The first mass murder of Šiauliai Jews took place in the Kužiai Forest, 12 kilometers from Šiauliai, on June 29, 1941. According to approximate estimates, several thousand Jewish residents of the city of Šiauliai and the Šiauliai region, including 125 Jews from Linkuva, were killed in the forest in the summer of 1941. Among the victims were also ethnic Lithuanians and Russians, members of the Communist Party and communist youth. According to witness testimonies, the killings in Kužiai were carried out by German soldiers. The total number of victims is about 8,000.
Recalls former prisoner of the Šiauliai ghetto, Fania Rabinovich: “In 1944 liberation came. Years passed and we did not even know where the graves of the Šiauliai ghetto victims were. One of the surviving Jews, a resident of Šiauliai, searched for these graves for a long time. One day he returned home after the search, not himself. What he saw in the forest was impossible to describe in words. We went to the forest, located 15-20 kilometers from the city, near the settlement of Kužiai. The peasants living nearby showed the locations of pits, which were found in many places. A terrible sight opened before our eyes: human bones, rags left from the victims’ clothing, were scattered among the trees and bushes. Later we learned about another large grave located in a different forest, 6 kilometers from this place. According to peasants’ stories, Jews were brought there for extermination in August-September 1941. I believe that the first victims of the ghetto lie in this grave, including my dear parents.”
With money donated by the Jews of Šiauliai and other nearby places, we restored the graves and erected a monument. (Local authorities also helped us with this). Every year we came to these places to honor the memory of the fallen. May the bright memory of the Jews—victims of fascism—be eternal.”
Sources:
http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/2/item/89/
Fania Rabinovich: The First Action in the Šiauliai Ghetto