P. Cvirkos St. 33, 96131 Gargždai, Lithuania
The history of the Holocaust in Lithuania begins with the shootings and pogroms in Gargždai. On June 24, more than 200 Jews were killed here; before the war, Jews made up over 30 percent of all the inhabitants of Gargždai.
The town was "cleansed" by the Germans – Gestapo officers from Tilsit and policemen from Memel were specially transferred here to carry out the liquidation of the locals. While the former were initially trained to kill civilians, such tasks were new to the police. Nevertheless, the order to kill innocent people did not disturb the law enforcement officers.
The massacre of the Jews of Gargždai was the first killing carried out by the Tilsit operational group in Lithuania. It was planned by the commander of the Tilsit Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Joachim Böhme, and led by the commander of the Tilsit SD, Sierra-Werner Hersmann, who was executing the order of the commander of operational group A, SS-Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker.
On June 23, 1941, Gestapo officers of the Klaipėda Border Police Commissariat, led by Erich Frowann, arrived in Gargždai, 17 km from Klaipėda. All Jews and communists were arrested here. About 200 people were sent west to the German border. They were guarded there by border police guards from Laugaliai.
On June 24, 1941, twelve men from the Tilsit Gestapo led by Böhme, ten men from the Tilsit SD led by Hersmann, and 20-25 men from the Klaipėda security police (Schupo) under the command of Werner Schmidt-Hammer arrived in Gargždai. The German soldiers were initially told they would be killing communist partisans, but they soon realized they were to kill innocent civilians. That day, the Jews were killed. They were forced to leave their belongings and undress. Before the shooting, the living Jews had to bury the executed Soviet soldiers and deepen the ditch that was to become their grave. Through beatings and shouting, the future victims were forced to work faster.
After Klaipėda was annexed to Germany, many Memel Jews moved to Gargždai. When the town was captured by the Germans, people were driven to the square. Some victims recognized their executioners by face. In the memoirs of one eyewitness to the tragedy, there is a record: a man sentenced to death recognized a patrolman from Memel among the execution squad. He shouted to him: "Shoot accurately, Gustav!"
When the work was finished, groups of ten Jews were brought to the pit and shot by German soldiers. These were soldiers of the Klaipėda security police (Schupo) led by Schmidt-Hammer. Each killer stood about 20 meters from the victim. Each new group of victims had to push the people who had been shot before them. During the mass killings, the Jews did not resist; some prayed, others wept.
Some killers could not withstand the tension and had to be replaced. Schmidt-Hammer and SS Oberführer Bernhard Fischer-Schweder also fired shots.
Mikhail Golyakevich, author of the book "You Sow the Wind," describing the events in Gargždai, writes: "The condemned had their clothes, valuables, and money taken away. The SS men and policemen looked greedily at the gold items of those about to be shot. Some quietly hurried to take the things they liked. After all, later these could be appropriated by bigger thieves – from the officer corps. The square echoed with bursts of machine-gun fire, rifle shots thundered, cries, curses, and prayers filled the air. The pupils of Neumann, a prominent NSDAP figure from Memel and Hitler’s associate, had mastered the craft of dentists well: they pulled gold teeth from the dead with pliers." At first, the Jews were killed by Germans – mostly men. This was how they cleared the border zone. But a little later, locals also joined the organized killings.
That day, 201 people were killed. Most of them were Jews and only a few Lithuanian communists. After the shootings, the Gestapo and police drank vodka and took a commemorative photograph.
The number of victims was reported to the commander of operational group A, SS-Brigadeführer Stahlecker, and to the RSHA.
About 100 Jewish women and children were taken to a barn near the Minija River, from where they were sent to work on farms for the summer. In mid-September, 90 women were driven into the forest near the village of Vežaiciai – two pits had been dug there. The shooting was commanded by the leader of the local white armbanders, Idelfonsas Lukauskas, formerly a member of an underground anti-Soviet group in Gargždai. Before the shooting, he ordered the girls to undress. They were shot in groups of eight to ten. Later, the executioners themselves covered the pits with earth, took the belongings, and returned to the town. These episodes are described in detail in the monograph by local historian Chaim Bargman. Priest Jonas Aleksejus, another witness to the tragic events, said he tried to prevent the killings, but the policemen did not listen to him. They only agreed that the women would not be forced to strip naked as originally planned. They were allowed to meet death in their underwear. "Mothers with more children covered them, and infants were held in their arms. In total, about 300 people were shot," the priest quotes Bargman. Two days later, on September 18, the policemen brought the remaining people to the forest to finish them off. People were literally beaten to death. Later, when the exhumation was carried out, it was established that 82 people were killed with blunt objects, and 17 were buried alive. According to an eyewitness to the tragedy (quoted by H. Bargman), the killings were led by the local elder Pyatras Lyangwenas – during independence, he was the commander of the Vežaiciai platoon of the Riflemen’s Union.
Perpetrators of the killings:
Tilsit Gestapo, commander H. J. Böhme;
Tilsit SD, commander W. Hersmann;
Klaipėda Border Police Commissariat, commander E. Frowann;
Klaipėda Security Police (Schupo), commanders W. Schmidt-Hammer and B. Fischer-Schweder;
Lithuanian police;
White armbanders;
Sources:
Lev Shklovsky: The First Massacre of Jews in Gargždai
