The Old Jewish Cemetery of Troškūnai (Trashkun), Lithuania: location, description, photos, inscriptions on gravestones, mass grave

Old Jewish Cemetery in 2018 (full view) photo by Jolita Kievišienė

Trashkun's Jewish cemetery, known as the Old Jewish Cemetery, is located in Smėlynė, a small village on the outskirts of Troškūnai. The cemetery is about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) southeast of Troškūnai on Road no. 1215. (map)

VIDEO Old Jewish Cemetery in 1989 [1:04] ^[NOTE]The 1989 video shows a monument built during the Soviet era to mark the mass grave. After Lithuanian independence, this monument was replaced by a new one, shown in the 1993 video. VIDEO Old Jewish Cemetery in 1993 [1:10]

The inactive cemetery is not land-marked. Access is open to all with no caretaker. The isolated, urban hillside has no gate. Current [size] is one acre. The limestone tombstones date from 19th century. 20-100 gravestones are in original location with 75% of surviving stones toppled or broken. . . . Inscriptions are in [Hebrew]. The present owner of the cemetery property is unknown. The cemetery property is now derelict. Properties adjacent to the cemetery are residential. The cemetery is visited rarely. The cemetery is not known to have been vandalized. No care, maintenance, or structures. Weather erosion is serious threat. The vegetation overgrowth in the cemetery is a seasonal problem preventing access and damaging stones.

— International Jewish Cemetery Project,
based on a visit to the cemetery in 1991

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Views of Old Jewish Cemetery in 2018
photos courtesy of Jolita Kievišienė

(click images to enlarge)

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Mass grave and monument (at right) at edge of Old Jewish Cemetery, 2018 (full view) photo by Jolita Kievišienė

Mass Grave • 1941

Mass Grave

VIDEO Miriam Krakinowski visits the mass grave in 1993 and lists those buried there. [0:53]
INSCRIPTION

In the summer of 1941, immediately after the German army invaded Lithuania in World War II, Lithuanian Nazi sympathizers captured a group of young Jewish men and ordered them to dig a pit at the edge of the Old Jewish Cemetery. This pit became a mass grave for the men who dug it and for other Jews who were murdered in Trashkun by Lithuanians in an outbreak of anti-Semitic violence. All these murders took place in July, before the mass killings in August which were organized by the Germans.

Among those buried in this mass grave are Chaim and Perl Shumacher, Feyga Krasovsky and possibly her husband Binyomin Krasovsky, Ruvke and Hirshke Itzikovich, Chaimke and Noske and Tevke Klatchko, Asher and Leybe (?) Shmidt, and Mina Pekl, according to Itzhak Konkurovich's testimony, Berl Glezer's memoir (Part I and Part II) and Miriam Krakinowski's video account. After the war, memorials were placed in the cemetery to remember the Jews who were killed and buried here in July 1941.

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Gravestones at the Old Jewish Cemetery

These photos were taken in 2001-02 by Don Ugent. Captions represent my best effort to read gravestone inscriptions. Where information is missing, the inscription is unclear. (See notes below.) —S.K.

Click photos for larger view.