In July 1941, the occupation administration of Jurbarkas ordered all elderly Jews to register at the police department. On July 21, 1941, during registration, 45 elderly Jewish men were arrested. They loaded them onto carts and gave each a shovel. The official version was that they were going to Raseiniai for a medical examination. When they reached Kalnužiai, the police ordered them to write letters to those who stayed at home. They took them away from the road and ordered them to dig a "grave pit." All 45 Jews were shot.
At the end of July 1941, the chief of police of Jurbarkas, Mokšavičius, summoned police officers Alminaitis, Kairaitis, and Marcinkus to his office and ordered them to shoot three elderly men in the ghetto. They gave each man a shovel and led them toward Smalininkai. Seven kilometers from the city, the police forced the men to dig their own graves, lined them up at the edge of the pit, stepped back about 50 meters, and shot them.
On August 1, 1941, they began an operation to exterminate elderly women, children, and newborns. They spared young, healthy Jewish women for childbirth. They herded the arrested women into the yard of the Jewish primary school "Talmud-Torah." Toward evening, they ordered the women to line up in pairs. During the day, they prepared the pits, and at night they shot their victims. Some women fell into the pit wounded but alive. The police smashed the children's heads against trees to save ammunition. According to the Pinkas HaKehillot Lithuania encyclopedia, they shot 105 women.
In August, another mass killing occurred. From the case materials against police officer Kriščiūnas: "Two trucks arrived at the ghetto at 2 a.m. We took about 20 Jews, drove them 6-7 kilometers toward Smalininkai, near the village of Kalnenai. Then someone led the Jews into the forest, and after 10 minutes, gunshots were heard. Two days later, Asukaitis called me and ordered me to come to the police department. Asukaitis was already there with Gilys, Bakus, the Levickas brothers, Greičūnas, Sibaitis, Angeleika, Narvidas, Kilikavičius, Rimkus, and three Germans. Each of us had a rifle. They told us to kill the remaining 12 Jews. Then we went to the same forest.
On September 8, 1941, they shot young women who were capable of working and the remaining children. Jewish women were forcibly sent to the Jewish primary school "Talmud-Torah." On the day of September 8, Lithuanian and German police surrounded the building. They forced the women to line up and told them they were being taken to work. They killed them at the 7-kilometer mark near Kalnenai.
Karl Eger stated that from August 25 to September 6, 1941, 412 Jews were killed in Jurbarkas.
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