The cemetery operated from the 18th century until 1941. Jews from the towns of Kretinga, Kartena, and Jakova, who were part of the Kretinga Jewish community, are buried there. Prisoners held in Kretinga were brought to the Jewish cemetery to dig a trench. Over several days, a trench approximately 6 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and about 2 meters deep was dug. After that, the convicted prisoners (about 40 people) were loaded onto trucks and taken for execution. Some arrested Jews were shot in the first weeks of the Nazi occupation. The killings were carried out by the security police officer Smilgis, known for his extreme cruelty. In July 1941, Pranas Jakis (Lukis) summoned Smilgis and told him that 17 Jewish women were to be liquidated the following night “without any screams or noise.” Smilgis, together with white bandits, dug a pit in the Jewish cemetery, brought the women there, and with the help of other white bandits killed them with shovels. This murder was committed at night. It seems there were other similar cases because some people saw Smilgis killing Jewish women early in the morning.
In total, from July to September 1941, in the southern part of the cemetery, state security police officers and auxiliary police of the Kretinga district killed about 220 women of the Kretinga Jewish community with children, and 125 members of the Mosėdis Jewish community.
The cemetery was surrounded on all sides by a concrete wall; only a few fragments remain today. At the site of the former gates, symbolic openwork gates were built in 1994. The cemetery is abundant with stone and concrete tombstones with epitaphs in Hebrew, and concrete crypts. In the southern part of the cemetery stand two monuments in memory of the victims.
Sources:
http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/4/item/154/
