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Mass killings of Jews in Veiviržėnai (350-400 people)

In the summer and autumn of 1941, Jewish men, women, and children were shot here.
Lithuania: In the Footsteps of the Holocaust
photo
Jermaine

In July 1941, at least 50 Jews were shot in the town of Veiviržėnai. The execution was carried out by members of the Memel GPK under the command of Dr. Erich Frohmann. The order to carry out the execution was given by SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Joachim Böhme, head of the Gestapo in Tilsit. After the first shooting in Palanga on June 27, Böhme gave GPKS commanders permission to independently conduct executions of small groups of Jews and communists. In September 1941, Jewish women and children were killed in Veiviržėnai. The executioners were three Gestapo officers from the GPP Bayoren and two or three Lithuanians. Among them were Gestapo officer Meissner and Lithuanian Prasinskas.

Jewish men began to be killed in July 1941. All Jewish women and children were detained by Lithuanian police and taken to the Trepkalnis estate in the same month. There they were forced to work for local farmers. When the local priest learned that Prasinskas and several others were preparing to shoot the women and children, he wanted to save them by baptizing them. He also informed the mayor of Uselis, who had been appointed to this post by the German authorities. Uselis tried to prevent the shooting by appealing to the local German administrative commander. Both efforts were unsuccessful.

On the day of the execution, the Jews were brought to the execution site from the Trepkalnis estate. A pit had already been prepared there. No details about the execution itself are known. The general order to execute Jewish women and children came from the commander of the Tilsit Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Joachim Böhme; the actual order came from SS-Oberscharführer Franz Berendt. The GPP Bayoren and Pranas Jakis (Lukis) (it is unclear whether he participated in the killing) reported the execution to the Tilsit Gestapo, from where it was reported to the RSHA and the leader of the EGr, SS-Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker. About 300-400 people were executed that day.

Sources:

http://holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/9/item/166/

https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/static-heritage-detail/5046f85f-0661-4811-8595-41d747b6373c


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Jermaine

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