The killers
After the war the Soviet court sentenced the majority of the killers of Morkakalnis to 20 till 25 years of imprisonment. Perhaps till today one of the killers is still alive.
Zenonas Gegeckas’ mother Berta Gegeckiene was one of the witnesses to testify in the court of Siauliai against these killers. Zenonas saw his mother witnessing in a short (called Kino Journal) before the main film once he was in a cinema in Siauliai.
The names of the killers were: Gasčiunas, Simonaitis, Siratavičtius, Čičius, Čemolunskis, Šeiningas (Sjejningas). Gasčiunas and Šeiningas got 25 years, the others 20 years.
The killer Petras Pozela was immediately shot by the Soviets as one of the leaders.As I mentioned in part 1: five of Pozela’s men were Gigevičius, Simkevičius, Zinkevičius, Lipskis and Dojokas. These men also took part in the killings.
I know that Gigevičius and Simkevičius fled with the Germans to Germany. The other three Zinkevičius, Lipskis and Dojokas were sentenced by the Soviets to 20-25 years imprisonment. Their house was confiscated by the Soviets.
The Soviets got and sentenced the main killers in 1944. The other "less important" ones between 1944 and 1955. E.g. a dental technician from Pakruojis (and Siauliau) was caught and sentenced only in the period between 1944 and 1955. Local people never thought he would have been a killer. He was such a friendly and nice man...
In the Sovetskaja Litva one can read about the trials, mentioned above.
Zofija Boreikaite from Kedainiai has
written some poems about the killings at Morkakalnis and in the forest near
Linkuva in 1941. One of them is called: At the Castle. In this poem she tells
about her walks with her mother near the castle on a nice summerday. But
suddenly the fairy tale was cruelly destroyed: They saw a lot of corpses lying
on the ground, shot ... They ran home in a shock.
In another poem she writes about her friends
Esther Blegerite, Mirjam Fuksaite,
Taube,
Fachteraite and
Beela Jofaite all murdered in the forest near Linkuva.
In 2003, a poet called Jonas Drabisius
from Joniskelis, made a poem on a Jewish girl and her people. Drabisius was a
former citizen of Pakruojis.
I do remember the young Jewish girl, with her dark eyes,
she sensed and felt, but she didn’t understand,
her heart was so innocent, but very, very soon, they robbed her from her clothes,her
coat,
her heavenly sky blue dress, with that beautiful white collar,
how her eyes looked dark, so beautiful, so dark.
Yes, yes and the Lithuanians “our brothers” crushed the heads of the babies, and
were drunk,
they beat and killed there, children, old people and the beautiful young girls.
People said: Perhaps the end of the world has come,
when their young children brought them to the spot,
no, this was not the end of the world,but death had become the replacement of
happiness.
The killers will be judged on the Day of Judgment by the Highest One,
The truth will prevail, righteousness will be done, the killers will tremble for
fear.
People, don’t forget our friends from the city near the Kruoja,
our friends , banned from their houses into that dreadful death,
come to the pits of Pakruojis,
where , now and then, the graves will tell their story.