Mass murder of Jewish women and children in the Dimitravas camp (510 people)

At the end of July 1941, Jewish women and children (about 500) from Skuodas were sent to a camp in Dimitravas (41 km from Skuodas). They were led by 20 members of the Skuodas auxiliary police. About a week later (August 3, 1941), Edmundas Tiras arrived from Kaunas, appointed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs as the temporary head of the Dimitravas camp.

On August 15, 1941, about a dozen members of the Skuodas auxiliary police arrived at the Dimitravas camp. In the evening, they entered the barracks and ordered the younger women to stay inside, while the older women and children were told to go out into the yard. About 1.5 km from the camp, in the Jazdai forest at the foot of Alka Hill, several large pits had been dug. Women and children were driven in large groups to the pits, stripped, pushed inside, and shot. The shooting was carried out by about 20 members of the Skuodas auxiliary police and four local residents, volunteers from nearby villages. They were commanded by Mikolas Vitkus. After the execution, the pits were filled in by the killers themselves, as well as peasants brought from nearby villages.

In December 1944, a commission investigating the site of the massacre discovered four mass graves. The commission found the bodies of 510 victims (31 children, 94 teenagers, and 385 women). The bodies of the children showed no gunshot wounds.

Address: Darbenai Administrative District, Yoskaudai village, Yoskaudai forest, Kretinga district

Number of victims: 510

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