In memory of the Jews of Tauragnai murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators
August 29, 1941 (6 Elul 5701)

ShtetLinks: Tauragnai

(Latitude 55°27´, Longitude 25°49´) Satellite Map or Road Map

Other Names

• Torigin (Yiddish)
• Tavroginy

Often Confused With...

• Taurage (Russian name is Tauragen) (Latitude 55°15´,Longitude 22°17´)
• Tverai (Yiddish name is also Torigin) (Latitude 55°44´, Longitude 22°09´)

Modern Tauragnai

The Surroundings of Tauragnai (Photo taken from Utena Tourism Information website)

Historical Pictures

Students of Yavneh School circa 1930 (Courtesy Yosef Rosin)

Wooden Beit Midrash of Tauragnai (Courtesy Yosef Rosin)

Rabbi Eliezer-Tsvi Pines, religious leader of Tauragnai from 1875 to 1937 (Courtesy of Yosef Rosin)

Travel Pictures

Martha Greene

Memorial to Victims of Holocaust in Utena Region (Courtesy of Martha Greene)

Lilian Adelman

Lillian Adelman made a vow to find where her family of both sides lived and were buried. In 1994 she went to Lithuania with Sara Weiss-Slep. The pictures below are from her visit to Taraugnai, the shtetl of her grandfather Chaim-Leib Adelman. The connection between Sara Weiss and Lilian Adelman is described in the Dusiat Yizkor book.

All the pictures are courtesy of Sara Weiss-Slep, 1994.

Entrance to the town of Tauragnai	The road to the Jewish cemetery
The red lake of Jewish blood. The locals tell that after the annihilation of the Jews, the lake was filled with Jewish blood, and fish could no longer live in it.	The gate to the Old Jewish Cemetery
Gravestones	Gravestones- Shapira and others
Gravestone of the Rabbi	Gravestones- Our elderly mother and others
Gravestone of Meshulam	Lilian Adelman at an unidentified gravestone
Lilian had no success in locating the grave of her relatives, so she decided to adopt this one where the writing was illegible.

Web Links With Useful Information About Tauragnai

• Documentation of The Mass Murder of Lithuanian Jewry by the SS Einsatzgruppen - Action Groups - from a Secret Reich Letter
• Towns and their Jewish Population circa 1939
• Pre-Nazi Towns & Villages and Location of Massacres
• Tauragnai entry in the International Jewish Cemetery Project

Yahrzeit

The information I have derived from the above sources indicate that the Jews of Tauragnai were probably massacred in the Forest of Rase, 2 km from Utena, on August 29, 1941 (6 Elul 5701).

Miscellaneous Research Information

Nearby Larger Towns

• Utena
• Moletai

Uyezd/District

Tauragnai was historically part of the Zarasai/Novo-Alexandrovsk Uyezd and the Kaunas Gubernya. It is currently part of the Utena District.

Other Information

• Census Information
  The 1897 Lithuania Census was a fruitful source of information about Tauragnai.
• History of Tauragnai
  Dr. Yosef Rosin wrote a very detailed history of Tauragnai.
• Bibliography (provided by Dr. Rosin)
  Central Zionist Archives: 55/1701; 55/1788; 13/15/131; Z-4/2548.
  Yivo NY, Lithuanian Communities Collection, Files 459-460
  The small Lithuanian Encyclopedia (Lithuanian), Vilnius 1966-1971.
  The Lithuanian Encyclopedia (Lithuanian)-Boston 1953-1965.
  Yahaduth Lita (Hebrew), Tel-Aviv, volumes 3-4.
  Folksblat (daily) (Yiddish)-Kovno, 23.7.1935
  Y.D.Kamzon, Yahaduth Lita (Hebrew), Rav Kook Institution. Jerusalem 1959
  Cohen Berl, Shtet, Shtetlach un dorfishe Yishuvim in Lite biz 1918 (Towns, small towns and rural Settlements in Lithuania till 1918) (Yiddish), New-York 1992.
  Pinkas haKehiloth. Lita (Encyclopedia of the Jewish Settlements in Lithuania) (Hebrew), Editor: Dov Levin, Assistant editor: Joseph Rosin, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1996.
  Masines Zudynes Lietuvoje (Mass Murder in Lithuania) (Lithuanian), 1941-1944, vol. 1 & 2, Vilnius.
  The Book of Sorrow (Lithuanian, Hebrew, Yiddish, English), Vilnius 1997

Dr. Rosin has compiled many of these shtetl histories into the book "Preserving Our Litvak Heritage...A History of 31 Jewish Communities in Lithuania", available from JewishGenMall.

Searchable Databases

• JewishGen Family Finder (for Tauragnai)

Would you like to connect with others researching Tauragnai? Click the button to search the JewishGen Family Finder database.

• LitvakSIG Home Page
• All Lithuania Database (ALD)

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There are many other worthwhile projects organized by JewishGen that you may be interested in contributing to:

• The Yiskor project
• Cemetery project

Compiled by David Izraelevitz

Updated by DI 12 November, 2017

Copyright © 2000-2017 David Izraelevitz

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