Ukmergė – a small town halfway between Vilnius and Panevėžys, can be a striking example of a well-preserved Jewish past. Here, practically the entire town center consists of former Jewish houses, shops, schools, and prayer houses. Yet today, exactly zero Jews live here. It is surprising and paradoxical to walk through it, see its rich Jewish heritage, and realize that for 70 years there has not been a single Jew here.

Right at the entrance to the town from the Vilnius side, one can see a huge vacant area. This is the old Jewish cemetery. Now, only a large memorial stone with a Star of David and a few miraculously preserved tombstones remind of it. It was destroyed in 1960. Then, as in many other Soviet cities, Jewish tombstones were used as quality building material. The approach was as rational as it was heartless. These cemeteries were of no use to anyone anyway, since no one visited or commemorated the deceased there. During Soviet times, it was not customary to remember the victims of the Holocaust.

Ukmergė was once a typical Jewish town, also known by another name, Vilkomir. Before World War I, the Jewish population here reached up to 70 percent and exceeded 10,000 people. Lithuanians, by the way, then made up no more than six percent of the town’s population.

In 1935, the Jewish population of Ukmergė was 8,000. On June 25, 1941, when the town was captured by the Germans, many Jews fleeing from western Lithuania found themselves trapped here during their escape eastward. Lithuanians immediately began attacking Jewish homes, destroying and killing. They cruelly forced the chemist Joseph Shalkan, who was 80 years old, to run behind a cart pulled by a wild horse, tying him to it. When Dr. Aaron Cohen left the hospital to return home, he was shot in the middle of the road.

On the day the town was captured, two German soldiers were killed, apparently by stray bullets. This incident led to new pogroms. When the two soldiers were buried in the main square in the town center, the Jews were accused of shooting at the soldiers.

Respected Jews and community leaders were arrested as witnesses. German soldiers entered the Jewish hospital (Bikur Cholim) and forcibly surrounded doctors and nurses. They also arrested rabbis, lawyers, and public figures. All were taken to the local prison with threats and beatings. After that, they were forcibly taken to a large sandy area adjacent to one of the Christian cemeteries, where they were all brutally killed. The leaders and instigators of these murders were the local head of the secret police, Matias Paskivicius, engineer Vatcios Daviakus, driver Zivulianios, who spoke Yiddish fluently, and Lalabiuda from the Polish part of the town. Paskivicius personally stabbed Jews with scissors; Daviakus dismembered the bodies of Jewish scholars with an axe; and Zivulianios threw living people into ditches. The Pole Lalabiuda took pleasure in dipping his hands in Jewish blood.

In the first week of German occupation, 200 Jews were arrested on charges of collaborating with communists during two years of Russian rule. Residents encouraged the killers, and on Friday, July 4, 1941, 200 Jews were taken to the Pivonys Forest near the village of Pasalina, 3 km from Ukmergė, where they were killed and buried. In mid-July, Lithuanians stopped 12 Jewish girls in the town center, brutally tortured them, and then killed them. In early August 1941, the Germans issued an order for all Jews to leave their homes and move to a ghetto located in a poor Christian neighborhood between Bolnik and Nikukar alleys, leading to the Sekutnai River (Unteren Wasser). The ghetto was not fenced but guarded by armed Lithuanians.

Every day, Jewish men and even young women were taken for various forced labor tasks, digging sewage ditches in different parts of the town and surrounding areas. The Germans not only intended to force Jews to work but also used every opportunity to humiliate and mock them. Many respected and elderly Jews were taken and treated like toys or for entertainment; they cleaned sewage ditches on the town’s streets, public toilets, and similar places. The Germans especially liked humiliating the tailor Noah Chiszerka, who was very fat and very tall, as well as the hotel and restaurant owner Katy, a woman who was also very fat and tall. They drove Noah out with a broom and Katy with a bucket, forcing them to clean the most neglected streets in town. Germans and Lithuanians stood around, laughing and mocking the comical pair.

The Germans often surrounded places frequented by young and healthy Jews and selected several people, sending them from Ukmergė to work on farms closer to Vilnius.

Mass executions of Jews were carried out on August 1, 8, and 19, 1941, in the Pivonys Forest. Jews were brought to this forest from a concentration center established at the Vaitkushkis estate. In early August, a mass execution of Jews held in the town prison was planned. Every day, more and more Jews from areas around Ukmergė were sent to the prison.

On August 8, the Germans gathered a large number of young women from their workplaces and sent them on a march in the same direction. After that, all men and women were taken to the Pivonys Forest, killed, and buried in ditches near the underwear factory. During August, young men and women were brought to this forest from surrounding towns and villages: Sirvintos, Balninkai, Alanta, Musninkai, Bagaslaviškis, Gedraičiai, Sesuoliai, Kukliai, Vidiškiai, Siesikai, and Jonava.

After the mass killings in July, the prison was less overcrowded, but another 800 Jews were brought there a week later. This immediately affected the conditions for other prisoners: "Jewish prisoners were given half rations or not fed at all." Some time later, someone from the guards called the prison chief Kuzmickas and ordered him to hand over the Jewish prisoners for execution. On the same day, "four or five trucks arrived with Germans, Lithuanian police, and white armbands, and they transported the Jews to the Pivonys Forest. Kuzmickas was also ordered to come. He saw the trucks arrive at the execution site and were immediately surrounded by Germans who ordered the Jews to jump into the ditch and lie at the bottom, then shot them one by one. Jewish prisoners were brought directly to the execution site without entering the Vaitkushkis estate, where Jews from the ghetto were concentrated at that time." The sand-colored Opel car carrying German officers led the trucks out of the prison. "White bandits from Kavarškas and Vidiškės were present at the subsequent mass murder operations on August 8 and 19. All mass killings were carried out according to plan. Almost daily, people were driven to the Vaitkushkis estate in groups of up to 100. As the number of Jews there grew, there were not enough guards. There were no volunteers, and help from Kavarškas and Žemaitkiemis had not yet arrived, so elders of nearby villages were ordered to bring several people to work as guards. They were all ordered to arrive at the Vaitkushkis estate the next day, and sometimes they were brought there immediately. In the latter case, people were sent directly to the Pivonys Forest execution site.

Help arrived from Kavarškas and Žemaitkiemis to conduct the third mass murder operation. Čiurkšis commanded the Kavarškas unit. They all arrived in Ukmergė already knowing what they were to do. When they arrived, a column of Jews had gathered at the Vaitkushkis estate. A squad of 20 people led them toward the Pivonys Forest. After walking about a kilometer through the forest, they reached a clearing where a ditch about 20 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 2 meters deep had been dug. Near the ditch stood from twelve to twenty white-armbanded men and six Germans. The Jews were forced to lie down and kneel in the ditch. They were shot from the edge of the ditch. After shooting this group, another group of forty to fifty Jews, mostly elderly men, women, and children, was gathered at the Vaitkushkis estate. Some women carried infants in their arms. They were ordered to undress in the Pivonys Forest. Those who did not obey were brutally beaten with rifle butts and stripped of their clothes.

It is believed that in total about 100 Lithuanians and 20 Germans committed these mass murders. The shooting usually lasted from 4 to 5 hours, during which on August 8 and 19, they shot 918 Jewish men, 337 Jewish women, and 88 Jewish children.

The mass murder operation carried out on September 5, 1941, was intended to finally solve the Jewish question in Ukmergė. Both regular extermination units and random people fired. They brought people to the execution site in small groups, claiming they were taking them to work. The killing technique did not change: shooting, beating to death with rifle butts, and burying still living people.

Residents of nearby villages were formed into groups to dig ditches in the Pivonys Forest. Experienced killers from Kavarškas again came to help; the group probably consisted of 15 people.

On the morning of September 5, the first columns of condemned were gathered at the Vaitkushkis estate and marched under machine gun barrels to the Pivonys Forest. Standing naked in the forest clearing, they were ordered to descend into the ditch. Many did not obey and were beaten with sticks. Some, fearing beatings, voluntarily jumped into the ditch. People in white armbands surrounded the rest and pushed them into the ditch. People fell chaotically on top of each other. When the command to shoot was given, those who wanted or who stood near the ditch opened fire. They decided to send another column of Jews from the Vaitkushkis estate as soon as the shooting ended. On average, every two hours, they brought a new group of victims to the execution site. The extermination operation that day continued in this way, taking the lives of 4,709 Jews.

In 1943, separate shootings of Jews were carried out in the town. V. Usov witnessed Pashkyavichus shooting a Jewish girl in the Pivonys Forest in the fall of 1943.

The only people remaining in the ghetto were the elderly and sick, women and children, but their fate befell them on September 26. At dawn, the ghetto was surrounded by armed guards and subjected to a brutal attack by Germans and Lithuanians. Jews were forced to leave their homes, taking only a small amount of food with them. They were told they were being taken to a labor camp where all other Jews of Ukmergė were held, and that they would be dealt with, all families reunited with children and parents, and merchants sent to the appropriate labor camp. At 9 a.m., the Jews were forcibly taken to the Pivonys Forest. There they were forced to completely undress, and then the Germans opened fire on them with machine guns.

One Jew, Eliyahu Karunski, a skilled electrician, was taken out of the ghetto to work for the Germans. He was a neighbor of a Christian who taught him the electrician’s craft, and they worked in partnership for many years. Karunski survived even after his son and daughter died in the ghetto, but after they used his services as an electrician, he too was killed.

Several Jews from Ukmergė escaped and hid on some farms and in the forests. They endured many hardships and moved from place to place, but none managed to escape the enemy. When caught, most were taken to the mass grave in the Pivonys Forest and killed there.

Among the last Jews to perish were Dr. David Gerev and the respected elder Abraham Pik. Lithuanian surgeon Dr. Dumbris initially protected and hid Dr. Gerev, who served as his assistant in his clinic, and then managed to hide him at a farmer’s place. Another person reported his presence, and he was caught. Elder Pik hid for a long time at a flour mill factory, but again someone informed on him.

All this must be remembered. If only to ensure that such things never happen again. Remarkably, after the war, several surviving Jews from the local population returned to Ukmergė. They were saved by Stalin’s repressions and exile to Siberia just before the war began. Living in this town did not work out well for them...

The survivors began searching the Pivonys Forest for mass graves of their martyred families and townspeople. Finding the grave was not easy, as tall weeds covered a vast area. After thorough clearing, they found only three large graves scattered with human bones. According to local farmers who helped them in the search, they were told that there was a long, wide ditch leading up the slopes of the hill at this site. Since there was not enough earth to cover all the bodies, the Germans dragged some bodies up the hill slopes and buried them there. This mound was thin and loose. It did not take long for rains to expose the shallow graves, and forest predators began to gnaw and scatter the bodies.

All this must be remembered. If only to ensure that such things never happen again. Remarkably, after the war, several surviving Jews from the local population returned to Ukmergė. They were saved by Stalin’s repressions and exile to Siberia just before the war began. Living in this town did not work out well for them...

The surviving residents created a tradition of collecting the bones of the Pivonys victims, especially on Tisha B’Av, and burying them in a common grave. The surviving Jews of Ukmergė appealed to municipal authorities to erect a monument to the victims, but the authorities refused despite the fact that many of the victims were killed by town residents. Then the Jews took the initiative, collected money, and in 1950 built their own monument in the middle of three mass graves arranged in a semicircle on a flat open space. The monument was made of concrete, 2.5 meters high and 1.5 meters wide.

Soviet officials discovered long lists of records of 12,000 Jews with their names and ages, most likely residents of Ukmergė and its surroundings who were killed. Many survivors found the names of their relatives and friends who were there at that time. Unfortunately, like many Holocaust materials, these were lost.

All this must be remembered. If only to ensure that such things never happen again.

Sources:

http://holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/10/item/69/

https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lithuania3/lit3_003.html#Ukmerge

https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/static-heritage-detail/9d4b1247-24f5-4c0a-be75-ccca18f789b6

https://starcom68.livejournal.com/1960012.html