Former Soviet officials, communists, and Komsomol members of various nationalities were captured and shot in the first weeks of the Nazi occupation (from June 27 to August 14, 1941). The first arrests of Jews in Rokiškis were made on June 29. The captured Soviet activists and Jews were taken in small groups to the Steponiškis Forest, about 5 kilometers from Rokiškis, and shot. Around July 8, 1941, white bandits took 108 young Jews aged 14 to 30 and told them they were being sent to work in Biržai. That day, they were all taken to the Steponiškis Forest and shot there that same night.
After the war, a memorial was erected at the site of the killings with the inscription “Here lie 981 victims of fascist terror.” The victims included 493 Jews, 432 Russians, and 56 Lithuanians, based on information contained in Eger’s report, which provides these statistics for Rokiškis, not specifically for the Steponiškis Forest. It is possible that these figures include all people killed in the Rokiškis area as of August 14, 1941, and not only the number of victims in the Steponiškis Forest.
Sources:
https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/search-results///11157////////1
