The Mass Extermination of Jews of Jurbarkas in the Provinces of Lithuania during the German Nazi Occupation

If you have further information, please e-mail Joel Alpert..

In 1941-1943 the Lithuanian Jewish Community, which had existed in Lithuania for centuries, was struck by a catastrophe never experienced before in world history: the community was cruelly massacred by the Nazis and their local collaborators. Only the graves, a handful of the living and a never-fading memory remained. Though more than half a century has passed since this horrible catastrophe, historians in Lithuania still have not conducted research into how and when such a regional community was destroyed. From this prospective, Ruta Puisyte's bachelor's thesis on the massacres of the community of Jurbarkas is the first attempt to fill this void. The author was not driven merely by scientific interest. She is a young and talented Lithuanian historian, whose conscience demanded that she reveal one of the bitterest truths in Lithuania's mid-century history.

One outstanding feature of this thesis is that the author details not only the dates and the places of massacres, but she also names the victims, their executioners, and those righteous Lithuanians who saved Jews.

I hope that the English translation of the paper will be useful to those people all around the world who carry out investigations of the Holocaust.

Professor Mejeris Subas

Head of the Center for Judaic Studies

The University of Vilnius

As a person who has learned from his own personal experience about the massacre of the Lithuanian Jewry, fortunate to arrive to Eretz-Israel in 1945, and actually take part in the establishment of the State of Israel and for tens of years has been engaged in researching Lithuanian Jewry and its annihilation, I have a particular interest in presenting to the "Litvaks" (Lithuanian Jews and their descendants) and the general public the important work of Miss Ruta Puisyte. Her thesis was completed to fulfull the requirements of her Baccalurate degree under the guidance of my longtime colleague Professor Mejeris Subas (Meyer Shub), Head of The Center of Judaic Studies of the Vilnius University. Miss Puisyte systematically reviewed the history of the Jewish Community of Jurbarkas (Jurburg, Lithuania) and in particular its terrible fate during the Holocaust. She also precisely documented the names of the murderers. Her findings not only reveal her patience and the arduous work needed to collect data from a variety of sources, but the work also displays her objectivity in documenting the horrific details describing the cruelty and murders perpetrated on the Jews. In the social reality of present-day Lithuania she also exhibited a great deal of personal courage, integrity and bravery to reveal, by name, those who were the murderers. Therefore this work has a greater significance than it's scientific merit because it can serve as a model to others to also seek and report the truth intelligently and with integrity. As a consequence of this thesis it is clear that it would not be an exageration to say that such work merits respect and dignity to the Vilnius University which is striving to earn its place among the other research institutions in the western world.

It is my honour and pleasure to thank my good friend Joseph Rosin who volunteered to translate this book from Lithuanian into English to enable the English-speaking population all over the world access to its contents. Mr. Rosin was also my assistant in editing the Encyclopedia of the Lithuanian Jewish Communities (Pinkas haKehilloth. Lita, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1996) which also served as a primary source to Miss Puisyte in preparing her thesis.

Jerusalem, June 1998-Sivan 5658

Professor Dov Levin

Head of the Oral History of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Contents

Introduction.

1. The economic, social and cultural life of the Jews of Jurbarkas in Lithuania (1918 - June 1941).

2. The mass extermination of the Jews in Jurbarkas.

(June 1941 - September 1941)

2.1 Events in June 1941.

2.2 Events in July 1941.

2.3 Events in August 1941.

2.4 Events in September 1941.

2.5 The Jewish Ghetto in Jurbarkas.

3. The fate of the Jewish survivors of Jurbakas in Lithuania after the June - September 1941 Events.

Conclusions.

Bibliography.

Appendices.

Footnotes.

A few comments on the English translation:

1. All the books and articles mentioned in this thesis were written in Lithuanian except The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Communities in Lithuania (Pinkas haKehiloth Lita) which was written in Hebrew.

2. All the Jewish names mentioned in this thesis were written without the Lithuanian endings in the English translation. and spelled as they were pronounced in Yiddish

3. I thank my friends Sarah and Mordechai Kopfstein for helping to translate this thesis.

Text added by Joel Alpert in further editing for clarification is contained in {brackets}.

Location of Yurburg

 
• 45 miles West-north-west of Kaunas (Kovno)
• 75 miles west of Vilnius (Vilna)
• Latitude: 55 degrees 5' N and Longitude: 22 degrees 46' E

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MEMORIALS TO THE VICTIMS OF THE SHOAH FROM YURBURG

Roadside Monument In Yurburg to the Victims of the Shoah from Yurburg and the Vicinity

Inscription in Hebrew (or Yiddish) is below

Photo Provided by Gita Abramson Bereznitzky of Tel Aviv - Originally from Yurburg

Closeup of the Yiddish Inscription on the Roadside Monument in Yurburg

Translation: " At this place on the 8th (?) of July 1941 the German fascists and their local helpers massacred cruely 2193 (the last number is not clear) Lithuanians, Jews and Russians from Jurbarkas and the vicinity"

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The Mass Graves

Mass Graves in Yurburg - Photo by Gerrard W. Rudmin - June 1998

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For our sister -

Raizale Berzaner 1924-1941-

And for her two dear friends-

You will forever be in our hearts-

With love Dina'le and Mute

 

At the Site of the Mass Graves in Yurburg Cemetery in June 1998 - Photo by Gerrard W. Rudmin

 

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Introduction

 

During the years of the German Nazi occupation of Lithuania several hundred thousand people were murdered, among them about 170,000 to 180,000 Jews, i.e. about 94% of the Jews living in Lithuania before World War II. After three years of war, out of the 200,000 Jews who had lived there before the war, only 8000 to 9000 Jews remained alive in Lithuania.

After Lithuania regained its independence, the subject of the Holocaust (Katastrofa in Lithuanian) was opened up for investigation. The murder of the Jews in Lithuania during the years of World War II was not only a great numerical loss of the country's citizens, but also an historic problem strongly related to justice being done for a crime actually committed and to the punishment of actual persons. It is a pity that this historic tragedy is essentially only being investigated half a century after it happened.

The mass extermination of the Jews in the chronological margin of the 1941-to-1944 period is part of the now popular research in Lithuania being carried out by historians and non-historians with regard to the 1940-to-1956 period. During this period people experienced Soviet occupation and reoccupation, the uprising of June 23, 1941, resistance after the war, and exile. When conducting research into all the aspects of this period or of particular problems in it, the theme of the Jewish Holocaust became just one part of the whole process.

The search for the accused in the mass murders is a painful question for the Jews as well as for the Lithuanians. Is the nation guilty (moral responsibility)? Is the government guilty? Or maybe only individual people are guilty? Historic research could help to investigate the many aspects of this problem and answer these questions, also for people from the extreme fringes of society, amongst whom "all Lithuanians were Jew killers", and "all Jews were communists."

This work deals with events in Jurbarkas during the period of the three months (June to September 1941), starting from June 22, 1941 till the middle of September 1941. If we divide the extermination of Lithuania';s Jews into three periods - a) June 1941 - December 1941; b) January 1942 - June 1943; c) July 1943 - July 1944 -, then the above three months take up less then a half of the first period and in this short time the town of Jurbarkas lost half of its inhabitants. 2000 Jurbarkas Jews among the 170000 murdered are but a drop in the ocean when referring to numbers, but we are dealing with human beings and therefore 2000 people are very many.

In 1941, the town of Jurbarkas was 10 kilometers distant from the Lithuanian SSR-German border. At 8 o'clock on the morning of the June 22, 1941, the German Army marched into the town. The town was situated within the 25 kilometers border strip controlled by the Tilzit operative group. The future of the Jews was determined by German politics, but the fate of individual Jews depended on the friendship or hate of individual Lithuanians. During the first months of the war the Nazis did not as yet have an official plan for solving the Jewish Problem. "The Final Solution" was only drawn up in January 1942, during the Wannsee Conference.

One of the particular characteristics of Jurbarkas was that it was a border town, and the other, that it was situated in the Lithuanian provinces. Here the mass murders of the Jews were performed abruptly and quite "silently", with the same cruelty as in the big cities, and the perpetrators did not expect any massive resistance from the victims or other disturbances.

During the years of Soviet rule the Jews' mass extermination by German fascists and local collaborators was not investigated. Many books were published about the crimes of the Hitlerites and the "bourgeois nationalists". There were many documents^3,4,5 and books dealing with particular regions of Lithuania and particular locations, such as Panevezys⁶ , Kretinga⁷ , Dzukija⁸ and others.

Some data about Jurbarkas can be found in the collection of documents "Mass Murders in Lithuania". In the second part of this book, where the crimes of the Tilzit operative group are detailed, mention is made that on July 3, 1941, 322 persons were shot in Jurbarkas. Furthermore, mentioning the fate of the survivors, (the murderers knew that the number of the victims was greater), it said: "In some indefinite place on some indefinite day an indefinite number of people...."⁹ . This intensifies the motivation and importance, from a Jurbarkas point of view, to search the archives for documents and supplementary collections of memoirs.

In the collection of memoirs of Mrs. S.Binkiene¹¹, there is a story about the fate of Jurbarkas's Jews, by S.Rozental "Macijauskas". During World War II this man hid a few Jews and among them a native of Jurbarkas, David Levin.

Among the recent literature it is worthwhile mentioning a specially published book¹² about Jurbarkas in which, in separate articles, particular themes are discussed, i.e. schools, the vocations of its inhabitants, health care and more. The information in this book was very important when writing the first part of this thesis - i.e. the economic, social and cultural life of the Jews in Jurbarkas between the two World Wars.

This thesis also used a particular article from the Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Lithuania¹³ published in Israel, about the history of Jurbarkas Jews. I am very grateful to the Vilnius resident Mrs. Riva Bogomolnaja for her translation of the Hebrew text into Lithuanian.

This work was supported by documents from two archives: The Central Lithuanian State Archives (LCVA) and the Special Archives (LYA). From the central archives file Number1753 was used, the documents of the municipality of Jurbarkas, paragraph Number 3, in which there were orders from the Siauliai (Shiauliai) Gebietskomissar, head of the Raseiniai region, from the mayor of Jurbarkas and others. Also statements and correspondence on the execution of orders by the town's occupation power, personal, economic and financial questions. Many files were reviewed, but there were only a few documents relating to the subject of this work.

In the special archives many files were found regarding the murderers of the Jews. But the murder of Jews was of minor importance, because the accused mentioned in these files very often took part in other "punishment deserving" activities - he would be a partisan (against the Soviets), or belonged to some "nationalist" organization and the like, which interested the Soviet courts a lot more. In these courts the questions to the accused were designed in such a way as to take into account that the answers had been arranged beforehand, always weighted against the accused. This does not mean that the files in the aforementioned archives are not a credible historic source. After these archives became accessible to researchers, the possibility opened up investigation into the Holocaust in Lithuania by relying not only on memoirs or the press of those days, or archives material of high German and Lithuanian institutions, but also took into account the evidence given after the war by murderers and witnesses in Soviet hearing and court institutions. A critical approach to these sources helps the historian to remain objective.

The second part of this thesis describing the Holocaust of the Jews in Jurbarkas, tries to record the events of this four months period chronologically. It was impossible to order all the events chronologically by relying only on documents from government archives, and it was essential to obtain additional historical sources.

The basis of this work are the collected and recorded memoirs of Chayim Jofe. Chayim Jofe (1916-1995) - a Jurbarkas Jew, who dedicated the last ten years of his life to collecting material about his murdered fellow-citizens. I am very thankful to his widow Mrs. Brone Jofe, who willingly allowed me to use her husband's archives. I used them for the part they tell about the Holocaust, for parts 1 and 3 of this work, and the Appendices were taken from copies of Chayim Jofe's archives existing in the Lithuanian State Jewish Museum (LVZM).

Some of the events of June-September 1941 mentioned in short articles were taken not from Chayim Jofe's personal archives, but from those published in the newspapers.

Speaking about the investigations of some Lithuanian authors into the Holocaust after the re-establishment of independence, it is worth mentioning that there were no wider studies and it was difficult to get a many-faceted view of the subject. Apart from this , almost everything which was written about Lithuanian - Jewish relations, was neither scientific nor journalistic, but rather emotional, with many prejudices and stereotypes being involved.

The task of this BA thesis was to link up with scientific research into the Holocaust in Lithuania.

The topics of this work include:

 
1. The economic, social and cultural life of Jurbarkas's Jews before the Holocaust (during the years of independent Lithuania and the Soviet occupation).
2. The description of the mass murder of the Jews in Jurbarkas, in the Nazi occupied Lithuanian provinces, referring to:
   the course of events,

   the places of the mass shootings,

   the Ghetto in Jurbarkas,

   the number of victims,

   persons who took part in the torturing and shooting of the Jews,

   Lithuanians - saviours of Jews,

   Jewish survivors after World War II.

Jurbarkas was not chosen as the object of inquiry on the assumption that there would be source material available. On the contrary, this thesis' theme was chosen before having any knowledge of where to obtain any material. Therefore I am very thankful to the people who helped me collect material and delivered it to me. They were: Mr.Gediminas Grybas¹⁴; Mrs. Rachele Kastanjan¹⁵; Mr. Iliya Lampert; Mr. Josef Levinson¹⁶ ;Mr. Asher Meirovitz¹⁷ ; Mr. Zalman Kaplan.

 

1. The economic, social and cultural life of Jurbarkas Jews in Lithuania (1918-1941 June).

Jurbarkas (in Yiddish - Jurburg/Jurburk) is situated in the valley of the river Nemunas, on its right bank. It is difficult to state the exact period when the first Jews settled there, but it is known that in 1650 there were seven Jewish houses i.e. about eight families¹⁸ in Jurbarkas.During the follwing years this number increased significantly.

During the years of the Lithuanian Republic, Jurbarkas was the regional center in the Raseiniai district. According to the first population census of Lithuania in 1923, Jurbarkas then had a population of 4409 people, among them 2031 (46%) Lithuanians and 1887 (43.2%) Jews (880 men, 1007 women)¹⁹ .

There now follows a description of the economic, social and cultural life of Jurbarkas's Jews during the period of the Lithuanian Republic, with emphasis on the end of the fourth decade - the eve of the Holocaust.

Due to the geographic situation of Jurbarkas throughout its history the main occupations of the town's citizens were concentrated in commerce. Most of Jurbarkas's merchants, i.e. 70 to 80 %, were Jews²⁰ , in other words, about 92% of Jurbarkas's Jews were engaged in commerce²¹ .

In 1931 there were 73 shops in the town, of which 66 belonged to Jews²².

 

	
Type of business                         Total     Jewish
Ownership
Various shops                                3              3
 
Grain and flax trade                       4              4
 
Butcher shops                              13              9
 
Restaurants and taverns                 4              2
 
Food trade                                     9              9
 
Alcohol trade                                 2              2
 
Textile products                          13             13
 
Leather products                           4              4
 
Domestic utensils                          6              6
 
Cosmetics                                     3              3
 
Bicycles, sewing machines, radio 1              1
 
Agricultural tools and machinery   5              5
 
Heating materials (wood, peat)     1              1
 
Miscellaneous                               5              4
 

 

The Jewish merchants were different: there were small shops (selling so called ‘colonial' merchandise) and they were owners of big shops and warehouses, such as: Yakov Golde who owned a shoe warehouse; Bela Nevjark - cotton knitwear; Max Simonov traded in iron products and agricultural machines; Moshe Krelitz - silver and other metal products; Sarah Israel dealt with office equipment .

It should be mentioned that although it was a small town, at that time commerce was already quite specialized.

According to 1931 data, 19 light industries were actively producing in Jurbarkas, of which 18 were owned by Jews:

Type of Industry                               Total    Owned
by Jews 

Flour mill                                    1            1
Wood processing (sawmill
       and furniture production)        2             2
Paper mill                                    1             1
Food processing                            8             7
Dresses and shoe production           3            3
Miscellaneous                                4            4

 

Most of these industries were small, employing one to three workers. But they also had shop outlets, i.e. the owner of a meat products factory also had a meat shop, a bakery owner also had a bread shop, etc.

There were also bigger factories or workshops - the brothers Fainberg owned a flour mill, a power station and a sawmill; Itzik Geselowitz had a lemonade factory (he also owned the cinema "Triumf"); Girsh Margolis, O. Sefler, K. Krom - each had a furniture workshop.²⁴

Many of Jurbarkas's Jews were the owners of various means of transportation, such as - in those times were very expensive - buses, trucks, floating barges and steamships on the river Nemunas. For example, Yakov Golde was the owner of four buses and three trucks. In 1940 14 steamships, 15 motor ships and 39 barges were sailing on Lithuanian rivers, a third of them belonging to Jews from Jurbarkas as follows: Israel Levinberg, L. Aizenshtat, J. Fainberg, Moris Arshtein, J. Lubin, Arel Aremjan and David Karabelnik²⁵

There were two Jewish banks in Jurbarkas, one of which was established in 1922 and called the "Volksbank" with about 400 members, whereas the other was a private bank and belonged to Bernshtein²⁶.

In 1939 Jurbarkas had 116 telephones, 41 belonging to Jews.²⁷

In 1940 there were five hotels and lodging houses in Jurbarkas, of which four belonged to Jews. The hotels were owned by Yitzchak Fridman, Roza Berkover and Shmuel Limas and the lodging house belonged to Chashe Finberg. Chaya Polak, Motl Kaplan and Moshe Kaplan each had a restaurant. Mrs. Kabilkovsky²⁸ was the owner of a tea house.

The most popular crafts among the many Jewish craftsmen in Jurbarkas were shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths and stove builders. There were also unskilled and part-time workers, such as porters, coachmen, raftsmen etc. being representatives of the less prestigious professions²⁹ .

There were also workers in the liberal professions - in health and in education. N. G. Naividel was a lawyer.

In 1925 a government lung hospital was established in Jurbarkas, but there were also people engaged in private medicine. In a journal called "Medicine" (1920, Number 5) two acting doctors are mentioned in Jurbarkas: Elias Levin with fully certified papers because he was a graduate of Dorpat University and passed the examinations in Russia, and Leib Gershtein, who did not pass those examinations.

In this "Medicine" journal (1920, Number 7) there is a list of dentists, mentioning two Jurbarkas citizens - Mordechai Simonov and Moshe Rikler.

Later on the Health Department started to publish, in the "Medicine" journal's supplement, lists of the acting doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists and health institutions in Lithuania. In its list of 1922 there were three doctors who had temporary permission to practice medicine, being: Leib Gershtein, born 1891, completed medicine in 1923 in Kaunas; Tuviah Goldberg, born 1887, graduated in 1914 in Petrograd; Elias Levin, born 1890, graduated in 1916. Of them only L. Gershtein, who received his rights to practice in Kaunas in 1923, was mentioned in the list of 1928 to 1929³⁰.

Sources dating back to 1888 already mention the Jewish pharmacist Markus Bregovsky. His pharmacy continued to exist, managed by his heirs, till 1940, when it was nationalized. In 1923 two pharmacies were in business in Jurbarkas, belonging to Fania Bregovsky and Shmerl Fin. Josl Shabashevitz worked as assistant pharmacist, having concluded his studies in 1914 in Dorpat. Elias Rabinovitz - graduated in 1888 in Moskow - was a qualified pharmacist. Later Goldberg, M. Bregovsky, J. Fin, G. Zundelovitz were added to the list. In the list of 1923 a new doctor appeared, called Josef Karlinsky, born 1880, having received his rights to practice in Kaunas in 1923. In the list of 1936 another two new doctors are shown: Josef-Ber Girshovitz, born 1901, graduated in 1933 and Basia Naividel-Maizler, graduated in 1928 in Kaunas. In 1936 four dentists practiced in Jurbarkas, two of them Jews: Miriam Kopelov-Goldengeim, born 1902, graduated in 1926 in Kaunas and the already mentioned M. Simonov. During the fourth decade the number of pharmacies in Jurbarkas stabilized. There were two, one belonging to Bregovsky (director Miss Libe Katz, born 1906, graduated 1933 in Kaunas), and the other, the so called " Central Pharmacy" (Owners Sh. Fin and L. Flier). In the list of 1938 we found the assistant pharmacist Elena Flier-Surasky, born 1895, who graduated in 1918 in Petrograd. Doctor Boris Reichman³¹, not mentioned so far, worked in Jurbarkas's hospital in 1940.

The Jewish children of Jurbarkas were able to study in three schools³²

On the first of September 1921 the Jurbarkas Jewish High School was inaugurated, with Hebrew as the teaching language, the initiator of the project for the establishment of this school and its organizer being J. Fainberg. At the end of 1921 the school had enrolled 104 pupils in four classes and during this year seven teachers worked there: the director A.Efros, Itzik Tzintovsky, D.Verblovsky, Miss E. Rabinovitz. In 1922 a fifth class was established and by the end of that year 140 pupils and 9 teachers attended the school. According to 1924 data 140 pupils studied in the school at that time. The tuition fee was then 30-60 lit (1$=10 lit) per month, but about 20% of the pupils were released from payment.

Being a private school, it did not receive any financial support from the Ministry of Education. By 1925 this school already had seven classes, 139 pupils and nine teachers. In 1926 there were eight classes and 144 pupils. On April 24, 1934, the director of the high school D.Kagansky, not being able to solve the financial problems of the school, announced that as from the first of July the Jewish High School in Jurbarkas would be closed down. In 1934 there were only 46 pupils studying in this high school, whose scholastic achievements were quite low.³³

Two of the town's elementary schools were Jewish. One of them was school Number 3, called "Talmud-Torah", in which the teaching language was Hebrew. In 1944 the withdrawing Germans set fire to it. During the years 1924-1939 5 teachers worked in this school: the director D. Gershon, Tchechanovsky, Chayim Sigel, Chayim V. Jozefer, Miss M. Joselzon.

Another Jewish elementary school was school Number 5, called the "Volksschule". In this school, situated in the poor Jewish neighborhood, the teaching language was Yiddish and there was no tuition fee. It had been established in 1921 and was kept going with the help of the Jewish Community. Its first director was Miss Dora Fainberg, and during the years 1931 to 1940 the director was Basia Gut. Forty to fifty pupils attended this school in four classes.

Jurbarkas Jews also participated in the town's administration. The town council of 1918 had 23 members, consisting of 16 Lithuanians, three Jews, three Germans and one Russian. On April 30, 1919 the town's social care department was established and on its board there also served a Jew, I.Rabinovitz. In 1931 three Lithuanians, one German , one Russian and five Jews (Levitan, Simonov, Grinberg, Zundelovitz, Naividel) were elected to the town council. In the elections of 1934, four Jews won election to the town council, and one Jew, Sh.Fainberg, became the alternate mayor³⁵.

Honorable and intelligent people were elected as leaders of the Jewish community³⁶, so that at different times there were such leading figures as Hirsh Fin, Pinchas Shachnovitz, Israel Levinberg, Shmaya Fainberg, Alter Simonov, Meir-Zuse Levitan, Reuven Olshvanger, Josef Karlinsky. The members of the social committee in 1923-1924 consisted of five laborers, five merchants ( two of them wholesalers), two delegates of the intelligentsia and three of the synagogues.

The Rabbis of Jurbarkas: Jakov Josef Charif (emigrated to USA and became a Rabbi in New York); Jechezkel Lifshitz (later Rabbi in Kalish); Avraham Dimand (1863-1940, famous as a Gaon) and the last Rabbi Chayim Reuven Rubinstein (1888-1941, famous as a writer, who published his own book)³⁷.

At the end of the eighteenth century the Jurbarkas's Jews had been able to build a big wooden synagogue - an interesting and valuable architectural structure, its interior being a carved work of art, the most beautiful wooden synagogue in Lithuania. During the 19^th century and not far away, the Jews also erected a synagogue built of brick. Both were the center of the spiritual and public life of Jurbarkas's Jews.

Jurbarkas Jews had an extensive, varied cultural and public life, and following herewith is a description of some of the Jewish organizations.

The Jewish national- democratic educational association, which directed the athletic club "JAK", a library, a reading room, art circles. "Hapoel" (The Worker) - a leftist sports organization.

The Zionist organizations: Hashomer Hatsair" (Young Watchman) connected to the "Scouts". Their uniform was green blouses and blue neck ties. "Hechalutz" (The Pioneer) prepared Jewish youth for agricultural work in Palestine. On the extreme right there was "Betar" ( named after Joseph Trumpeldor) with its militant wing "Beit Hahashmal. There was also "Maccabi", the Zionist youth sports organization.

The Jewish volunteers who took part in Lithuania's battle for independence had their own association³⁸.

Quite a few charity associations were active in Jurbarkas: "Hachnasat Orchim" (shelter for passers by) and cared for beggars; "Hachnasat Kala" collected money for poor brides' doweries; "Bikur Cholim cared for the sick; "Somech Noflim" aided the impoverished; "Gmilath Chesed" provided loans to poor people on easy terms; "Tzdaka Tatzil Mimaveth" (charity saves from death) collected money for funerals.

A Jewish drama group also existed in Jurbarkas, whose members were: J.Arshtein, I. E. Pelbaum (or Perlbaum), D. Tchertok, M. Fidler, D. B. Portnoy, I. Purvas, Miss B. Jozefer, B. Shmulovitz, G. Kravetzky, H. Sh. Michelson, M. Beder, H. Zarkin, M. Shmulovitz, Katriel Levin and others (mostly youths)³⁹.

The Jewish community of Jurbarkas, having a valuable cultural and a wealthy economic life had to face two foreign occupations of the Lithuanian Republic, one following the other.

On July 21, 1940 Soviet rule was proclaimed in Lithuania. This thesis does not deal with the Jews' reaction to this situation in detail, but it is interesting to note how many communists and commsomols (members of communists youth organization) were among Jurbarkas's Jews. In Chayim Jofe's list of Jurbarkas's Jews who were killed, there were four⁴⁰: Miss Sheine Geselkovitz, Miss Mika Lubin, Leib Polak (these three were comsomols), Boris Reichman (a communist)⁴¹.

During this year of Soviet rule the organizations were closed down, private and public property was nationalized, and this disaster included both Jews and Lithuanians. The banishment into exile of June14 and 15, 1941 badly effected several Jurbarkas Jewish families. In the list of those "deported to Soviet Russia"⁴², drawn up during the years of the German occupation, these Jews can be found:

Efraim Geselovitz, son of Avraham, born 1878,

Chayim Polovin, son of David, born 1896,

The family of Moshe Polovin, son of David, born 1896; his wife Tzile Polovin-Golberg, daughter of Shlomo, born 1917; his daughter Tzile (?) Polovin, born 1939,

Asher Meirovitz, son of Levi, born 1909,

The family of Yakov Leshzh, son of Yankel (?), born 1895; his wife Lika Leshzh-Finkelshtein, daughter of Motel, born1904; her mother Dveire-Chane

Finkelshtein-Maltovsky, daughter of Yudel, born 1861,

The family of David Lapinsky, son of Yankel, born 1874; his son Berl Lapinsky, born 1904; daughters Feige, born 1900 and Yese, born1908;

Referring to additional sources investigating their banishment^{43 44}, a few more of Jurbarkas's Jews should be added to this list:

The family of E. Geselovitz: his wife Tzipa, daughter of Avraham, born 1890; his daughter Bete, born 1915,

The daughter of J. Leshzh, Hanna, born 1927,

The children of M. Polovin: son Faivel, born 1937; his daughter Gita, born 1935,

Rachel Shugam, daughter of Leon, born 1904 with her children Yankel, born 1920; Kushel, born 1924; Sheitele born 1927; Lina, born 1940. Although he was the head of this family, Mr. Shugam was not mentioned in these sources, he was also oppressed..

Z. Kaplan, a Jurbarkas Jew living in Vilnius, pointed out the exiled Grinberg family members: Motel Grinberg, son of Zalman, born1864; his second wife Ema, his daughter in law Zhene and his son Robert, born 1928⁴⁵.

Speaking about all Jurbarkas's citizens, we may suppose that in the wagons taking them to exile on June 14, 1941 there were no less then 60 people⁴⁶ and among them 29 Jews.

In this part of this thesis many Jewish names and family names have been mentioned, but almost none of their special vocations, such as merchants, teachers, coachmen etc. This is important, because {note added in editing by Joel Alpert: it was due to that fact that} all of them or their offspring were shot during those few months in 1941.

Every name and family name belonged to an individual human being. It is a fact that in history a person often becomes a mere number. For this reason it is important to know how many Jews lived in Jurbarkas on the eve of the German occupation.

The Encyclopedia of Lithuania indicates that in 1940 the town's population numbered 5,400 inhabitants, of them 42%, about 2,300, Jews⁴⁷. The data of the LCVA show different numbers: "...according to the registration of the citizens on December 26, 1940, there were within the boundaries of Jurbarkas 4439 people, of them 1319 Jews, i.e. 29.7%⁴⁸". H. Jofe refers to the number of 2.500 Jews. From the Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Lithuania published in Israel one learns that in 1941 2000 Jews (600 Families)⁴⁹ lived in Jurbarkas.

 

2. The Mass Extermination of the Jews in Jurbarkas (June 1941 - September 1941)

2.1 Events in June 1941

In 1941 Jurbarkas was about 10 kilometers distance from the German border. On June 22, 1941 the war between Germany and the Soviet Union began and on that same day the German army entered the town at 8 o'clock in the morning. Jurbarkas's Jews quickly felt the changes of the new order.

After the German occupation of Lithuania, local government authorities were established in the provinces. All the former functionaries from the time of the Lithuanian Republic returned to their previous jobs, this being done in accordance with orders of the Temporary Government of Lithuania, but local initiative was important in establishing institutions of self-government, committees, police. These institutions, established de facto, were later legalized de jure, mostly without any changes⁵⁰.

Jurgis Gepneris, an elderly Jurbarkas citizen acquainted with every resident of the town and fluent in Lithuanian, Russian, German, Polish and Yiddish, again became Mayor of Jurbarkas. On the order of Tchaponsas, the commander of the town, Mykolas Levickas was appointed head of Police on June 24, 1941 and thereafter. He organized a group of policemen, composed mainly of former policemen and soldiers; an auxiliary police company was also established in sufficient numbers for defence purposes, from which members from the civilian security units were recruited ⁵¹. During the years 1941 to 1943 Romualdas Levickas served in the Jurbarkas Gestapo and wore a SS uniform.

Jurbarkas was inside the 25 kilometer zone operated by the Gestapo of Tilzit. Among the Germans arriving from Tilzit as SD agents were the officials in charge Grigalavicius, Voldemaras Kriauza, Richardas Sperbergas, Oskaras Sefleris and Karstenis⁵². The Germans played the managerial role, but the responsibility of the local executors for the fate of the Jews is indisputable.

The first Jewish victims in Jurbarkas apparently were the Es brothers. In a letter written by J.Gepneris on January 6, 1941 to the principal of the Raseiniai District it was said that "at this time there was no registration of those killed, but according to unofficial reports two Jews (the Es brothers) were killed during the shooting in the town"⁵³. I wrote "apparently", because in another document J.Gepneris wrote to the Commissioner of the department about the victims in Raseiniai, that in Jurbarkas " no people became invalids or were killed by German weapons"⁵⁴. On the first days of the occupation the Germans conducted themselves in a "calm" manner, in order to convince the Jews to obey the orders of the government and not to frighten them. One day a German took Chatzkel Jofe⁵⁵, Leib Meigel and Leib Karabelnik to a nearby abandoned beer factory, ordered them to dig a hole, to undress and kneel by the side of the hole. Stepping back about ten steps, he used an automatic weapon to shoot over their heads. After that he approached them laughing, offered them cigarettes and released them, saying, that Germans do not shoot people. On their return they told their families and neighbors everything. This had a soothing effect, but nevertheless the Jews instinctively felt great anxiety and fear⁵⁶. These events happened during the very first days, but soon the murder of the Jews started, although not yet the mass murders. Mykolas Levickas, during investigation, admitted that "the first shooting of Jews took place on the fourth day of the German occupation. The perpetrators were Germans SS members, the place - the Jewish cemetery. How many were shot - I don't know"⁵⁷. Witness J.Keturauskas testified to these facts: "One night at the end of June 1941, policemen V.Ausiukaitis and V.Muleikas went to carry out a special task, from which they returned with many valuables". Later, in the summer of 1941, J.Keturauskas had an opportunity to speak with V.Muleikas. He told him that during that night, together with V.Ausiukaitis, they took part in the shooting of Jews and Soviet activists, and for this they got 3000 Mark⁵⁸. Witness P.Mikutaitis related: "I saw (policeman) Kairaitis rushing up the street to a Jew whom I knew, whose first name was Yoshke, I have forgotten his second name, arrested him and took him to the Ghetto. Yoshke was about 60 years old, did not work anywhere and lived with relatives. He was kept in the Ghetto for three days and then shot in the Jewish cemetery"⁵⁹.

Those events had occurred by the end of June. J.Bogdanskis also reported that the chief of police ordered him and P.Greiciunas to arrest the Jewish doctor B.Raichman and about a week later, on July 3rd, the doctor was shot to death⁶⁰.

 

2.2 Events in July 1941

On July 3, 1941, a Thursday afternoon, in the office of J.Gepneris the Mayor of the town, the first Jewish mass extermination was decided upon, to be carried out in the Jewish cemetery⁶¹. A group of 40 Gestapo men⁶² arrived in the town, and together with the local policemen began to round up Jewish men, pulling them out of their houses or their places of work. N.Bregovsky the pharmacist was arrested in his pharmacy in similar manner by policemen K.Almonaitis, P.Kairaitis and M.Urbonas, who also performed "a personal search" on him. N.Bregovsky was led through the town⁶³wearing his white gown. (By the way, the policemen exploited these situations - when arresting a Jew they would steal some of his valuables. For example, A.Dravenikas, who worked in the Jurbarkas police as an interpreter, was arrested by the Germans and imprisoned for two months in Siauliai prison because of "stealing a lot of Jewish property, with which he afterwards speculated"⁶⁴). The policemen gathered up groups of about 30 Jews and led them to the police station. Policeman P.Krescinas, the leader of one of these groups which included the Most family, snatched a little child from Most's hands and banged him down onto the road, while at the same time Most himself was pushed forward. Jewish women picked up the child, but they were also shot later. The above mentioned policeman arrested many Jews - Karabelnik, Michelson, the brothers Most and others⁶⁵. A large empty shed was filled with people, who had been evicted from their homes to the market place. By one o'clock about 300 Jews were gathered there as well as several tens of Soviet activists⁶⁶. Lacking the required number, 60 more Jews and 3 women with children, who did not want to be separated from their husbands (the fathers of their children), were brought along. Upon the command: "One step to the left - we shoot! One step to the right - we shoot! One word - we shoot! March!" the column moved in the direction of the cemetery. During the first "actions" a column of about 350 was assembled, three in line, who were then driven to their death. At the end of these columns there would be a few motor cars. The first car held the machine guns, Germans sat in the others, and a car with shovels⁶⁷ brought up the rear. On that day policemen K.Almonaitis and A.Dravenikas found Most and his son hiding in the kitchen garden. They were torn away from their family and pushed into the death column⁶⁸. The town's doctor J.Karlinsky was shot as an enemy of the (German) Reich. A Lithuanian doctor, A.Antanaitis, tried to save him, asking the German in charge of the execution to free the doctor from the column since he was needed as a specialist, but the SS man struck A.Antanaitis several times with his stick and threatened to push him too into the column of the condemned. Doctor J.Karlinsky even turned to the chief of the Auxiliary Police Mykolas Levickas whom he had treated and cured. But Mykolas Levickas made a helpless gesture with his hands and, turning away, shouted "Forward!"⁶⁹. Those Jews who had been driven to the cemetery earlier, had already dug a long trench, and were to dig three more later on. The people arriving now (who were not made to dig, because there were not enough shovels for all), were ordered to break branches from the trees in order to camouflage this place from the road and the town. After finishing this task, the condemned were ordered to beat one another "as much as possible, and whoever refused to do so, would be whipped to death". Nobody moved, nobody raised a hand. Then Jankel Rizman was ordered to climb onto a nearby pear tree and chirp like a lark. He climbed to the top of the tree, shots rang out and Yankel's body fell through the branches⁷⁰. Emil Max, who had served in the German Army during the First World War and had been decorated with the" Iron Cross", was among the Jews. Standing at the side of the trench, he took hold of a German policeman and tried to throw him into the trench, but a shot "silenced" Max ⁷¹. The story of witness Narjauskaite⁷² confirmed of Chayim Jofe's reports: " At the cemetery the condemned were ordered to break branches from the trees, to dig trenches and to beat each other. The actual shooting was carried out by Germans from the "Dead Head" battalion, the Lithuanians guarded the site. The shooting took place at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, before which the condemned were tortured, and the moaning and crying was even heard in Jurbarkas"⁷³. Several tens of Lithuanians were among those murdered there - communists, comsomols, trade union activists and the Jurbarkas sculptor Vincas Grybas. Some people found themselves alive in the trench, managed to scramble out and escape, among them Antanas Leonavicius⁷⁴, Povilas Striaukas⁷⁵ and Abel Vales⁷⁶. Also Leizer Michailovsky survived this "action", but by different means. When in the death column march, he walked last in line and managed to escape, at the beginning to "some ditch where he hid", later Lithuanian peasants harbored him⁷⁷.

After the "action" of the men on July 3, 1941, the Jurbarkas occupation authority ordered all elderly Jews to register every morning and evening with the police department. On July 21, 1941, 45 aged men were detained during registration. They were put on carts and each was given a shovel. The official version was that they were going to Raseiniai for a health check up, after which those not fit for physical work would be brought back, whereas the others would be left in Kalnujai to repair a gravel road. "The carts started to move. Rotuliai, Antkaniskiai, Molyne, the small towns of Skirsnemune (already "cleansed" of the few local Jews), Zvyriai, Siline ...passed out of sight. On arrival in Kalnujai, the policemen ordered the Jews to write letters to their families. Leading them farther away from the road and the individual farms, they were ordered to dig a "gravel pit". The men dug slowly, knowing what awaited them, and for that the policemen beat and kicked them. The carrier David Portnoy (whose 12 year old daughter was raped) came to blows with a Lithuanian, called on the other Jews to take the shovels and attack"⁷⁸. But the end was predetermined and final - all 45 Jews were shot.

From a document dated July 23, 1941 written by the town's mayor J.Gepneris to the Raseiniai district office in connection with the population survey, we learn how many Jews still remained in alive Jurbarkas at this date:" They numbered 1055 Jews, including 25 children of up to two years old, 39 children aged two to four and 46 children from four to six years old"⁷⁹.

On of July 25, 1941 the occupation authorities ordered the Jews to tear down the wooden synagogue and with trembling hands they obeyed the order. A group of spectators {Lithuanian Non-Jews} quickly gathered near the synagogue; some of them shrugged their shoulders, being afraid to voice their protest or to show it by the look on their faces. Others looked intently at how the Gothic style roof, the wooden walls, the interior carved decorations were being torn down, and some more active spectators hurried to take parts of those decorations home. After the synagogue had been destroyed, the Jews were ordered to dance and sing. Soon thereafter, the small building situated near the wooden synagogue which had been used as a poultry slaughter house, was also destroyed. While tearing this building down and cleaning the plates full of blood (which the Germans, apparently, used for some other purposes later on), the Jews dirtied themselves with the blood of the poultry and feathers stuck to their garments. After this work the Jews were ordered to march in formation to the Nemunas river in order to clean up. Arriving by the river, a new order was given: to wade waist deep into the water and then to wash. People who tried to resist were kicked, beaten and pushed into the water by force. The Lithuanians did the beating, while the Germans took photographs. The Jews were cruelly tortured, such as being scalped, and their bodies combed with a sharp iron rake⁸⁰.

On the following day, July 26, 1941, this vicious mockery of human suffering continued, and this time the victim chosen was the elderly Jurbarkas Cantor Alperovitz. He was a tall, corpulent, gray headed man, who had graduated from a conservatory in Germany and composed music. A Lithuanian policemen pulled him out of his house on Butchers St., tied a brick to his beard and led him through the streets, while the Germans took photographs⁸¹. Later Alperovitz was cruelly murdered together with others who remained alive from previous "actions".

On July 27, 1941, 18 Jurbarkas citizens were shot, but it is not clear how many of them were Jews. Policeman P.Bakus confessed that he shot Zilber⁸² himself.

On the morning of July 28, 1941, (a Shabbath), an order was given to weed some grass. On the same day at 4 p.m., all Jewish books had to be delivered to the site of the ruined synagogue. Jurbarkas Rabbi Chayim Rubinstein brought his books and writings on a handcart, and at 5 o'clock the Torah scrolls were ordered to be brought from the brick synagogue (now a three story dwelling) and the other smaller synagogues (there were five of them) and put on top of the books already piled up. Petrol was poured over the heap and then ignited. For the religious Jews this was a catastrophe.

On July 29, 1941, another order was proclaimed - all Jurbarkas Jews were to gather beside the town's library, and warned that anyone who did not appear would be found in any case (with the help of Lithuanian collaborators, of course) and shot. The Jews gathered and were drawn up three in line. Three elderly men were given the bust of Stalin taken from the library, pictures of the Soviet leaders were put into the hands of the women, and then they were ordered to march through the streets of Jurbarkas. The procession was led by Mykolas Levickas, who was assisted by policemen P.Budvinskas, J.Kilikevicius and others. The procession turned in the direction of Nemunas, where a group of spectators had already gathered, and the spectacle began. The Jews put Stalin's bust on a previously arranged table, while all the others stood around. A policemen ordered Fridman (formerly a well known artist) to read a text abusing and slandering the Jewish nation, after which a bonfire was lit into which the Jews threw all the pictures they had brought as well as Stalin's bust. Again they were ordered to sing and dance, and again the Germans photographed⁸³ the specticle At the end of July the chief of police P.Mockevicius summoned policemen V.Almonaitis, P.Kairaitis and J.Marcinkus, ordering them to shoot three elderly (50-70 years old) Jewish men from the Ghetto. Each of the Jews were given a shovel and then driven in the direction of Smalininkai. At the seventh kilometer along the road leading from Jurbarkas to Smalininkai, the group turned to the right and walked about one kilometer into the heart of the forest, where the policemen forced the men to dig a hole for themselves, about 1.5 m deep. The condemned men were made to stand at the edge of the hole and then the policemen shot at them from a distance of 50 m. Every policemen shot one bullet at his victim. The shovels they left in the forest. They did not bother to take the clothes of these elderly men, as they were dressed⁸⁴ rather poorly.

The protocol of J.Grybas' investigation was similar. Not only in this, but also in other investigation protocols it could be clearly evident, that the investigator was more interested in the fate of Soviet activists than in the Jews (inspite the fact that they were also Soviet citizens). J.Grybas hid from the occupation authorities in a forest not far from Jurbarkas, and four times he witnessed the policemen drive Jews to be shot in large groups of about 100 people. After the words: " I secretly crawled near those places and saw how Jews were shot", the investigator stopped J.Grybas and changed the subject, asking about events after the war, not going into the details of who had shot, or when and where the shooting occurred⁸⁵.

 

2.3 Events in August 1941

August, actually Tuesday, August 1, 1941, started with an "action" of elderly women, children and the newborn, the younger and healthy women still being kept back for work. The arrested women were driven into the yard of the elementary school "Talmud-Torah" and in the evening they were ordered to stand in line two-by-two. It was difficult to obey the German order because children got in the way everywhere, and pushing started, with beating and shouting. The pits had been readied beforehand and the shooting took place at night (at the seventh kilometer on the road between Jurbarkas and Smalininkai). There was great panic, the laughing and crying of women who had gone crazy was heard. Not all the women were killed, as some fell into the pit alive or were only wounded. Policemen split the heads of the small children on trees in order to save bullets.

 

The events of August became known from the file of policeman P.Kresciunas: "At 2 o'clock at night two carts arrived near the Ghetto, and we pulled out about 20 Jews into the carts. We drove them six to seven kilometers in the direction of Smalininkai near the village of Kalnenai, having told them that they were going to work in Germany. Then some of us drove the Jews into the forest, whereas the others stayed on the road to guard. After 10 minutes shots were heard. V.Ausiukaitis arrived and ordered us four men to go into the forest. Four to five Jews were still alive and we were ordered to shoot them. If we did not participate in the shooting, he would tell the others about it. I (Kresciunas), P.Greceiunas, B.Angeleika and S.Sibaitis did the shooting. Whether I killed my Jew I don't know, as it was dark. We, the four of us, returned to Jurbarkas on one cart and the others remained in the forest. After a few days V.Ausiukaitis called me, ordering me to proceed to the police station, where V.Ausiukaitis, S.Gylys, P.Bakus, M. and R.Levickai, P.Greiciunas, S.Sibaitis, B.Angeleika, Narvydas, K.Kilikevicius, Rimkus and three Germans were already present. Everyone got a rifle, and we were told to accompany the remaining twelve Jews. Again we went into the same forest and again we four watched on the road. After 10 to 15 minutes shots were heard..."⁸⁶

In a document from August 21, 1941, in which the chief of the Raseiniai district was informed of the number of Jewish residents within the boundaries of Jurbarkas, these data were given: " Number of Jews - 684; working on the road - 64"⁸⁷ . The list of people in the liberal professions dated August 7, 1941, included these Jews: Mrs. Miryam Kopelov (dentist), Miss Gita Zaveliansky (midwife)⁸⁸ . The list of specialist workers from August 28, 1941 included Yerachmiel Shmulovitz (tailor) and Shepsel Maister (tailor)⁸⁹.

 

2.4. Events in September 1941

The date of the fourth "action" was September 8, 1941. This time younger working women and hidden children who had been betrayed by local people were shot. Again the women were driven into the yard of the "Talmud-Torah", the women's Ghetto. On the afternoon of September 8, 1941, the building was surrounded by Lithuanian and German policemen. The waiting women were to be driven to "work", but in fact their journey ended at the seventh kilometer, near Kalnenai. Their torment was the same: "The women were ordered to beat one other, to kick and bite, to tear their hair. Questions of "why?"or "because of what?" were answered by automatic shooting or beating"⁹⁰.

In Chayim Jofe's material this "action" was mentioned as the last one, but documents of the Central Archives showed that "on September 12, 1941 there were still 272 Jews in Jurbarkas, 73 of them working"⁹¹.

In a list of specialist workers living in Jurbarkas on September 30, 1941 no Jew is mentioned.⁹² In a letter from the mayor of the town to the Lithuanian Statistics Office in Kaunas dated October 6, 1941, he declared: "On the first October of this year there were no more Jews within the borders of the town of Jurbarkas, and such is the situation today"⁹³.

In the encyclopedia⁹⁴ published in Israel, the sequence of events were as follows:

In the "action" of July 3, 1941, 322 people were shot in the Jewish cemetery.

On July 27, 1941, at the fifteenth kilometer along the Jurbarkas-Raseiniai road, 45 Jewish men were shot. Together with them, Jews from neighboring small towns were murdered.

On August 1, 1941, 105 women were shot.

On September 4, 1941, 520 Jews - wives, children and other relatives of the 322 men killed on July 3, 1941 - were arrested and shot.

On the night of September 7, 1941 women and children were shot. The location was a small forest near the seventh kilometer on the Jurbarkas-Smalininkai road.

A week later, about September 14, 1941, the last 50 Jews were shot.

 

2.5.The Jewish Ghetto in Jurbarkas

On August 27, 1941 the mayor of Jurbarkas J.Gepneris received an order confirming the orders issued by the mayors and district heads, according to which the Jews had to be transferred into camps and led to work everyday ⁹⁵. The same order also stated that this had to be carried out by August 30, 1941. By this date a written report of events had to be sent to the State Commissar, also stating the number of Jews involved⁹⁶. During the same month, a meeting of all mayors and heads of districts in Siauliai took place, where the Jewish problem was discussed. Information was read out by district commissar Gebeke himself. A Ghetto was to be established in every town, where the Jews would be watched until they would be shot ⁹⁷.

The Jurbarkas Ghetto (we can name it so only conditionally) existed long before these orders were published. Mykolas Levickas affirms in his testimony that "after the first shootings in June, mass arrests were carried out by a group of the police and the auxiliary police. The arrested Jewish men were transferred into the Ghetto (...) The mass murders started in July. I think that there were two Ghettoes, both in Dariaus and Gireno St., being guarded by police and auxiliary police"⁹⁸. Some more information about the Ghetto can be gathered from P.Kairaitis' file: " Policemen J.Marcinkus and J.Jokubaitis guarded the Ghetto. We would stay on duty for eight hours, after which we would be relieved by the other policemen J.Jakaitis, P.Budvinskas and K.Almonaitis(...) The Jews with their children and the elderly were placed in the Ghetto, which was a building surrounded by barbed wire (...). There the Jews lived under prison conditions. Nutrition was bad, consisting of cabbage soup and a little bread. They were driven to work under guard and had to clean rubbish from the houses and the streets and do other most disgusting and difficult work, with food being scarce. M.Urbonas, the deputy chief of police, distinguished himself by beating them(...). Those involved in the shooting of Jews were M.Urbonas, K.Almonaitis, P.Budvinskas, J.Jakaitis and J.Marcinkus. After the shooting was over, they would take the more valuable items, such as dresses and footwear, for themselves, and on returning to Jurbarkas, also would take appropriate domestic utensils of the murdered Jews"⁹⁹.

It is worth noting, that the Jurbarkas Ghetto was not a specially fenced off area in the town where Jews were to be settled, in order to be taken a few at a time to be shot. As I mentioned before, the mass murder of Jurbarkas Jews started before the so called Ghetto was established. Finally, Gestapo agent Grigalavicius arrived and ruled that a Ghetto was not needed, but that it was important to expedite the extermination of all the town's Jews¹⁰⁰ . However, the arrested were kept in some special buildings, called Ghettoes, since it was more convenient to supervise these people there, to organize their work and to drive them from there to be shot..

 

3. The Fate of the Jewish Survivors of Jurbarkas in Lithuania after the Events of June-September 1941.

There were several ways for Jews to survive, such as to hide in a village with Lithuanian acquaintances, to escape to the USSR¹⁰¹, to join to the underground or to become a Soviet partisan. A few survived, because they had not been killed along with all Jurbarkas Jews, or arrived in the Kaunas Ghetto and later in the concentration camps in Estonia and Poland, where they stayed till the end of the war¹⁰².

Why did so few of Jurbarkas Jews survive? They were living near the German-USSR border and should have realised what was in store for them, what the Second World War would mean for the Jewish people, but it caught them by surprise. As I mentioned before, the German Army was already in Jurbarkas at 8 o'clock in the morning of June 22, 1941. It was then too late to escape. True, a few left Jurbarkas in time: some to Kaunas early in the morning with the last steamship, others, young people with bicycles to Raseiniai, from there through Siauliai to Riga and on into the heart of Russia, but very few survived. The sister of Chayim Jofe, Perl Jofe-Skirstemunsky with her little son Ice-Leibele, who had just undergone a heart operation, returned to Jurbarkas on a barge on June22, 1941, where her husband, her two other children, her mother and her brother's family awaited her and ...their death.

Could the Jews have resisted? There were no organizations of any military character in Jurbarkas, which could have provided arms and lead a fight. There were, of course, healthy strong men, and also men, who had served in the Lithuanian army and were familiar with weapons. But there were also sick old men and women, children and babies. People were scattered, the situation seemed to be hopeless for most,. In their minds the thought was: "Maybe if we do nothing - nothing will be done to us" or "Whatever will happen to all - will happen to us". The Jews relied upon God's providence, and prayers to God were heard even at the mass murder trenches before the shooting and during the vicious mockeries¹⁰³.

 

Jews saved by Lithuanians:

Leizer Michailovsky was hidden and saved by Juozas Totoraitis and his wife Antanina Totoraitiene-Galinaityte from Geisiu village, in the small district of Jurbarkas¹⁰⁴ .

Leib Meigel and his wife Chaite were hidden and saved by Pranas and Veronika Leksaiciai from Auolyno village, the small district of Jurbarkas.

Chana Sviler-Segal was hidden and saved by Vincas Stankevicius.

Chayim Leib Tatz and Dvora Tatz-Peisachov were hidden and saved by Lithuanian peasants ( their names could not be found).

Rachile Jamin was hidden and saved by Jonas Sadauskas from Veliuonos¹⁰⁵.

Gita Abramson-Bereznitzky was in the Kaunas Ghetto from August 1941, and a member of the anti-fascist partisan organization from 1942 till August 1944. She was hidden by Marijona Leseiskiene in Vilijampole.

David Levin saved his life by hiding in the house of Polikardas Macijauskas where a special shelter with an exit to the field was built¹⁰⁶.

The Lithuanians Marijona Ambutaitiene and Juozas Domkus¹⁰⁷ gave asylum to Jews.

Hiding Jews was very dangerous both for Jews and for Lithuanians. The head of the Raseiniai district declared in an order: " Persons who are found disobeying the existing strict orders against the Jews, such as hiding them, maintaining them or helping them by any means whatever, are committing a serious crime. I order all residents of the Raseiniai district in whose neighborhood Jews are hiding, no matter what sex or age, to take measures to detain them and to deliver them to the nearest police station. Should, after the announcement of this order, people be noticed to have any contact with Jews, they will be delivered to the German military authorities. If Jews perform terror or sabotage acts, all people in the area where the accused Jews hid, will be held responsible (Raseiniai , August 29, 1941)¹⁰⁸.

There were peasants in the surroundings of Jurbarkas who risked helping Jews. In the summer of 1942 the Jurbarkas police was informed that a 23 to 24 years old Jewish girl, Feja Naividel, was hiding in the village Geisiai at the place of Petras Stankaitis. Policemen P.Kairaitis, J.Marcinkus and P.Budvinskas went to arrest her. Feja Naividel was shot, but P.Stankaitis was left alive¹⁰⁹. The fate of J.Blazys, who hid the Jewish girl Mika Lubin on his farm, was different. Mika Lubin had survived the "action" of the women on September 8, 1941. At first some woman sheltered her after finding her in the forest, and later Mika hid with an acquaintance, farmer K.Blazys. In the spring 1943, after a neighbor informed the police, both were arrested and shot¹¹⁰.

Most painful was the fate of Nisan Zundelovitz. He was a man who would carry various goods needed in the villages on his shoulders and there barter them for agricultural products. Zundelovitz had many acquaintances in the villages, but for some reason he did not go to them to hide. "People related that he hid on a island which divided the Nemunas into two branches, and which was covered with brush and thicket. There he died of starvation." According to another version - the Germans caught and shot him¹¹¹.

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Conclusions

During the German-USSR {campaign of World War II} war, the Genocide {of the Jews} carried out by the Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators in Jurbarkas accounted for about 1924 Jewish victims.¹¹²

During German rule in this country, Lithuanian cooperation with the occupying power could only be called collaboration. The fate of Jews, in general, did not depend on the will of the Lithuanians, {that was the will of the Nazis,} but the suffering and the pain {did depend on the Lithuanians}. Only the first "action" was carried out by Germans. Thereafter, those who did the shooting were Lithuanians only.

Worthy of great honor and remembrance are those Lithuanians, who saved Jurbarkas Jews, risking their own and their relatives' lives. Obviously not all the saviors are known.

We did not succeed in finding all of Jurbarkas's Jewish survivors after WW II (we depend on Chayim Jofe's number mentioned, i.e. 76). This BA thesis is the beginning of an inquiry into the Holocaust in the Lithuanian provinces.

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Bibliography

 

List of Sources and Literature

 

 

1.Documents from Archives.

 

1.1 Lithuanian State Central Archives (LCVA).

 

Instructions to village heads in the Siauliai district// F.1753. Ap.3. B.12. L.1.

A list of those exiled to Soviet Russia// F.1753. Ap.3. B.3. L.217.

A letter from the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the Lithuanian Statistics Office// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.148.

A letter from the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the Commissioner of the Department for Victims in Raseiniai// F.1753. Ap.3. B.24. L.222.

A letter from the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the Raseiniai District Committee concerning the number of the town's residents// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.4.

A letter by the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the chief of the Raseiniai district concerning the number and composition of the town's residents// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.28.

A letter from the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the chief of the Raseiniai district concerning the population survey // F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.10.

A letter from the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the chief of the Raseiniai district concerning the number of the town's residents// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.58.

A letter from the Mayor of Jurbarkas to the chief of the Raseiniai district concerning people who were killed during skirmishes between Germans and Russians// F.1753. Ap.3. B.24. L.3.

List of specialist workers working within the boundaries of Jurbarkas// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.18.

List of specialist artists living within the boundaries of Jurbarkas// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.73.

List of persons in the liberal professions living within the boundaries of Jurbarkas// F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.13.

An order by the Chief of the Raseiniai district// F.1753. Ap.3. B.4. L.26

An order by the Siauliai Land commissioner to District Chiefs and Mayors// F.1753. Ap.3. B.4. L.27.

 

1.2.1 Lithuanian Special Archives (LYA).

 

1.2.2 File Numbers of the Accused.

85/3. Jurgis Gepneris

5582/3. Aleksandras Dravenikas

7314/3. Pranas Bakus

Ï -8231. Jonas Bogdanskis

11039/3. Pranas Kresciunas

14142/3. Mykolas Levickas

Ï -16816. Pranas Kairaitis

 

1.2.3 Titles (Names) of Documents.

The protocol of the investigation of P.Bakus. 1947 05 16// B.7314/3. L.75.

The protocol of the investigation of J.Bogdanskis. 1944 10 18 // B. Ï -8231. L.12.

The protocol of the investigation of witness S.Dravenkiene. 1946 08 20// B.5582/3. L.23.

The protocol of the investigation of J.Gepneris. 1945 08 22// B. 85/3. L.16.

The protocol of the investigation of J.Gepneris. J.Gepneris. 1945 08 23// B.85/3. L.19.

The protocol of the investigation of witness J.Grybas. 1947 11 14// B.11039/3. L.43-44.

The protocol of the investigation of P.Kairaitis. 1948 01 25// B. Ï -16816. L.38.

The protocol of the investigation of P.Kairaitis. 1947 08 23// B. Ï -16816. L.53.

The protocol of the investigation concerning the confrontation of P.Kairaitis with witness J.Keturauskas. 1948 06 21// B.Ï -16816. L.69-70.

The protocol of the investigation of P.Kresciunas. 1947 11 01 // B. 11039/3. L.22-23.

The protocol of the investigation of witness A.Leonavicius. 1944 10 17 // B. Ï -8231. L.24.

The protocol of the investigation of M.Levickas. 1948 02 20 //LYA B. 14142/3. L. 146.

The protocol of the investigation of M.Levickas. 1948 11 10 // B. 14142/3. L. 12.

The protocol of the investigation of M.Levickas. 1948 11 24 // B.14142/3. L.47-48.

The protocol of the investigation of witness P.Mikutatis. 1948 04 14 // B. Ï -16816. L.77.

The protocol of the investigation of witness P.Mikutatis. 1948 05 20 // B. Ï -16816 L.67.

The protocol of the investigation of witness P.Mikutatis. 1948 11 23 // B. Ï -16816. L.46.

The protocol of the investigation of witness Narjauskaite. 1948 01 09 // B. 9007/3. L.24.

The protocol of the investigation of witness Petrukaitiene. 1948 01 04 // B.4039/3. L.46.

 

1.3 The Archives of the Lithuanian State Jewish Museum (LVZM)

The material of Chayim Jofe.

 

2. Collections of Documents.

The mass murders in Lithuania 1941-1944. Vilnius;

Mintis, 1965 , part 1. Page 347. 1973, part 2. Page 423.

 

 

3. Personal archives.

Of Chayim Jofe.

 

4. Articles.

Chayim Jofe. Antanina // sviesa. 1990 12 04.

Chayim Jofe. Mika // Vastieciu Laikrastis 1990 04 26/ 05 03.

Chayim Jofe. Niskutis // sviesa 1990 10 11.

Chayim Jofe Rachile // sviesa 1990 08 23.

T.Suravinas. The tragedy of Jurbarkas's citizens // Tarybu Lietuva 1944 10 14.

 

5. Books.

J.Balsaitis, A.Pirockinas, A.Skandunas. A history of the schools from the middle of the 16^th century to the beginning of the 20^th century // Jurbarkas. Vilnius; 1996. P. 448.

V.Brandisauskas. The fight for the restoration of Lithuanian independence (o6 1940- 09 1941). Thesis for a doctorate in the Humanities, Faculty of History. Vilnius; The Institute of Lithuanian History, 1995. P.16.

The Hitlerite murderers in Kretinga. Vilnius; The State Publishing House of Political and Scientific Literature, 1960. P.159.

Chayim Jofe. Jewish life and death // Jurbarkas. Vilnius; 1996. P.174

The murdered accuse. Vilnius; The State Publishing House of Political and Scientific Literature, 1963. P.208.

Blood infiltrated into the sands of Dzukija, Vilnius; The State Publishing House of Political and Scientific Literature, 1960. P.71.

The Lithuanians Encyclopedia. Boston; The Publishing House of the Lithuanians Encyclopedia, 1957. T.10. P.544.

Populated places in Lithuania. The first population survey of Lithuania in 1923. Kaunas; Ministry of Finance, The Central Statistics Bureau, 1925. P.735.

The Genocide of Lithuania's citizens. Vilnius; The Inquiry Center for Oppression in Lithuania, 1992. T.1.: 1939-1941. P.803.

J.Malinauskas. Health observance in Jurbarkas until 1940 // Jurbarkas. 1996. P.448.

Traces of death beside the Nevezys. Vilnius; The State Publishing House of Political and Scientific Literature, 1960. P.80.

A.Piroe kinas. Victims of the occupation // Jurbarkas, 1996. P.448.

A.Stravinskas. Vocations of Jurbarkas's citizens (from the 19^th to the first half of the 20^th century), Jurbarkas, 1996. P.448.

The Exiles of Lithuania 1941-1951. Vilnius; Ministry of Interior Issues, 1993. Book 1. P.549.

Documents accuse. V.Gintaras, 1970. P.80.

Encyclopedia of the Jewish Communities in Lithuania (Hebrew), Jerusalem, Yad Vashem 1996. P.748.

---

Appendix Number 1

 
Survivors of Jurbarkas's Jews who spent the years 1941-1944 outside of Lithuania.
 
Jurbarkas Jews, soldiers of the 16^th Lithuanian infantry division.
1. Shmuel Baron
2. Yankel Beiman
3. Chanan Berkover
4. Josel Berkover
5. Yudel Fleisher
6. Chayim Jofe
7. Bliuma Josefer
8. Zalman Kaplan
9. Chone Levin
10. Hertzel Magidovitz
11. Reuven Magidovitz
12. Shmuel Mazur
13. Moshe Most¹¹³
14. Michael Rizman
15. Sholem Rizman
16. Reuven Rozenberg¹¹⁴
17. Baruch Portnoi
18. Meir Veinberg

 

Jurbarkas Jews - Soviet partisans.
1. Yankel Holtzman
2. Moshe Magidovitz
Jurbarkas Jews who survived the hell of German concentration camps.
1. Bela Abramson
2. Yankel Gutshtein
3. Michael Gutshtein
4. Mere Gutshtein
5. Moshe Gutshtein¹¹⁵
6. Chane-Mere Most
7. Leah Most
8. Pesia Mazur
9. Tzipa Zeider
10. Basia Zeider
11. Dobe Most

---

Appendix Number 2

Jurbarkas Jews living in Lithuania.

In Kaunas: Zelda Krom

Dobe Rozenberg-Most

Judith Mackevitz-Patz

In Vilnius: Chana Kuritzky-Simno

Zalman Kaplan

Asher Mejerovitz

Seroginda Lantzman

In Klaipeda: Zalman Rikler

---

Appendix Number 3

 
A list of persons, who participated in torturing and shooting Jurbarkas Jews¹¹⁷.
1. Kazys Almonaitis, son of Pranas, born 1910 in the village of Klisiu, Jurbarkas sub-district. Served in the police¹¹⁸ from 25^th of June 1941. Sentenced B.1414/3//LYA.
2. Bronius Angeleika, born 1907. Served in the police from 1941.
3. Vincas Ausiukaitis, born about 1900. Chief of Jurbarkas partisans (anti-Soviet and anti-Jewish, previously a hairdresser).
4. Pranas Bakus, son of Antanas, born 1917 in the village of Klisiu, Jurbarkas sub-district. Served in the Jurbarkas police from the 3^rd of July 1941 until April 1942, and later enlisted in the German army. A partisan in the surroundings of Jurbarkas in 1945 . Sentenced: B.7314/3 //LYA.
5. Jonas Bogdanskis, son of Jonas, born 1907 in Jurbarkas. Served in the police from August 1941. Enlisted in the German army at the end of 1941. Guarded the Kaunas Ghetto as a policeman in 1942 and served in the German police till 1944. Sentenced: B.Ï -8231 //LYA.
6. Aleksandras Drevinskis (Dravenikas), son of Konstantinas, born 1893. Served as a translator for the Germans from 23^rd of June 1941 ( worked previously as a bricklayer). Sentenced: B.5582/3 //LYA.
7. Glaviatskis, born about 1913. Served in the police from 1941 and was transferred to Kaunas in 1942, where he guarded the Ghetto.
8. The brothers Gylis: Stasys, born 1914 in the village of Siaudine, Raseiniai district, Kiduliai sub-district. Did not serve in the police.
9. Together with his brother Juozas owned a watch workshop.
10. Pranas Greiciunas, son of Jurgis, born in Klisiu. Jurbarkas sub-district. Served in the police from 1941.
11. Jonas Jakaitis, born about 1894 in the village of Silenu, Jurbarkas sub-district. Served in the police from 1941.
12. Jonas Jokubaitis, son of Antanas, born 1919. Served in the police from 1941. Sentenced:B.36950/3 //LYA.
13. Jonas Jurksaitis, son of Jonas. The interrogator of the Jurbarkas police station.
14. Pranas Kairaitis, son of Jonas, born 1912. Served in the police from August 1941 until 1944 (before which, during the Lithuanian Republic, he had served in the Siauliai police). Sentenced: B. Ï -16816 //LYA.
15. Kazimieras Kilikevicius, son of Jonas, born 1900. The Sergeant Major of the Jurbarkas police (earlier, during the Lithuanian Republic, he had served in the Jurbarkas police).
16. Pranas Krisciunas (Kresciunas), son of Kazimieras, born 1916 in Jurbarkas. Served in the police from the 24^th of June 1941 until 1943. Sentenced: B.11039/3 //LYA.
17. Juozas Levickas, son of Matas, born about 1915 in Jurbarkas. Began to work in the office of the Jurbarkas police station in June 1941.
18. Mykolas Levickas, son of Matas, born 1909 in Jurbarkas. A former army officer in the Lithuanian Republic. Taught military training in the Jurbarkas high school. Served as Chief of the Jurbarkas police station from the 24^th of June 1941 until the middle of July 1941. After quitting this position he directed the branch of the Lithuanian Nationalist party in the town. Sentenced: B.14142/3 //LYA.
19. Romualdas Levickas, son of Matas, born about 1903 in Jurbarkas. Vocation - driver. Enlisted in the German army in 1943, was released during that year because of illness, returned to Jurbarkas and started to serve in the police.
20. Juozas Marcinkus (Martinkus), son of Jonas, born 1916 in the village of Buzuliu, Ariogala sub-district. Served in the police from August 1941 until 1942. Sentenced: B. Ï -16089 //LYA.
21. Povilas Mockevicius, born 1903. Served in the police from June 1941. Was promoted to the position of Chief of Jurbarkas police as from the middle of July 1941 and served until 1944 ( had previously served as a policemen in Jurbarkas, until 1939).
22. Vincas Muleiko (Muleika), son of Jurgis, born 1890. Served in the police from 1941. Sentenced: B.29250/3 //LYA.
23. Juozas Petraitis, born 1912 in the village of Montvilu, sub-district of Jurbarkas. Did not serve in the police. Owned a watch workshop.
24. Aleksas Petravicius. Graduated from the Jurbarkas high school in 1941.
25. Pranas Putvinskas (Budvinskas), son of Stasys, born about 1900 in Jurbarkas. Served in the Jurbarkas police until 1939. Worked as a guard in a timber store 1939-1941. Served in the police from June 1941.
26. Stasys Sibaitis, born 1910 in the village of Kalnenu, sub-district of Jurbarkas. Served in the police from June 1941.
27. Antanas Simkus, son of Jurgis, born 1917 in Skirsnemune, Jurbarkas sub-district. He did not serve in the police, but worked as a telephone fitter.
28. Mykolas Urbonas, born 1915. Deputy Chief of Jurbarkas police as from the 25^th of June 1941.
29. Aleksandras Vakselis, high school pupil.
30. Leonas Vakselis, high school pupil.
31. Zebrovskis (he and Karstenis), born about 1895. A nobleman of Polish nationality and a member of the Gestapo. He arrived in Jurbarkas from Tilzit.

---

Appendix Number 4

A Partial List of Jews Murdered in Jurbarkas ¹¹⁹

.

From information compiled by Chayim Jofe and corrections

 
No. NAME, LAST, FIRST   RELATIONSHIP    OCCUPATION 
  1.   Abramson Motel                       husband  	      photographer
  2 .  Abramson Pese             	   wife       	        housewife
  3.   Abramovitz Zusel         	   husband  	       loader
  4.   Abramovitz Zlate          	  wife       	        housewife
  5.   Abramovitz David                     son         	       loader
  6.   Abramovitz Berl           	   son         	       loader
  7.   Abramovitz Shimon                   son         	       militiaman
  8.   Abramovitz Israel        	     son          	       singer
  9.   Abramovitz Sara          	     daughter 	       dress maker
  10.  Abramovitz Nechama 	      daughter	        dress maker
  11.  Alperovitz Moshe       	      ------    	         cantor
  12.  Altman Riva         	           woman     	     housewife
  13.  Altman Natan             	     son       	         forwarder
  14.  Altman Shmuel            	    son         	        ------
  15.  Altman Avraham        	     son          	      employee
  16.  Altman Hirsh	                   son          	employee
  17.  Altman Fania             	      daughter 	pupil
  18.  Altman Chiene           	                 "             	"
  19.  Altman Chume-Mere  	                "             	dress maker
  20.  Aizenshtat Hilel        	             husband 	owner of a steamboat
  21.  Aizenshtat Mina        	            wife        	housewife
  22.  Aizenshtat Moshe      	           husband  	owner of a steamboat
  23.  Aizenshtat Grunia     	           wife       	housewife
  24.  Apriyasky Chiene      	          woman     	small shop
  25.  Apriyasky Shefe       	           daughter 	dress maker
  26.  Apriyasky Sheine               	 "              	"
  27.  Aranovsky Motel      	          husband  	small shop
  28.  Aranovsky Chana     	          wife        	"
  29.  Aranovsky Riva       	           daughter 	dress maker
  30.  Arnshtein Monik 124       	            ----      	cashier
  31.  ArnshteinYudel 124        	           brother 	electrician
  32.  Ars Chayim            	          husband  	small shop
  33.  Ars Sara                	           daughter	pupil
  34.  Ars Emka               	          "             	"
  35.  Averbach Yankel    	          father    	tailor
  36.  Averbach Gita        	          daughter	------
  37.  Baron Moshe                     	husband 	grave digger
  38.  Baron Pese                       	wife        	housewife
  39.  Baron Roza                       	daughter 	pupil
  40.  Bas Sholem                       	husband 	watchmaker
  41.  Bas Rocha                         	wife        	housewife
  42.  Beder Zelda                       	mother     	"
  43.  Beder Henia                       	daughter 	employee
  44.  Beder Mina              	daughter 	"
  45.  Beder Leah              	"             	pupil
  46.  Beder Dina               	"             	"
  47.  Beder Motel             	husband  	invalid
  48.  Beder Chaya             	wife       	housewife
  49.  Beder Mina               	daughter	dress maker
  50.  Beder Meir              	son         	hair dresser
  51.  Beder Percel             	wife       	housewife
  52.  Beder Icik               	son         	baby
  53.  Beiman Icik-David   	husband 	small shop
  54.  Beiman Chaya      	wife     	housewife
  55.  Beiman Mira            	daughter	pupil
  56.  Beiman Yankel          	son         	pupil
  57.  Beiman Reuven         	"             	"
  58.  Beiman Riva             	grandma   	retired
  59.  Beilis Yakov             	husband  	book keeper
  60.  Beilis Chiene	      	wife     	small shop
  61.  Beilis Sara             	daughter 	pupil
  62.  Beilis Chana           	"           	"
  63.  Beilis Josel             	son      	"
  64.  Berelovitz Zusman   	husband 	employee
  65.  Berelovitz Leah        	wife        	cook
  66.  Berelovitz Zita        	daughter	pupil
  67.  Berelovitz Meir       	son         	"
  68.  Berkover Riva         	mother    	housewife
  69.  Berkover Leizer      	brother 	small shop
  70.  Berkover Feiga       	daughter 	employee
  71.  Berkover Chana       	"             	dress maker
  72.  Berkover Chaya      	"             	housewife
  73.  Berkover Sheine      	"             	pupil
  74.  Berkover Yudel        	------   	small shop
  75.  Berkover Aba	       	brother  	"
  76.  Berkover Etel	       	sister    	employee
  77.  Berkover Sheine      	"             	dress maker
  78.  Berkover Shimon     	father    	brick layer
  79.  Berkover Yente         	daughter	employee
  80.  Berkover Rikel(Rachel)	"             	dress maker
  81.  Bernshtein Shmerl   	father    	bank director
  82.  Bernshtein Zlata     	wife       	housewife (Zlata was 
not in Shmerl Bernshtein's family 123 )
  83.  Bernshtein Mina          	daughter 	baby (Mina was not in 
Shmerl Bernshtein's family 123 )
  84.  Bernshtein Sara          	sister    	small shop (not in 
Shmerl Bernshtein's family 123 )
  85.  Berzaner Motel          	husband 	hotel owner
  86.  Berzaner Itel	    	wife       	"
  87.  Berzaner Raizale122          daughter	pupil
  88.  Bresky Chone-Yankel	              	invalid
  89.  Bresky Roche            	sister     	small shop
  90.  Bresky Yankel           	brother    	heater in bathhouse
  91.  Bresky Mina             	wife       	housewife
  92.  Bresky Etel              	sister    	dress maker
  93.  Bregovsky Liova       	husband 	pharmacist
  94.  Bregovsky Sonia      	wife       	"
  95.  Bregovsky Hirsh      	son         	pupil
  96.  Brun Henia               	woman     	housewife
  97.  Brun Boria               	son         	student
  98.  Brun David               	son         	pupil
  99.  Brun Chana               	daughter	dress maker
  100.  Brun Grunia             	daughter	employee
  101.  Brun Ana                	daughter	"
  102.  Budraicky Motel     	husband 	loader
  103.  Budraicky Mina       	wife       	housewife
  104.  Budraicjy Faivel     	son         	tailor
  105.  Cintkovsky Aron     	husband 	teacher
  106.  Cintkovsky Mika       	wife       	housewife
  107.  Tchertok David        	husband 	tailor
  108.  Tchertok Mere         	wife       	housewife
  109.  Tchertok Velvel       	brother    	hair dresser
  110.  Tchechanovsky Leizer	husband 	teacher
  111.  Tchechanovsky Lina  	wife       	housewife
  112.  Danilevitz H.Reuven 	father      	employee
  113.  Danilevitz Zalman   	son         	"
  114.  Danilevitz Gershon  	"             	"
  115.  Dimant Rachel         	------    	dress maker
  116.  Dimant Liba             	sister    	housewife
  117.  Dratvin Shmuel       	father    	coachman
  118.  Dratvin Zalman        	son         	employee
  119.  Dratvin Sara            	wife       	housewife
  120.  Dratvin Rachel        	sister    	dress maker
  121.  Dratvin Riva            	"            	"
  122.  Dratvin Mere           	"             	"
  123.  Es Leizer-Hirsh      	husband 	small shop
  124.  Es Braine           	wife       	housewife
  125.  Es Esther            	daughter	pupil
  126.  Es Josel             	son         	pupil
  127.  Es Reuven        	"             	"
  128.  Es Josel            	father    	------
  129.  Es Yankel          	son         	------
  130.  Es Etel              	daughter	employee
  131.  Es Hana               	"             	pupil
  132.  Es Mina               	"             	dress maker
  133.  Es Riva              	mother    	housewife
  134.  Es Nechemia       	son        	butcher
  135.  Es Faivel              	"             	"
  136.  Es Beinish            	"             	hair dresser
  137.  Elyashov Chayim     	father    	tailor
  138.  Elyashov Moshe       	son         	"
  139.  Elyashov Taube        	mother    	small shop
  140.  Elyashov Itke        	daughter	"
  141.  Elyashov Braine    	"             	dress maker
  142.  Elyashov Yekutiel  	son         	tailor
  143.  Elyashevitz Meir    	husband 	small shop
  144.  Elyashevitz Taube 	wife       	housewife
  145.  Elyashevitz Icik    	son         	small shop
  146.  Elyashevitz Yona (Yeine)	"             	watchmaker
  147.  Elyashevitz Leah-Golde	daughter	book keeper
  148.  Epelbaum Israel     	father     	small shop
  149.  Epelbaum Icik        	son         	mechanic
  150.  Epelbaum Chaya     	daughter	pupil
  151.  Es Daniel               	husband 	small shop
  152.  Es Mina                	wife       	housewife
  153.  Es Orke                	son         	small shop
  154.  Es Basia             	daughter	dress maker
  155.  Es Golde              	"             	pupil
  156.  Es Moshe              	husband 	butcher
  157.  Es Gita                	wife       	housewife
  158.  Es Hirsh               	son         	butcher
  159.  Es Shmuel             	"             	"
  160.  Es Chayim            	"             	"
  161.  Es Mina                 	daughter	employee
  162.  Es Chiene              	"             	dress maker
  163.  Es Sara                	"             	pupil
  164.  Fainberg Eliyas         	brother 	owner of power station
  165.  Fainberg Sholem     	"             	owner of the flour mill
  166.  Fainberg Meir          	"             	owner of the sawmill
  167.  Fainberg Malvina     	sister    	housewife
  168.  Fainberg Shmuel     	------    	small trader
  169.  Fainberg Rachel    	sister    	housewife
  170.  Fainberg Sonia      	"             	employee
  171.  Fain Gitel            	mother    	housewife
  172.  Fain Nechemia     	son         	small shop
  173.  Fain Mere               	daughter	"
  174.  Fainshtein Leib-Chone	husband 	watchmaker
  175.  Fainshtein Chana   	wife       	housewife
  176.  Feldman Moshe     	husband 	small shop
  177.  Feldman Leah      	wife       	housewife
  178.  Feldman Yankel     	son         	musician
  179.  Feldman Sheine     	daughter	dress maker
  180.  Fidler Motel           	husband 	hair dresser
  181.  Fidler Mere            	wife       	gardener
  182.  Fidler David           	son         	pupil
  183.  Fidler Jankel           	"             	"
  184.  Fisher Chanan           	husband 	musician
  185.  Fisher Chava            	wife       	housewife
  186.  Fisher Josel           	son         	small shop
  187.  Fisher Motel           	"             	"
  188.  Fisher Yankel         	husband 	glazier
  189.  Fisher Vilentzik Braine	wife       	------
  190.  Frank Malka         	           	housewife
  191.  Fridland Kalman     	husband 	small shop
  192.  Fridland Braine       	wife       	housewife
  193.  Fridland Esther     	daughter	dress maker
  194.  Fin Gershon             	------    	pharmacist
  195.  Flier Elias          	husband   	"
  196.  Flier Riva              	wife       	"
  197.  Flier Mira             	daughter	pupil
  198.  Fridman Yitzhak   	husband 	hotel owner
  199.  Fridman Libe         	wife       	"
  200.  Fridman David     	son         	pupil
  201.  Frakt Yudel            	father     	brick layer
  202.  Frakt Leib             	son         	photographer
  203.  Frakt Yankel           	"          	hair dresser
  204.  Frank Icik              	father      	small shop
  205.  Frank Yudel           	son         	------
  206.  Galiner Natan         	------    	laborer
  207.  Geselkovitz Icik      	husband 	cinema owner
  208.  Geselkovitz Riva    	wife       	housewife
  209.  Geselkovitz Sheine  	daughter	pupil
  210.  Geselkovita Konia    	"             	"
  211.  Geselkovitz Nehemia  	------    	butcher
  212.  Gitelman Zalman     	husband 	employee
  213.  Gitelman Mere         	wife       	hatter
  214.  Gitelman Dora         	daughter	baby
  215.  Gitelman Hirsh         	husband 	employee
  216.  Gitelman Braine      	wife       	housewife
  217.  Gitelman Leizer       	son         	4 years old
  218.  Gitelman Baruch      	"             	baby
  219.  Glazer Zalman         	-----     	dispatcher
  220.  Glazer Heshel          	brother   	"
  221.  Glazer Sender        	"             	"
  222.  Glazer-Kravetz Sonia	sister    	housewife
  223.  Golde Yakov         	husband 	wholesaler
  224.  Golde Musia        	wife       	housewife
  225.  Golde Leib            	son         	pupil
  226.  Golde Taibe          	daughter	"
  227.  Gitelzon Kopl        	-----    	small shop
  228.  Gitelzon Meir         	brother   	"
  229.  Gitelzon Gita          	sister    	housewife
  230.  Gitelzon Fruma        	"             	employee
  231.  Gitelzon Braine     	"             	dress maker
  232.  Goldshtein Chayim 	-----    	employee
  233.  Gorshon Dora          	mother    	housewife
  234.  Gorshon Leib         	son         	teacher
  235.  Gorshon Mina        	daughter	employee
  236.  Grayevsky Leib     	husband 	small shop
  237.  Grayevsky Mina     	wife       	small shop
  238.  Gut Motel              	-----   	teacher
  239.  Gutshtein Michael  	-----   	employee
  240.  Gutshtein Pesach   	brother   	"
  241.  Gutshtein Reuven   	"             	coachman
  242.  Holerman Elijas    	father    	small shop
  243.  Holerman Moshe    	son         	pupil
  244.  Hein Boris            	-----         	engineer
  245.  Chosid Leizer      	husband 	brick layer
  246.  Chosid Mere	       	wife       	housewife
  247.  Chosid Chaya-Beile	daughter	dress maker
  248.  Chosid Leah           	"             	pupil
  249.  Ingel Yudel            	-----          	employee
  250.  Ivensky Yankel        	husband 	"
  251.  Ivensky Golde        	wife       	housewife
  252.  Ivensky Avraham    	son         	---
  253.  Yapu Avraham       	husband    	small shop
  254.  Yapu Stira             	wife       	"
  255.  Yapu Hilel              	-----     	baker
  256.  Yapu Chana            	-----     	"
  257.  Yasvonsky Hirsh   	father     	small shop
  258.  Yasvonsky Mira   	daughter	pupil
  259.  Jofe Roza            	mother    	housewife
  260.  Jofe Chatzkel    	son         	glazier
  261.  Jofe Bela          	wife       	housewife
  262.  Jofe Icik-Leib    	son         	------
  263.  Jofe Chayim        	husband    	small shop
  264.  Jofe Riva              	wife       	housewife
  265.  Jofe Leib           	son         	pupil
  266.  Jofe Mina         	daughter	"
  267.  Jozefer Shlomo   	husband 	joiner
  268.  Jozefer Dina     	wife       	dress maker
  269.  Jozefer Leib        	son         	student
  270.  Jozefer Meir      	"             	pupil
  271.  Jozelit Tzadok    	husband 	small shop
  272.  Jozelit Mere       	wife       	"
  273.  Katzev Chayim     	husband 	baker
  274.  Katzev Bela        	wife       	"
  275.  Katzev Sheine     	daughter	pupil
  276.  Karlinsky Josef   	husband 	 doctor
  277.  Karlinsky Sonia    	wife       	housewife
  278.  Karlinsky Judith    	daughter	student
  279.  Kaplan Moshe      	father     	cinema owner
  280.  Kaplan Josel      	son         	small shop
  281.  Kaplan Sarah      	daughter	dress maker
  282.  Kaplan Leah          	"             	"
  283.  Karabelnik David    	husband 	steamship owner
  284.  Karabelnik Mina     	wife       	housewife
  285.  Karabelnik Leib    	son         	steamship owner
  286.  Karabelnik Tcherne   	daughter	employee
  287.  Karabelnik Riva   	"             	"
  288.  Kaplan Aba           	husband 	coachman
  289.  Kaplan Feige        	wife       	housewife
  290.  Kaplan Chayim-Ber  	-----     	loader
  291.  Kagan Benyamin     	man       	small shop
  292.  Kagan Dora           	sister    	"
  293.  Kagan Esther      	"             	"
  294.  Kagan Hinde	     	"             	dress maker
  295.  Kaplan Leib	      	-----   	small shop
  296.  Kaplan Moshe        	husband  	butcher
  297.  Kaplan Etel           	wife       	housewife
  298.  Kaplan Yankel        	son         	butcher
  299.  Kobelkovsky Leizer 	-----   	tailor
  300.  Kobelkovsky Gershon 	-----   	employee
  301.  Kobelkovsky Motel    	husband 	tailor
  302.  Kobelkovsky Mere  	wife       	housewife
  303.  Kobelkovsky Chayim	son         	laborer
  304.  Kobelkovsky Chaya 	daughter	dress maker
  305.  Kobelkovsky Velvel 	father    	small shop
  306.  Kobelkovsky Freide 	daughter	employee
  307.  Kobelkovsky Chone (Elchanan) son         small shop
  308.  Kobelkovsky Leizer 	"             	"
  309.  Kobelkovsky Motel 	"             	pupil
  310.  Kobelkovsky Leah     	------    	housewife
  311.  Kobelkovsky Chayim	husband 	shoemaker
  312.  Kobelkovsky Rachel	wife       	housewife
  313.  Kobelkovsky Moshe	son         	shoemaker
  314.  Kobelkovsky Motel	"             	employee
  315.  Kobelkovsky Hinde	daughter	dress maker
  316.  Kobelkovsky Feige	"             	"
  317.  Kobelkovsky Icik    	husband 	shoemaker
  318.  Kobelkovsky Leah   	wife       	housewife
  319.  Kobelkovsky Benyamin	son         	hair dresser
  320.  Kobelkovsky Chiene	mother    	small shop
  321.  Kobelkovsky Mendel	son         	tailor
  322.  Kopelovitz Ita         	mother    	housewife
  323.  Kopelovitz Icik       	son         	hair dresser
  324.  Kopelovitz Shaya    	"             	"
  325.  Kopelovitz Leib      	"             	"
  326.  Kopelov Zalman     	husband 	dentist
  327.  Kopelov Ira           	wife       	housewife
  328.  Kopelov Rachel      	daughter	baby
  329.  Kobelkovsky Tzemach	husband 	tailor
  330.  Kobelkovsky Chaya     	wife       	housewife
  331.  Kobelkovsky Bela      	daughter	small shop
  332.  Kobelkovsky Malka      	"             	"
  333.  Kobelkovsky Chaya (?) 	"             	pupil
  334.  Kopelionsky Avraham  	husband   	small shop
  335.  Kopelionsky Riva      	wife        	housewife
  336.  Kopelionsky Motel    	son         	technician
  337.  Kopelionsky Berel   	"             	pupil
  338.  Krait Fruma	     	mother      	baker
  339.  Krait Nachum        	son         	"
  340.  Krelitz Leib	     	husband    	"
  341.  Krelitz Tzila         	wife       	housewife
  342.  Krelitz Miryam     	daughter	baby
  343.  Krelitz Moshe       	husband 	baker
  344.  Krelitz Gita	      	wife         	housewife
  345.  Krelitz Mina         	daughter  	baby
  346.  Krelitz Leah 120         	sister    	dress maker
  347.  Krupinsky Zelig       	father    	rope maker
  348.  Krupinsky Pinchas   	son         	"
  349.  Krupinsky Yudel      	"             	"
  350.  Krupinsky Mira       	daughter	dress maker
  351.  Krupinsky Leah        	mother    	housewife
  352.  Kuselevitz Yudel     	husband 	small shop
  353.  Kuselevitz Riva      	wife       	housewife
  354.  Kuselevitz Berel    	son         	pupil
  355.  Kuselevitz Mina      	daughter	"
  356.  Kushner Aba           	husband    	hair dresser
  357.  Kushner Ela            	wife       	housewife
  358.  Kushner Chava        	sister    	dress maker
  359.  Lam Josel               	husband    	shop owner
  360.  Lam Feige               	wife       	"
  361.  Leiptziger Icik        	husband    	painter
  362.  Leiptziger Chaya     	wife       	dress maker
  363.  Latush Golde            	-----   	housewife
  364.  Levin Vulf             	husband    	employee
  365.  Levin Golde        	wife       	small shop
  366.  Levin Leib         	son         	tailor
  367.  Levin Hilel        	"             	pupil
  368.  Levin Yekutiel   	son         	photographer
  369.  Levin Frade            	wife       	housewife
  370.  Levin Shimshon      	son         	4 years old
  371.  Levin Gavriel         	son         	2 years old
  372.  Levin Shlomo         	husband    	coachman
  373.  Levin Chaya           	wife       	housewife
  374.  Levin Michael        	son         	employee
  375.  Levin Yankel          	husband    	coachman
  376.  Levin Mere-Leah   	wife       	housewife
  377.  Levin Motel           	son         	pupil
  378.  Levin Sarah          	daughter   	"
  379.  Levinson  Gavriel  	father      	employee
  380.  Levinson Tuvia     	son         	laborer
  381.  Levinberg Israel   	husband    	steamship owner
  382.  Levinberg Leah      	wife       	housewife
  383.  Levinberg Shlomo  	son         	steamship owner
  384.  Lebiush Aron         	husband    	small shop
  385.  Lebiush Mina          	wife       	housewife
  386.  Lebiush Icik         	son         	employee
  387.  Lebiush Chana        	daughter	dress maker
  388.  Lebiush Gita          	"             	pupil
  389.  Levitan Zusel         	husband    	small shop
  390.  Levitan Golde         	wife       	housewife
  391.  Lubin Shmuel          	husband   	small shop
  392.  Lubin Grunia          	wife        	housewife
  393.  Lubin Gavriel         	husband 	gardener
  394.  Lubin Rachel          	wife       	housewife
  395.  Lubin Berel            	son          	hairdresser
  396.  Magidovitz Avraham	husband  	small shop
  397.  Magidovitz Chana   	wife       	housewife
  398.  Magidovitz Hinde    	daughter 	pupil
  399.  Magidovitz Hirsh    	son         	"
  400.  Machat Noach         	-----   	employee
  401.  Machat Leah           	sister    	hatter
  402.  Maister Shabtai     	-----    	tailor
  403.  Maister Yente        	sister     	dress maker
  404.  Margolis                	husband   	furniture factory owner
  405.  Margolis Rachel     	wife        	housewife
  406.  Margolis              	daughter 	student
  407.  Markir Moshe-Leizer  	father    	synagogue supervisor
  408.  Markir Meir            	son          	"
  409.  Markir Yente          	daughter	dress maker
  410.  Magidovitz Sholem	-----    	coachman
  411.  Marger Shiye          	husband 	bakery owner
  412.  Marger Chaya-Golde 	wife       	housewife
  413.  Marger Benyamin   	son          	tailor
  414.  Marger Mendel-Faivel 	"              	courier
  415.  Marger Ore-Shmerel 	"              	mentally defective
  416.  Marger Gita           	daughter 	dressmaker
  417.  Mazur Motel-Leib     	husband 	tailor
  418.  Mazur Leah            	wife     	housewife
  419.  Mazur Gershon        	son         	tailor
  420.  Mazur Leib             	"             	employee
  421.  Meirovitz Yekel         	husband     	small shop
  422.  Meirovitz Etele      	wife        	housewife
  423.  Meirovitz Shlomo  	son          	musician
  424.  Meirovitz Reuven    	"              	pupil
  425.  Meirovitz Elke       	daughter 	mentallydefective
  426.  Meirovitz Leah      	"              	dress maker
  427.  Mer Yankel           	-----    	butcher
  428.  Mer Boncik              	brother    	"
  429.  Mer Chaya             	mother     	housewife
  430.  Mer Yente             	daughter	dress maker
  431.  Melnicky Daniel    	-----   	small shop
  432.  Michailovsky Baruch	-----   	"
  433.  Michailovsky Shmuel	brother 	small shop
  434.  Michailovsky Mere	sister     	"
  435.  MincerYankel         	husband 	"
  436.  Mincer Shlame       	wife       	housewife
  437.  Miasnik Berel        	husband 	butcher
  438.  Miasnik Riva         	wife        	housewife
  439.  Miasnik Mere         	daughter 	pupil
  440.  Miasnik Eliyahu     	husband 	butcher
  441.  Miasnik Leah         	wife       	housewife
  442.  Miasnik Josel        	husband  	butcher
  443.  Miasnik Leah         	wife        	housewife
  444.  Michelzon Motel    	husband 	employee
  445.  Michelzon Mina     	wife       	housewife
  446.  Michelzon Leib     	son         	pupil
  447.  Most Motel           	husband  	small shop
  448.  Most Bracha         	wife       	housewife
  449.  Most Dodik           	son          	pupil
  450.  Most Faivel         	husband  	dispatcher
  451.  Most Dobe          	wife       	housewife
  452.  Most Tzila          	daughter	baby
  453.  Most Hilel           	-----    	book keeper
  454.  Mushes Zalman      	husband  	painter
  455.  Mushes Pesia        	wife       	housewife
  456.  Mushes Reuven     	son         	10 years old
  457.  Mushes Pesach      	"             	5 years old
  458.  Miler Aba              	husband 	gardener
  459.  Miler Sheine          	wife        	housewife
  460.  Miler Riva            	daughter	dress maker
  461.  Naividel Rachel   	mother     	housewife
  462.  Naividel Fruma    	daughter 	dress maker
  463.  Naividel Shlomo   	son          	pupil
  464.  Naividel Reuven   	"             	bicycle technician
  465.  Naividel Fania     	wife       	housewife
  466.  Naividel Chaya    	daughter	pupil
  467.  Nochimzon Leib   	husband 	small shop
  468.  Nochimzon Sarah    	wife        	housewife
  469.  Nochimzon Klara    	daughter	dress maker
  470.  Nochimzon Chana    	"             	employee
  471.  Neviasky Reuven     	husband 	small shop
  472.  Neviasky Gita       	wife       	housewife
  473.  Neviasky Dodik      	son         	pupil
  474.  Olshvanger Reuven 	husband 	wholesaler
  475.  Olshvanger Perel   	wife       	housewife
  476.  Orimian Elias        	------    	steamship owner
  477.  Patz Fishel           	husband 	wholesaler
  478.  Patz Pese-Hinde    	wife       	housewife
  479.  Patz Betzalel        	son         	pupil
  480.  Patz Elias             	------    	5 years old
  481.  Pazerinsky Pinchas	------    	hair dresser
  482.  Pazerinsky Moshe   	brother    	employee
  483.  Pazerinsky Zalman 	"             	pupil
  484.  Pazerinsky Libe     	sister    	dress maker
  485.  Pazerinsky Chana   	"             	"
  486.  Pazerinsky Esther  	"             	employee
  487.  Peisachzon Icik     	husband 	small shop
  488.  Peisachzon Liuba   	wife       	housewife
  489.  Peisachzon Leizer 	son         	small shop
  490.  Peisachzon Yechiel 	"             	"
  491.  Peisachzon Reizel 	daughter	pupil
  492.  Per Chayim            	husband 	gardener
  493.  Per Zlate            	wife       	"
  494.  Per Chayim            	------    	butcher
  495.  Per David               	------    	loader
  496.  Per Tzadok           	brother    	"
  497.  Per Yente             	sister    	dress maker
  498.  Per Etel              	"             	"
  499.  Perlman Motel         	------    	small shop
  500.  Polak Shlomo         	husband 	"
  501.  Polak Leah             	wife       	housewife
  502.  Polak Joselson      	pupil
  503.  Polak Leib             	"             	"
  504.  Polak Motel             	"             	"
  505.  Polak Tuvia           	husband 	restaurant owner
  506.  Polak Cherne         	wife       	housewife
  507.  Polak Mira            	daughter	pupil
  508.  Polak Liuta             	"             	"
  509.  Polak Sarah            	"         	"
  510.  Polak Koka             	"        	"
  511.  Polak Avraham       	husband 	employee
  512.  Polak Chiene-Etel  	wife       	housewife
  513.  Polak Leib              	son         	pupil
  514.  Portnoy Bela          	mother    	housewife
  515.  Portnoy Chayim-Ber	son         	laborer
  516.  Portnoy Hinde          	mother    	housewife
  517.  Portnoy Icik           	son         	pupil
  518.  Portnoy Hirsh          	"             	6 years old
  519.  Portnoy Leah           	------    	housewife
  520.  Portnoy Chana         	------    	"
  521.  Portnoy Vulf           	------    	loader
  522.  Portnoy Bunim-David	husband 	"
  523.  Portnoy Simona       	wife       	housewife
  524.  Portnoy Chayim-Icik	son         	driver
  525.  Pres Leib              	husband 	------
  526.  Pres Rachel            	wife       	invalid
  527.  Pres Taube             	daughter	employee
  528.  Pres Elke            	"             	dress maker
  529.  Pres Hinde              	"             	employee
  530.  Puchert Yankel       	father     	tailor
  531.  Puchert Yona          	son         	tailor
  532.  Puchert Manke       	"             	employee
  533.  Puchert Sarah       	daughter	dress maker
  534.  Pulerevitz Motel    	father    	factory owner
  535.  Pulerevitz Reuven 	son         	"
  536.  Pulerevitz Golde   	daughter	housewife
  537.  Pulerevitz Zlate   	"             	pupil
  538.  Pulerevitz Chaya  	"             	dress maker
  539.  Pulerevitz Leah   	"             	"
  540.  Pulerevitz Shmuel	------     	electrician
  541.  Pulerevitz Icik    	brother    	cinema doorkeeper
  542.  Purve Motel         	husband 	small shop
  543.  Purve Gita            	wife       	housewife
  544.  Pulerevitz Zelig  	husband 	employee
  545.  Pulerevitz Alte  	wife       	housewife
  546.  Pulerevitz Yechiel  	son         	mechanic
  547.  Rabinovitz Yudel  	------    	pupil
  548.  Raichman Boris     	husband   	doctor
  549.  Raichman Basia     	wife       	housewife
  550.  Raichman Brone    	daughter	baby
  551.  Ravel Leah          	------    	small shop
  552.  Rizman Shmerel   	husband    	wool combing mechanic
  553.  Rizman Pese       	wife       	housewife
  554.  Rizman Yudel      	son         	tailor
  555.  Rizman Daniel    	"             	"
  556.  Rizman David      	"             	watchmaker
  557.  Rizman Motel     	"             	employee
  558.  Rizman Zelde     	daughter	dress maker
  559.  Rizman Yankel    	son         	book keeper
  560.  Rizman Bela       	wife       	housewife
  561.  Rochtzo Icik      	------    	employee
  562.  Rochtzo Israel   	brother   	"
  563.  Rochtzo Shimon   	husband   	small shop
  564.  Rochtzo Braine     	wife       	housewife
  565.  Rochtzo Beinish      	------    	synagogue superviser
  566.  Rozenberg Chayim-David	husband 	small shop
  567.  Rozenberg Miryam     	wife       	housewife
  568.  Rozin Hilel           	husband 	baker
  569.  Rozin Bela            	wife       	"
  570.  Rudansky Aba       	husband 	employee
  571.  Rudansky Mina     	wife       	small shop
  572.  Rudansky Chayim   	son         	employee
  573.  Rudansky Judith  	wife       	housewife
  574.  Rabinovitz Mira  	mother    	"
  575.  Rabinovitz Eizel (?)	son         	employee
  576.  Rabinovitz Masha  	daughter  	pupil
  577.  Sigar Chayim       	husband 	teacher
  578.  Sigar Riva           	wife       	housewife
  579.  Sigar Yakov         	son         	4 years old
  580.  Skirsnemunsky David	husband 	small shop
  581.  Skirsnemunsky Perel	wife       	housewife
  582.  Skirsnemunsky Leib	son         	12 years old
  583.  Skirsnemunsky Pinele	"             	8 years old
  584.  Skirsnemunsky Mutele	daughter	3 years old
  585.  Skirsnemunsky Hilel	husband  	small shop
  586.  Skirsnemunsky Masha	wife       	housewife
  587.  Skirsnemunsky M.-Leib	husband  	baker
  588.  Skirsnemunsky Riva	wife       	"
  589.  Skirsnemunsky Leib (?)	son         	7 years old
  590.  Skirsnemunsky Hirsh	"             	5 years old
  591.  Skirsnemunsky Motel	"             	4 years old
  592.  Soloveitzik Aron      	husband    	small shop
  593.  Soloveitzik Tzipe    	wife       	housewife
  594.  Soloveitzik Esther  	daughter	small child
  595.  Shapiro Asne          	mother    	housewife
  596.  Shapiro Mendel      	son         	employee
  597.  Shapiro Sh.-Reuven 	"             	"
  598.  Shapiro-Berkover Tzivia	wife       	housewife
  599.  Shmulovitz Leah      	------    	"
  600.  Shmulovitz Motel   	husband 	shoemaker
  601.  Shmulovitz Chaya   	wife       	housewife
  602.  Shmulovitz Feige   	daughter	employee
  603.  Shmulovitz Nechama	"             	dress maker
  604.  Shmulovitz Bentzi	son         	shoemaker
  605.  Shimonov Alter     	husband 	wholesaler
  606.  Shimonov Mere     	wife       	housewife
  607.  Shimonov Edis (?) 	son         	pupil
  608.  Shmulovitz Mote l	husband 	butcher
  609.  Shmulovitz Hinde 	wife       	housewife
  610.  Shmulovitz Avraham 	husband 	butcher
  611.  Shmulovitz Chana-Eida	wife       	housewife
  612.  Shmulovitz Mina   	daughter	4 years old
  613.  Shmulovitz Perel   	"             	2 years old
  614.  Shlomovitz Aron    	husband 	slaughterer
  615.  Shlomovitz Feige   	wife       	housewife
  616.  Shlomovitz Alter   	son         	student
  617.  Shlomovitz Miryam 	daughter	employee
  618.  Shtern Vulf         	husband 	coachman
  619.  Shtern Roza           	wife       	housewife
  620.  Shtern Noach        	son         	handyman
  621.  Shtern Alter        	"             	employee
  622.  Shtern Judith        	wife       	"
  623.  Shachnovitz Shlomo	husband 	cantor
  624.  Shachnovitz Leah    	wife       	housewife
  625.  Shachnovitz Chayim	son         	employee
  626.  Shachnovitz Icik   	"             	"
  627.  Shachnovitz Mina  	daughter	pupil
  628.  Shimne Alter-Leib	husband 	small shop
  629.  Shimne Mere         	wife       	housewife
  630.  Shimne Meir           	son         	employee
  631.  Shmulovitz Moshe   	husband   	coachman
  632.  Shmulovitz Etel  	wife       	housewife
  633.  Shmulovitz Mira  	daughter	artist
  634.  Shmulovitz Avraham	son         	pupil
  635.  Shmulovitz Yerachmiel	husband 	tailor
  636.  Shmulovitz Feige  	wife       	housewife
  637.  Shmulovitz Hirsh  	son         	tailor
  638.  Shtok Leizer       	husband 	employee
  639.  Shtok Leah           	wife       	housewife
  640.  Shtok Aba            	son         	small shop
  641.  Shtok Musia        	daughter	dress maker
  642.  Telzak Avraham    	husband 	butcher
  643.  Telzak Chiene      	wife       	housewife
  644.  Zarkin Hilel         	------    	butcher
  645.  Zarkin Yankel      	brother   	"
  646.  Zarkin Chayim     	"             	pupil
  647.  Zarkin Feige         	sister    	dress maker
  648.  Zachar Base         	mother    	baker
  649.  Zachar Henke        	daughter	"
  650.  Zachar Josel       	son         	teacher
  651.  Zachar Baruch    	"             	"
  652.  Zeider Osher       	------     	small shop
  653.  Zarnitzky Reuven   	husband 	hatter
  654.  Zarnitzky Zlata  	wife       	housewife
  655.  Zarnitzky Israel-Moshe	son         	hatter
  656.  Zarnitzky Sonia    	wife       	housewife
  657.  Zilber Israel        	husband 	pensioner
  658.  Zilber Chaya          	wife       	"
  659.  Zilber Aba             	husband 	small shop
  660.  Zilber Sheine        	wife       	housewife
  661.  Zilber Hinde          	daughter	employee
  662.  Zilber Josel           	son         	small shop
  663.  Zilber Taube           	wife       	housewife
  664.  Ziman Vulf             	husband 	small shop
  665.  Ziman Ange             	wife       	housewife
  666.  Ziman Eva             	daughter	pupil
  667.  Zundelovitz Nisan   	------     	small shop
  668.  Zundelovitz Bunke   	sister    	housewife
  669.  Vales Hene             	mother    	housewife
  670.  Vales Yankel          	son         	pupil
  671.  Vales Shimon       	"             	5 years old
  672.  Vales Dora             	daughter	baby
  673.  Vitko Malka           	mother    	small shop
  674.  Vitko Josel            	son         	pupil
  675.  Vitko Esther          	daughter	"
  676.  Vladislavovsky Chone	husband 	small shop
  677.  Vladislavovsky Leah	wife       	housewife
  678.  Vladislavovsky Shlomo	son         	musician
  679.  Verblovsky Ortchik	------    	employee
  680.  Vainshtein Gavriel 	husband 	"
  681.  Vainshtein Mina    	wife       	housewife
  682.  Vainshtein Sarah  	daughter	pupil
  683.  Vainshtein Greta     	"             	"
  684.  Veitzman Avraham    	------    	baker
  685.  Veitzman Riva         	sister    	"
  686.  Veitzman Chana     	"             	"
  687.  Veitzman Tile         	"             	small shop
  688.  Vainberg Moshe      	husband 	"
  689.  Vainberg Riva          	wife       	housewife
  690.  Verblovsky Yoche (Yocheved) ----    	"
  691.  Es Esther (Eliashevitz) wife of Es Faivel 121 

 

¹¹⁹ The list of Chayim Jofe, available in LVZMA

¹²⁰ Note: Leah Krelitz immigrated to Mexico in 1937, survived the war, this entry is incorrect (Max Sherman-Krelitz, son)

¹²¹ Note: Based on a letter from Rachel Ess Greenstein dated 2/15/97

¹²² Note: Original list contained name Muti (Miriam, who was brought to the US in the late 1930s). It was the sister Raizale who was murdered. Based on an email from Diana Berzaner Tobin dated 10/5/2000. Also see photo above.

¹²³ Note: Shmerl Bernstein`s  (Bernshtein) wife was Chava (Eva), their children were Yetta (daughter) and Wolf (Zeev) (son). The names that appear in the list may be the wife and children of another Bernstein who did not belong to our family, or the given names were in error. Shmerl`s wife and children did not survive, they were killed all together during the liquidation of Kovno ghetto (at the beginning of the war Shmerl and his family escaped from Yurburg to Kovno). Also Sara, Shmerl and Boris's sister, did not have a shop. Sarah was killed in Raseiniai where she lived after her marriage in 1938 with advocate Isaac Friedland. She never had a shop in Yurburg (this information is likely in error). This information was received from Shmerl`s nephew - son of Shmerl's brother Boris Bernstein, Zeev (Wolf) Bernstein, Nathania, Israel. (10/27/2000).

 

¹²⁴ Note: Originally spelled Arshstein in translation of Joseph Rosin, likely should have been Arnshtein, according to Roy Thacker, an Arnstein family member. Also there was a sister Dora Arnshtein, who likely was also murdered, because nothing was found out about her survival after the war. Monik was likely the name associated with a brother Moritz.

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Footnotes

3 Documents Accuse, Vilnius 1970

4 The Murdered Accuse, Vilnius 1963

5 The Mass Murders in Lithuania 1941-1944. A collection of documents. Part 1, Vilnius 1965; Part 2, Vilnius 1973

6 Traces of Death Deside the Nevezys, Vilnius 1960

7 The Hitlerite Murderers in Kretinga, Vilnius 1960

8 Blood Infiltrates the Sands of Dzukija, Vilnius 1960

9 Mass Murders in Lithuania 1941-1944. Part 2, page 26

11 Warriors Without Arms, Vilnius 1967

12 Jurbarkas, Vilnius 1996

13 Pinkas haKehilot Lita. Jerusalem, 1996, pages 324-329

14 The son of the sculptor V. Grybas, a historian, at this time the manager of the Memorial Museum of V. Grybas in Jurbarkas (living at Tulpiu St. 13, Jurbarkas)

15 The scientific secretary of the Lithuanian Government Jewish Museum

16 Employee of the newspaper "Lithuanian Jerusalem"

17 Exiled Jew from Jurbarkas on June 14, 1941 (now living in Vilnius)

18 Chayim Jofe. Jewish life and death, Jurbarkas. Vilnius.1996, page 174

19 The populated places in Lithuania. The first census of the population of Lithuania in 1923. Kaunas 1925, page195

20 A.Stravinskas. The vocations of Jurbarkas citizens (from 19th to first half of the 20th century)

21 Pinkas haKehiloth. Lita. Jerusalem 1996. Page 327

22 Ibid.

24 Chayim Jofe's material

25 Chayim Jofe. The life and death of the Jews of Jurbarkas. Page 176.

26 Pinkas haKehiloth. Lita. Page 327

27 Ibid.

28 Pinkas haKehiloth, page 327

29 Chayim Jofe's material

30 J.Malinauskas, Health observance in Jurbarkas till 1940, Jurbarkas. Page 326

31 Ibid, Malinauskas.

32 Except for these three schools, Jewish children also studied in the Lithuanian high school "Saule" in Jurbarkas. Zalman Kaplan and Jozefer finished this school in 1939.

33 J.Balsaitis, A.Pirockinas, A.Skandunas, The history of the schools from the middle of the 16th century till the beginning of the 20th century. Jurbarkas, page248

35 The mayor was then J.Gepneris

36 In 1923, after the liquidation of Jewish Autonomy, there remained in Lithuania only Jewish religious communities, and it was not obligatory for all Jurbarkas's Jews to belong to the religious community.

37 Pinkas haKehiloth. Lita. Page 328

38 The director of this association was Fridman

39 Chayim Jofe's material

40 There were more. In this list there are only about one third of Jurbarkas Jews who were shot, to which one must add all those, who escaped to Russia at the beginning of the war,.

41 It is not known how many Jews were functionaries in the Soviet institutions because the archives of those years are not available.

42 Lithuanian State Central Archives (LCVA) F.1753. Ap3.L.217

43 The genocide of the citizens of Lithuania, 1939-1941. Vilnius 1992

43 The genocide of the citizens of Lithuania, 1939-1941. Vilnius 1992

44 The Lithuanian exiles of the years 1941-1952, First book. Vilnius 1993

45 A.Pirockinas. The victims of the occupation, Jurbarkas. Page 191

46 Ibid.

47 The Lithuanians Encyclopedia, Boston, 1957, T.10. page 117

48 LSCA. F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.28

49 Encyclopedia of the Jewish communities in Lithuania (Hebrew). Jerusalem 1996 Page 327

50 V.Brandisauskas. The Fight for the restoration of Lithuanian independence (06.1940-09.1941) Vilnius 1995. Page 11

51 LCVA. F.1753. Ap 3. B.12. L.1

52 The protocol of Gepneris' investigation. 1945 o8 22// LYA. B.85/3. L16

53 LCVA, F.1753. Ap.3. B.24. L3.

54 LCVA, F.1753. Ap..3. B.24. L.222

55 .Chayim Jofe's brother.

56 .Chayim Jofe's material. The story of the late Leib Meigel.

57 The protocol of Mykolas Levickas' investigation. 1948 02 20//LYA B.14142/3. L.146

58 The protocol of the investigation of witness J.Keturauskas confronting P.Kairaitis. 1948 06 21// LYA. B.¶-16816. L.69-70

59 The protocol of the investigation of the witness P.Mikutaitis. 1948 04 14//LYA. B.¶-16816. L. 77

60 The protocol of the investigation of J.Bogdanskis. 1944 10 18// LYA. B.¶-8231. L.12

60 The protocol of the investigation of J.Bogdanskis. 1944 10 18// LYA. B.¶-8231. L.12

61 Chayim Jofe's material. The story of the late Leib Meigel. His house stood in the vicinity of the mayor's house in German St. On the morning of July 1, 1941, the mayor met Leib (Leibukas - so he

amiably called his neighbor) in the street and alerted him to take his wife and run, because tomorrow would be too late.

62 Chayim Jofe's material. Mykolas Levickas gave another number - 100// The protocol of the investigation of Mykolas Levickas 1948 11 10// LYA. B.14142/3. L.12.

63 The protocol of the witness J.Mikutaitis' investigation. 1948 05 20//LYA. B.¶-16816. L.67

64 The protocol of the witness S.Dravenkiene's investigation. 1946 08 20//LYA. B. 5582/3. L.23

65 The protocol of the witness Petrukaitiene's investigation 1948 01 04//LYA. B.4039/3. L.46

66 The protocol of the witness J.Mikutaitis' investigation 1948 11 23//LYA. B.¶-16816. L.46

67 The protocol of the witness Narjauskaite's investigation. 1948 01 09//LYA. B.9007/3. L.24

68 Chayim Jofe's material. The story of Dobe Most-Rozenberg (living in Kaunas, Asigalio St. 21-6)

69 T.Suravinas. The tragedy of the Jurbarkas citizens// Tarybu Lietuva. 1944 10 14

70 Chayim Jofe. Mika// Valstieciu laikrastis (Farmers newspaper) 1990 04 26

71 Chayim Jofe's material. The story of A.Vales

72 Among those murdered on July 3, 1941 was also her father Narjauskas.

73 The protocol of the witness Narjaukaite's investigation 1947 01 09//LYA. B.9007/3. L.24

74 A.Leonavicius took part as a witness in the trial of policeman J.Bogdanskis. 'They, policemen J.Bogdanskis and Stasys Strancikas, arrested me. On July 3, 1941 together with about 300 people I was driven to the Jewish cemetery to be shot. I escaped and survived'. The protocol of the witness A.Leonavicius' investigation. 1944 10 17 //LYA. B. ¶-8231. L.24

75 After the war partisans shot P.Striaukas and A.Leonavicius to death.

76 After the war A.Vales emigrated to Israel.

77 Chayim Jofe. Antanina// sviesa. 1990 12 04

78 .Chayim Jofe's material. The story of A.Vales.

79 LCVA. F.1753. Ap.3. B.13. L.4

80 T. Suravinas. The tragedy of the Jurbarkas citizens// Tarybu Lietuva. 1944 10 14

81 Chayim Jofe's material. The story of L.Meigel.

82 The protocol of the investigation of P.Bakus. 1947 05 16 //LYA. B.7314/3. L.75

83 Chayim Jofe's material.

84 The protocol of the investigation of P.Kairaitis. 1948 01 25 // LYA. B. ¶-16816. L.38

85 The protocol of the investigation of J.Grybas. 1947 11 14 // LYA. B. 11039/3. L.43-44

86 The protocol of the investigation of P.Kresciunas. 1947 11 01 //LYA. B. 11039/3. L.22-23

87 LCVA. F 1753. Ap 3. B 13. L.10

88 Ibid. L.13

89 Ibid. L.18

90 Chayim Jofe. Mika// Valstieciu laikrastis. 1990 05 03

91 LCVA. F. 1753. Ap. 3. B.13. L. 58

92 Ibid. L.73

93Ibid. L.148

94 Encyclopedia of the Jewish Communities in Lithuania (Hebrew) page. 328

95 LCVA. F.1753. Ap.3. B.4. L.27

96 Ibid.

97 The protocol of the investigation of J.Gepneris. 1945 08 23//LYA. B. 85/3. L. 19

98 The protocol of the investigation of Mykolas Levickas. 1948 11 24//LYA. B.14142/3. L.47-48

99 The protocol of the confrontation of P.Kairaitis with the witness J.Keturauskas. 1948 06 21 //LYA. B. ¶-16816. L.69-70

100 The protocol of the investigation of J.Gepneris. 1945 08 23//LYA. B.85/3. L.20

101 So it happened that Soviet Russia and other Soviet Republics became a refuge for Jews during World War II.

102 This was also the fate of Dobe Most-Rozenberg

103 Chayim Jofe's material.

104 Chayim Jofe. Antanina//sviesa. 1990 12 04

105 Chayim Jofe. Rachile// sviesa 1990 08 23

106 S.Rozentalis. Macijauskas // Ir be ginklo kariai (Fighters without arms). P.145-147

107 Chayim Jofe's material, existing in LVéMA

108 LCVA. F.1753. Ap. 3. B. 4. L. 26

109 The protocol of the investigation of P.Kairaitis. 1947 08 23 //LYA. B. ¶-16816. L.53

110 Chayim Jofe. Mika// Valstieciu Laikrastis. 1990 04 26/ 05 03

111 Chayim Jofe. Niskutis // sviesa. 1990 10 11.

112 This conclusion is hypothetical: if 2,000 Jews resided in Jurbarkas before the war, of whom 76 survived (according to Chayim Jofe), then 1924 perished.

113 was killed on the front.

114 Died in 1997.

115 Emigrated to the USA.

117 The list is not complete, and further inquiry is necessary.

118 All the policemen mentioned in the list served in Jurbarkas.

 

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