World War II broke out with the German invasion of Poland on the1st of September 1939, and its consequences were felt several months later for Lithuanian Jews in general, and especially for Jews of the southern part of the state which bordered on Poland.
In agreement with the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty on the division of occupied Poland, the Russians occupied the Suvalk region, but after the delineation of exact borders between Russia and Germany the Suvalk region fell into German hands. The retreating Russians allowed anyone who wanted to join them to move into their occupied territory, and indeed many young people left the area together with the Russians. The Germans drove the remaining Jews out of their homes in Suvalk and its vicinity, robbed them of their possessions, then directed them to the Lithuanian border, where they were left in dire poverty, as the Lithuanians did not allow them to enter Lithuania and the Germans did not allow them to return. Thus they stayed in this swampy area in cold and rain for several weeks, until Jewish youths from the towns and villages of this part of the state smuggled them into Lithuania by various routes, with much risk to themselves. Altogether about 2,400 refugees passed through the border or infiltrated on their own, and were then dispersed in the "Suvalkija" region (the part of Lithuania laying on the left side of the Nieman river).
In June 1940 Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union and became a Soviet Republic. Following new rules, the majority of the shops belonging to the Jews of Stoklishok were nationalized and commissars were appointed to manage them. All Zionist parties and youth organizations were disbanded and the Hebrew school was closed.
Supply of goods decreased and, as a result, prices soared. The middle class, mostly Jewish, bore most of the brunt, and the standard of living dropped gradually.
At this time there were about 70 Jewish families in the town, this being approximately 300 people.
Stoklishok was occupied by the German army several days after the German invasion of the USSR on the 22nd of June 1941. Immediately Lithuanian nationalists organized and detained people suspected of supporting the Soviet regime, according to a list of activists from the elections to the Lithuanian Soviet. A Lithuanian police report dated the 5th of July mentions two women who were also detained among these Jews: Golda Heler, a mother of two children, Khayah Iserzon and Barukh Koifman. All those detained were kept in the local prison for a week, after which they were led to the Lilun forest, about 4 km from the town in the direction of Aukstadvaris (Visoki-Dvor), where they were shot and buried in pits dug by Jews who were brought from Stoklishok for this task. They were forbidden, under threat of death, to tell anybody what they had done in the forest, but nevertheless Aizik Kovarsky revealed the secret. Stoklishok Jews did not accept the idea that the pits were intended for them too, as they wanted to believe that they were prepared for Communist activists only.
A list of all Stoklishok Jews was prepared, who had to report in person every day at the local police station, in order to prevent their escape. Pinkhas Kravitz, being the "Juden Aeltester", was appointed as liason to the authorities, and had to deliver groups of Jews to the authorities everyday for various types of work, such as sweeping the streets, road repairs, cleaning the police station and other public buildings. The request for workers increased every day, until the "Juden Aeltester" was not able to supply anymore, so that one day he disappeared, his fate unknown. After a short time the authorities started to take out small groups of Jews for so called work outside the town, but nobody returned home.
On Shabath, 16.8.1941, larger groups of Jews, sitting in five carts, were moved to Jezne (Jieznas), and in addition to 63 men and 26 women from Jezne itself, were sent to Pren (Prienai), where they were murdered together with local Jews on the 26th of August 1941 (3rd of Elul 5701). On the 7th of September the rest of Stoklishok Jews were put into forty carts and brought to Butrimantz (Butrimonys), where, together with local Jews and those brought from Birshtan (Birstonas) and Pun (Punia), they were crowded into the yard of the local police station.
On the 9th of September 1941 all were herded into the end of Klidzh street, where two pits had already been dug: one being beside the house of Gudaitis and the other a little further, where people used to take sand for repairing roads.
The adults were separated from the children, taken to the edge of the pit and shot. The children were pushed into the pit and then shot, many of them being buried alive. On this Tuesday, the 9th of September 1941 (17th of Elul 5701) 960 adults and 500 children - the Jews of Butrimantz, Stoklishok, Birshtan and Pun - were murdered.
The main murderers were: Kaspirionas, Savitsky, Prashkis, Urbanavicius the miller, the carpenter Sinovskis and others.
Several Stoklishok Jews who tried to hide with Lithuanian peasants were caught and murdered. Only one Jewish girl (Sarah Epshtein) found shelter with a Polish estate owner (Gzhobovsky), later with peasants Josef and Piotr Antonovitz until 1943, when she contacted the partisans in Rudniky forest, joined them and survived.
Five days before the Red Army returned to this area (1944), a group of Jews who had escaped from the Kovno ghetto was caught near Stoklishok and shot, amongst them was Dr. Shelomoh Perlshtein from Stoklishok.
In the list of mass graves which appears in the book "Mass Murder in Lithuania" Vol. 2, those in Butrimantz are mentioned:
One of the two massacre sites near the village of Klydzionys where men and women were murdered. The inscription on the monument says: "Blood of 965 innocent Jews from Butrimonys-men and women-flowed here. They were killed by Nazi murderers and their collaborators in August and September 1941".
The wall bearing the name of Stoklishok in the "Valley of the Communities" in Yad-Vashem, Jerusalem
The Lithuanians Encyclopedia, Boston 1953-1965 (Lithuanian).
Yahaduth Lita, (Hebrew) Tel-Aviv, Volumes 1-4.
Yad-Vashem Archives 0-3/4215; M-35/58, 159; M-Q-1218/64, 1314/135.
Central Zionist Archives: 55/1788; 55/1701; 13/15/131; Z-4/2548.
JIVO, NY, Collection of the Jewish Communities in Lithuania, File 1573.
HaMeilitz (St. Petersburg) (Hebrew): 7.6.1885.
Cohen Berl,. Shtet, Shtetlach un Dorfishe Yishuvim in Lite biz 1918 (Towns, Small Towns and Rural Settlements in Lithuania till 1918) (Yiddish) New-York 1992.
Y.D.Kamzon, Yahadut Lita, pages 15,18,19. (Hebrew) Mossad HaRav Kook - Jerusalem 1959.
Di Yiddishe Shtime (The Yiddish Voice) Kovno (Yiddish): 29.1.1922,
Masines Zudynes Lietuvoje (Mass Murder in Lithuania) vol.2, Vilnius 1941-1944 (Lithuanian).
Pinkas haKehiloth. Lita (Encyclopedia of Jewish Settlements in Lithuania) (Hebrew), Editor: Dov Levin, Assistant editor: Yosef Rosin, Yad Vashem. Jerusalem 1996.
The Book of Sorrow, (Hebrew, Yiddish, English, Lithuanian), Vilnius 1997.
Einikeit, Moscow (Yiddish) 31.8.1944.
Naujienos, Chicago (Lithuanian), 11.6.1949.