A group comprised of thirteen descendants from the
Meyerowitz, Goldin, Shapiro, Choritz, Gafanovich, and Sarfanovich families met in Kupiskis, Lithuania, on
Wednesday, August 27, 1997. This group was led by Norman and Alec Meyer and was
accompanied by Lithuanian guide Regina Kopelevich. They were met on that Wednesday morning
by the Mayor and City government of Kupiskis. At the commencement of the
meeting, the Mayor handed Norman Meyer a list of 808 Jews who were killed during the
summer of 1941. This list was compiled in 1946 by the midwife from the Jewish Maternity
Hospital in Ponevezh (Panevezys) and several other sources.
The Jews of
Kupiskis were killed on several different occasions in various
locations during the summer of 1941. See the Pages of Testimony for further details. This
list represents many of those residents of Kupiskis who were killed during that
time. As there are only 808 people listed out of approximately 1,200 known residents, a
number of other people may have either escaped, been killed in other locations or just
been forgotten in the process of the listing of the names which occurred several years
after the fact.
The list seemed to be created in family groupings or how the data entry people
remembered the information. Due to this, the list has not been reconstructed in
alphabetical order as it would have destroyed this organization. The headings of the
columns are "Vardas" (Last Name), Pavarde (First Name), Amzius (Age).
The numbering system has been retained as well even though some of the entries were not
numbered in sequential order.
There may appear to be some repetitions of family names in the list, but this may be
due to similar names and ages of persons in various branches of a family.
The list is made up of three columns comprised of the last name, the first name or
relationship of person and the approximate age.
When reading the last name, be aware that it contains the Lithuanian endings based on
the spelling of the name and reflects male, female, single and married status. The
"ius" or "as" is the married male (Rabinovicius, Kaplanas), the
"iene" or "iute" is the married female (Rabinoviciene,
Kaciute), and
the "aite" is the single female (Rabinovicaite).
In some cases, the person who entered the names spelled all the entries for a
particular family with the same married masculine ending as in "Joffe". In that
case, you will only be able to determine the gender of the individual by their first name
if it is given.
When the first name is given or when it is not, it may contain an additional word which
is in parenthesis which will provide you with the relationship of the person such as
"dukte" (daughter), "motina" (mother), "senelis"
(grandfather), "sunus" (son), "tetule" (aunt), "vyras"
(husband), "vykis" (children), "zmona" (wife).
Due to the age of the documents and the size of the pages (15"x17"), some of
the names at the bottom of the pages and some of the ages have been obliterated in the
xerox copy which was brought back by Norman Meyer. You will therefore note that there are
some blank rows with no information. Eventually, replacement pages will be obtained with
all the missing information. Beware that the ages are only approximate ones and there may
be some discrepancies, but generally they are correct.
Where the information was not
really known by the data entry person, a group notation was provided such as
"three children". There were several double entries or entries
which were added as an afterthought. These are kept in the same manner as they
were recorded on the list. The scanned original pages of the list are to
be found on the Yad Vashem Web Site under Shoah-Related
Lists. Just plug in the word Kupiskis for 'place' and then Details,
and the pages will appear. You can then increase their size so you can see
them more clearly and also print them so as to look at them easily at your
leisure.
For any further inquiries, please contact: Ann
Rabinowitz.
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