The following narrative provides us with a slightly different perspective of the horrific events that unfolded in Anykščiai during the summer of 1941.   June 27, 1941 The town continued normally until the Germans marched in on June 27, 1941. As soon as the Germans occupied the town, the Jews became the victims of torture and executions. These were directed, at first, at Jewish refugees who had fled other cities and towns, such as Kovno, in an attempt to escape into Russia. Others came from towns that had been destroyed by the Germans. Many towns were cut off entirely; their townspeople had nowhere to flee. Aniksht's refugee Jews were housed in the local houses of study and prayer. The Lithuanian fascists led the Germans directly there and pointed out "the Jews who were escaping to Russia." The synagogues were turned into slaughterhouses. Refugee Jews hiding elsewhere rushed out of town, but most were killed on the road. When the Germans were done with the refugee Jews, they started in on the Aniksht Jews. They beat and raped the women and imposed forced labor upon the men. July 28, 1941 Not long after, on July 28, 1941, they assembled the Jews - men, women, and children, ill and well alike. The men were separated from the women and children, and tortured. They ordered the town rabbi to sing and dance for them, and then they tortured him. They led communal leaders to the Hasenberg, an area in Aniksht that had once housed the community's slaughterhouse. Along the same street that Jews used to lead their animals to the slaughter, now the rabbi and Yossel the shochet and Mannes Gurevitch and Yitzchok Charay and Shimon Ratner and the others were driven to their slaughter. Most were buried alive. Several weeks later the women and children were also killed. Thus was an old Jewish community eradicated. The town itself went up in smoke. Sources • International Jewish Cemetery Project, International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies: ANYKSCIAI: Ukmerge, Kaunas. • The Annihilation of Lithuania Jewry by Rabbi Ephraim Oshry (an English translation of Rabbi Oshry's 1951 yiskor book, Churban Lita), The Judaica Press, Inc., Brooklyn, NY, 1995, pp. 183-184. Further Readings • Nenusigręžk nuo savęs (Don't Turn from Yourself), by Rimantas Vanagas, VYTURYS, Vilnius, 1995 (in Lithuanian). • The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, NYU Press and Yad Vashem, 2001, p. 50. Victims from Anykščiai Below is a set of links to the list of known Shoah Victims from Anykščiai, or with ties to Anykščiai. About the List This list is broken down into several web pages alphabetically by surname of the Victim. It is far from complete and represents only a small fraction of the Jews with ties to Anykščiai who died at the hands of the Nazis or their accomplices. Obtaining More Detail To view a Page of Testimony, or other information that may currently be available in the database for any Victim on the list, click on this link to Yad Vashem's The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, then type in the Victim's name and location information in the appropriate fields, as it appears on the list. Multiple Entries? As you scroll through the lists of Victims, you will notice that a number of them have more than one entry. This is because a number of survivors, relatives, former neighbors and friends may have independently submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem for the same Victim. Additionally, some informants may have inadvertently submitted duplicate Pages of Testimony over a span of years.  Unidentified Victim? Undoubtedly, there are a great many more Anykščiai victims than are enumerated here. If you know of any other Anikshters, help us commemorate their lives and honor their memory by submitting Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victim's Names. Instructions for doing so can be found  here. And, please, be sure to notify either moderator so that we can add your victim name(s) to our list.   For More Information • Yad Vashem • Pages of Testimony Millions more Shoah Victims still remain unidentified. It is our collective duty to persist until all their names have been recovered. Do you know of a Holocaust Victim? Submit Pages of Testimony and send photographs of the victims, if available, so that they will always be remembered. Instructions are provided at the Yad Vashem website. Contribute to the Database Yad Vashem and its partners have collected and recorded the names and some biographical details on half of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices. After reviewing Yad Vashem's online Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, an alphabetical list was prepared of martyred Jews who had ties to Anykščiai. Research Yad Vashem Anykščiai during the Holocaust - #2 Holocaust