Memoirs of Reuben Ruch

1.     This is the place where the building of Emuta used to be (on the first floor). The Jewish school (Yeshiva) was on the second floor. This was where I and the fourth and fifth grade students had our classes. All the Jews of Rokiskis were ordered to be here on July 9^th, 1941 .

2.     The Count’s estate with its little store houses, barn and stalls were surrounded by a brick wall that was 2 meters high. During the time of the Soviet Union there was a “Sovhoz” (soviet agricultural union) there. During the war it was transformed into a ghetto or concentration camp. On the same date, July 9^th, 1941, all the Jews of the city were brought there, then counted, separated by sex and given meager food for the time of their imprisonment until the time of their deaths. There were guards posted there to make sure they didn’t run away.

3.     The main place of execution (on 15^th to 16^th August, 1941) and mass grave of 3,200 Jews of Rokiskis.

4.     The place of execution of 493 prisoners (385 Jews, 107 Russian Orthodox activists). They had been arrested and kept in the prison and in the cellars by the Gestapo in the buildings that formerly belonged to the count, and that at the time housed the KGB.

5.     Mass grave for victims.

6.     Special prison for the most active people, who were murdered on July 27^th, 1941 . This was the city jail. (See next map)