Jewish Rozalimas - Vu zol ikh geyn? part 2
I
understood that in the period after 1930 and before 1941 the Jewish families
integrated to some extent, with the other families of Rozalimas. They
participated in the firemen-brigade, they joined the football-players, they were
members of the district-council. In
this period the forest of Rozalimas was the preferred spot
Eventually,
the situation for the Lithuanian Jews became unspeakably bad, on 23 June 1941
the German-Nazi army entered Lithuania, very soon followed by the so-called
Einsatzgruppen whose only task was to exterminate as many Jews as possible.
They
entered Rozalimas, searched for the local communists and shot them. One of them
was the Jewish man Simse Machatas. Almost immediately after the killing they
split up the Jewish families. They separated the men from their wives and
children. The men had to do hard labour for one or two days, then they were put on carts and transported to Pakruojis, Morkakalnis, where they were shot by the Germans and by the local collaborators on 28-7-1941. A week later (4-8-1941) the Jewish women and children were shot at Morkakalnis.
The
women and children of the neigbouring village of Klovainiai were shot on the
same day (4-8-1941) at Morkakalnis. Five Jewish men from Klovainiai were shot by Lithuanians in
the forest of Rozalimas on the road from Rozalimas to Pakruojis in the beginning
of August (before 4-8-1941). Only one member of the Jewish community of
Klovainiai survived, her name was Ziske (Zyske) Dermeikaite. She emigrated to
South-Africa in 1936.
There
were only three survivors from the Jewish community of Rozalimas. They didn’t
emigrate, but they were able to escape from the devil and his helpers. Their
names were: Malke Klovanskis (Klovanskaite),
Joskis Machatas and Kafke Lapida.
Within
a very short period of time the Jewish communities of Rozalimas and Klovainiai
were wiped off the face of the earth. |
Copyright
© 2004 Dora Boom
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