the mid-19th century, when the local Jewish cemetery was established. At the beginning of the 20th century, about 80 Jewish families resided in Vainutas. By the end of World War I, in 1920, there were only 65. During the interwar period, the local Jewish community had a synagogue, an elementary school, a Hebrew school and a library. Jews worked in a variety of different jobs, primarily as shopkeepers, craftsmen and farmers. Nevertheless, the Jewish population continued to decline, and by 1939 it had dropped to about 50 families. In the summer of 1940, under the terms of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, the region was annexed by the USSR. Several important local figures, such as teachers, doctors and the head of the police, were deported by the Soviet authorities.

Holocausto por balas en cifras

On June 22, 1941, the German armies and their allies began their invasion of the USSR, marking the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Since Vainutas was only a few kilometers from the German border, the city was occupied on the very first day of the invasion.

On June 23, by order of the Gestapo, all Jews aged 15 and over had to report to the local police station so that they could be assigned to various forced labor programs. They were restricted in their movements to within the town and subject to a curfew. At the same time, Lithuanian police collaborators executed some Jews outside the town.

On July 18, 1941, an SS detachment from Tilsit, East Prussia, passed through the city. They beat the Jews they encountered and damaged their places of worship. After trying to intervene, the local rabbi was lynched in public. The next day, about 130 Jewish men were taken to the synagogue, where they were forced to burn the sacred scriptures in a pit. Unable to bear this, the rabbi threw himself into the flames. The Jewish men were then taken out of the city to a labor camp. In 1943 and 1944, they were transferred to the Auschwitz and Dachau camps where they lost their lives.

At the end of July 1941, the remaining Jewish women and children were rounded up in houses near the synagogue. In this small ghetto, the Jews were still subjected to forced labor. In September 1941, a Gestapo detachment, under the command of a certain S***, arrived in Vainutas. All the residents of the ghetto, 125 women and children, were then taken in trucks to the forest of the hamlet of Dargiškė, located 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles) north of Vainutas. They were then all shot in a large mass grave.  

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