Members of the Glezer family visit Troškūnai in 2015 (enlarge)

Location & Maps of Troškūnai

Current Map of Troškūnai  (view larger map on Open Street Map)

Latitude 55°59´N • Longitude 24°85´E  (larger map)

Street names used by Jews before World War II  (enlarge)

Troskunai (Russian: Трашкуны) region 1939  (enlarge)

Troskunai has fallen within these Political Subdivisions:

▫  From 1843 to World War I, when Lithuania was still part of the Russian empire:
Kovno gubernia [province]
Ukmerge (Vilkomir) uyezd [district or county]

▫  Between World War I and World War II, during Lithuania's interwar independence:
Panevezys (Ponevezh) apskritis [district or county]

▫  From the end of World War II until 1990, Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union:
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic

▫  From Lithuanian independence in 1990 until today, Troskunai is in:
Utena County, Utenos Apskritis
Anykščiai District Municipality, Anykščių rajono savivaldybė
Troškūnai Parish or Eldership, Troškūnų Seniūnija

Locality Page for Troškūnai (JewishGen)  •  Resource Mapping for Troškūnai (JewishGen)

1893-1911  (enlarge)

1899-1931  (enlarge)

1921  (enlarge)

1920-1939  (enlarge)

1928  (enlarge)

1944-1945  (enlarge)

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Brief Overview

Misnagdic synagogue in Trashkun, late 1930s   (enlarge)

In 1897 there were 779 Jews in Trashkun, 78% of the general population. In the summer of 1915 during World War I (1914-1918), most Jews were exiled into central Russia. Their houses were destroyed and their possessions were looted. After the war most of them returned to Trashkun and rebuilt their houses.

There were two synagogues in Trashkun, one for Misnagdim and one for Hasidim. A special personality was Reb Shneur (or Shneyer) Reznikovitz, born in 1881, a learned and pious man known in the surrounding villages as "the holy one" (hakadosh) and venerated by Jews and Gentiles alike.
VIDEO A remembrance of Reb Shneyer

Primary school students in Trashkun (~1915)
(enlarge, read about school)

During the period of Lithuania's independence (between the two world wars) the community had a school and a library. Most of the young people were in one of the zionist groups Hashomer Hatzair^[NOTE]Hashomer Hatzair (Hebrew for “The Young Guard”) was a socialist zionist youth movement that established kibbutzim and prepared young Jewish people for a new life in Palestine. or Hechalutz.^[NOTE]Hechalutz (Hebrew for “The Pioneer”) was a youth movement that trained young Jewish people for agricultural settlement in Palestine. The Jews of Trashkun made a living in trade, artisanship and gardening. A wine distillery was in Jewish hands. Thursday was the weekly market day. The Jewish bank had 96 members in 1929; its director for many years was Rabbi Yakov Moshe Shmukler. Prior to World War II there were about 120 Jewish families in Trashkun.

— Jewish Communities Database of The Museum of the Jewish People
and Lithuanian Jewish Communities by Nancy and Stuart Schoenburg
(New York & London: Garland, 1991), p. 313.

Hashomer Hatzair of Trashkun (1930)  (enlarge)

Chalutizm (zionist pioneers) of Trashkun (1930)  (enlarge)

For a more extensive historical and cultural overview, see "Troškūnai (Trashkun)" from Josef Rosin's book Protecting Our Litvak Heritage. (NOTE: Rosin shows photos of a cemetery and monument that are mistakenly identified as being from Trashkun. See photos of Trashkun's actual Old Jewish Cemetery and monuments to Trashkuner Jews murdered in the summer of 1941.)

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Miscellaneous

• Inventory of Troskunai Property Owners in 1810
• Jewish Families of Troskunai (1920-1924), two lists compiled by the Troskunai Jewish Community Council during the interwar years
• Troskunai residents who applied for immigration to Palestine, 1920-1940  (incomplete list)
• Telephone Listings for Troškūnai  ☎ :  1925  •  1930  •  1935  •  1938  •  1939  •  1940
• Once Upon A Time In Panemune by Lauras Sabonis, the story of Miriam Shumacher Krakinowski's rescue by Jonas Paulavičius
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names:  Troskunai pages of testimony  •  Search entire database
  (please be patient while Yad Vashem database is queried)
  

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Images of Troškūnai, past & present
(See Family pages for photos of people)

VIDEO Troškūnai (Trashkun) in 1989 [0:38]

(click images to enlarge)

Troškūnai circa 1800

Troškūnai in ~1928-1930

View of Troškūnai in 1930

Planting trees in market square, 1930

Vilniaus gatvė, 1944

House in Troškūnai, date unknown

Entering Troškūnai, 1998

Vilniaus gatvė, 1998

View from Old Jewish Cemetery, 1998

Pond in Troškūnai, 1998

Pond road in Troškūnai, 1998

Former school for Jewish girls, 2007

Photographs by Jolita Kievišienė:

Basanavičiaus gatvė with view of church, 2018

Vilniaus gatvė in Troškūnai, 2018

Žemaitės gatvė in Troškūnai, 2018

House on Basanavičiaus gatvė, 2018

Old house on Žemaitės gatvė, 2018

House on Żemaitės gatvė, 2018

Deserted house on Žemaitės gatvė, 2018

Old buildings on Žemaitės gatvė, 2018

Corner of Traupis g. and Dariaus ir Girėno g., 2019

House, former Misnagdic synagogue, 2019

House, former Misnagdic synagogue, 2019

Old Jewish Cemetery, 2018
(more photos of Old Jewish Cemetery)

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In Memoriam Donald Ugent, 1933-2011

Don Ugent established the Troskunai shtetlink, as it was then called, in 2003. The Ugent (Yuzent) family lived in Troskunai and nearby Raguva for many generations. Don and his wife Vivian visited Lithuania in 2001 and 2002, and Don's photographs of Trashkun gravestones appear on our Old Jewish Cemetery page. Don received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in botany and genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1967 he joined the botany faculty at the State University of Illinois-Carbondale, where he became internationally known as an ethno and economic botanist, taxonomist, geneticist, author, and authority on the origins of wild and cultivated potatoes, especially ancient species from Peru and the Andes.

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We are grateful to everyone who has sent us information, memoirs, photos, comments and corrections. Special thanks to Misha Glezer,
Jonathan Levine, Sonia Kovnovich Mandel, the Krakinowski family, Bina Glezer, and Jolita Kievišienė.  — Sonia & Johanna Kovitz