During World War II and Afterwards
World War II started with the German invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939, and its consequences for Lithuanian Jews in general and Vishey Jews in particular were felt several months later.
In agreement with the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty on the division of occupied Poland, the Russians occupied the Suvalk region, but after 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. 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 border villages 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 "Suvalkia" region.
In 1940 Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union and became a Soviet Republic. Following new rules, all the Zionist parties and youth organizations were disbanded and Hebrew educational institutions were closed. Some Jews started to join the new ruling institutions. The local amateur troupe ("Artistic Brigade") established by the "Folks Hilf" (Red help-MOPR) performed plays in town and during the October celebrations in 1940 in Lazdey the play "Bar Kokhva" of Goldfaden was produced with the accompaniment of a local Jazz band.
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.
On the of June 22, 1941 the German army entered Vishey and Lithuanian gangs immediately started to rampage. They imprisoned the Jewish men in the synagogue and took them from there to forced labor such as cleaning the streets, destroying bunkers the Soviets had built and other types of works. The Jews were also woken at night and abused.
The German town major made efforts to save Vishey Jews and in particular a girl he loved, but the Lithuanians complained that he was a "Jews lover" and he was sent to the front line.
On the fifteenth of September 1941 all Vishey Jews were transferred under heavy guarding to Lazdey and put into the Ghetto that was established in Katkiske, about one and a half km from Lazdey. There the Jews from Lazdey, Rudamin, Vishey, Kopcheve and small settlements of the surroundings were concentrated. They were laced in the army barracks by family, and the entire area was surrounded by barbed wire and armed Lithuanian guards. Daily work groups were used for work outside die compound.
Initially, they gave each person 200 grams of unsalted bread and 300 grams of potatoes. Gradually the rations were cut down, and an epidemic of dysentery broke out. People suffered and starved. Some sneaked out and ran to nearby villages where they exchanged personal belonging for food or begged for food. A certain relief occurred when some of the local farmers were allowed to engage Jews as workers on their farms, provided that they would return them to the ghetto at night. Those who ate at the farms would give up their share of the food in the ghetto so that others could benefit from it.
The internal arrangements of the work schedule were conducted by the Jewish managed Arbeits Amt (Work Office). A special committee to manage all the affairs of the ghetto was created from representatives from all of the communities. The pharmacist Astromsky from Koptcheve was their leader. He did not do a thing without consulting with Rabbi Gershtein of Lazdei. A Jewish police force was organized in the ghetto but had very little authority
Every gentile was able to do whatever he pleased. Hardly a day passed without some torture or criminal act. For example, a Lithuanian policeman once took a liking to the boots of Yehoshua Vilensky from Rudamin. He called him over, shot him dead, and took his boots.
One day the ghetto was shocked by the secret news Sheina Idovitz and Golda Katorovsky related upon their return from work on Monday, October 27th. Every day they were taken to the town to work for the German commander. That day, they heard a conversation between the commandant of Mariampol who screamed at the commandant of Lazdei what a terrible shame it was that his Jews were still alive. The commandant from Lazdei apologized and explained that he needed the Jews who were doing necessary work and many of the essential crafts. The commandant from Mariampol screamed again, "You have to fulfill your task or otherwise you will be sent to the front" whereby the commandant of Lazdei replied, "I am a soldier and a man of war, and you won’t scare me with this kind of a threat.’
The mood in the ghetto was electrified instantaneously. The sounds of the wings of death shook the people and scared them in anticipation of the following day. That night some people escaped from the ghetto and went looking for a hideout with the farmers or in the fields. A few days later, however, when no special events had occurred, everything returned to normal. They expected that the commandant would continue to protect the Jews under his control. By the end of October, most of the Jews throughout Lithuania were already murdered, while those of Lazdei were among some of the very few left alive.
On Thursday, October 30, 1941, the ghetto was sealed and nobody was taken out to work. They were able to see that the murderous Lithuanians were walking in the distance with spades in their hands. Upon asking the chief of the police as to the meaning of this scene, he responded nonchalantly, "They are going to dig pits for you. This will take a few days and that is exactly the length of time left for you to be alive." After that explanation, many attempted to run away even though the place was well guarded by armed guards. The following morning, escapees were returned to the camp, some wounded and some murdered, and the chief of police came to calm the Jews. He told them that running away does not make sense since everywhere the German foot is placed the Jew gets wiped off the face of the earth. He went on to say that a Jew can never find a hiding place from the bullet that is marked for him, and that very soon the end will come for all the Jews wherever they on might be.
The Lithuanians sealed all the windows and doors to the barracks with planks and metal bars, and the Jews stayed locked up without water or food. Despite all their efforts, 180 people managed to escape from the barracks in the first two nights.
On Monday, November 3, 1941 (the 13th of Mar-Che~shvan, 5702), the Jews were taken naked from the barracks to the dug out pits about 300 meters away from the barracks and about 300 meters west of the forest. About 1600 souls were shot to death there. Not one person managed to escape. Although the Germans gave the orders for the ‘operation,’ they participated only as the observers at the scene of the crime. The actual executioners were Lithuanians. A gang of apparently experienced murderers from Mariampol also participated in the executions. This gang seemed experienced because of their actions and later, that they refused the Germans’ offer to photograph them in order to "memorialize" their actions. Only in December of 1941 did the first signs of the German’s retreat and defeat appear when the Germans were forced back into winter defensive positions. As mentioned earlier, many escaped before the slaughter. Some were badly wounded, caught, and brought back to the ghetto. On the day of the slaughter, they were dragged with the other sick and helpless to the pits. Many of the escapees were killed by the farmers. After a while, the Lithuanians stopped murdering the caught escapees and incarcerated them instead. When the number of the caught escapees reached 35, they took them to the mass graves and murdered them there.
From the entire 180 who escaped, only 6 survived the war: Rivka (Gershtein) Mikhnovsky and her husband Ze'ev Mikhnovsky, Dov Zef, Miriam Kuleisky and her sisters Gita and Bat-Sheva Koifman-all from Lazdey; Khmilevsky from Vishey; Gedalia Cohen from Rudamin.
Vishey Jews together with those from Lazdey, Rudamin and Kopcheve (Kapciamiestis) who were imprisoned in Katkiske, were murdered on the 3rd of November 1941 (13th of Kheshvan 5702). According to Lithuanian sources 1,535 men, women and children are buried in the mass graves. A monument was built on these graves after the war and the inscription was replaced in the nineties.
Entrance gate and monument in the background of the mass graves in Lazdey
The tablet of the monument with the inscription in Lithuanian and Yiddish: Here the Hitlerist murderers and their local helpers at 3.11.1941 murdered 1535 Jews from Lazdey district men, women, children
Road sign with the inscription: "Place of the mass murder of the Jews in 1941 in Katkishke"
The pharmacist Shaul Kukliansky and family were saved too thanks to Lithuanian peasants of the surroundings. His son Shmuel became later professor of Law at the Vilna university. A native of Vishey, David Goldin, who was in the Kovno Ghetto, escaped to the partisans where he perished in 1944.
Vishey men who fought against the Nazis as soldiers of the Red Army were: S.Berznitsky, Kh.Brazovsky, Y. and Y.Levinsons, Y.Milinarsky and B.Soloveichik who fell in battle.
After the war, Dr.Felix Zandman, whose grandmother was Tema Freidovitz was from Vishey, established in USA a net of factories for production of electronic components named "Vishey". Branches of this net, "Vishey-Israel", were established in Holon, Dimonah and in Migdal-HaEmek.
The former Vishey Jews in Israel installed a Memorial Tablet for their community at the "Holocaust Cellar" at the Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
Tablet in remembrance of Vishey Community at the Holocaust Cellar on Mount Zion in Jerusalem
The wall bearing the name of Vishey in the "Valley of the Communities" in Yad-Vashem in Jerusalem.
According to the census of 1970, 1979 and 1989 there was no Jew in Vishey.
Map of Vishey with the Jewish houses and a list of their inhabitants see Appendix I.
Bibliography
Yahaduth Lita, (Hebrew) Tel Aviv, Volumes 1-4.
Yad Vashem Archives: Koniuchovsky Collection 0-71, Files 131
Central Zionist Archives: 55/1788; 55/1701; 13/15/131; Z-4/2548.
JIVO, NY, Collection of Jewish Communities in Lithuania, Files 361-366
The Small Lithuanian Encyclopedia, Vilnius 1966-1971 (Lithuanian).
The Lithuanians Encyclopedia, Boston 1953-1965 (Lithuanian).
HaMeilitz (St. Petersburg) (Hebrew): 30.1.1893
Gotlib. Ohalei Shem, (Hebrew) page 64.
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.
Folksblat, Kovno (Yiddish): 24.12.1935; 25.4.1939; 30.5.1939; 17.11.1940
Masines Zudynes Lietuvoje (Mass Murder in Lithuania) vol. 1-2, Vilnius 1941-1944 (Lithuanian).
Pinkas HaKehiloth. Lita (Encyclopedia of Jewish Settlements in Lithuania) (Hebrew), Editor: Dov Levin, Assistant Editor: Joseph Rosin, Yad Vashem.
Jerusalem 1996.
The Book of Sorrow (English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Lithuanian), Vilnius 1997.
Dzuku Zinios-(Lithuanian) Article of Yosif Levinson "Once there were Jews in
Veisiejai"18.1.1992; 23.1.1992; 1.8.1992
Jerusalem of Lithuania. No.7(58), October 1995. Article of Yosif Levinson
Eliezer Peltin, Sipur Khayai (Story of my life) (Hebrew) Private edition 1996
Antanas Pupienis, Po Dzukijos dangumi (Under the sky of Dzukija) (Lithuanian).
Valtybines Leidybos Centras. Vilnius 1996
Appendix I
Map and List of Vishey Jewish Families according to the Houses they lived in (submitted by Yosif Levinson)
1. L.Khmilevsky
2. Moshe the fisherman
3. Shneider (the Shokhet)
4. I.Flaxman
5. -----------
6. Sh.Levinsky
7. Levinson, Timiansky
8. Shvartz
9. Kamerunsky
10.Fridkovsky
11.M.Frank
12.Kh.Podgursky
13.-------------
14.J.Podgursky
15.H.Podgursky
16.Balkosatsky
17.M.Rud
18.M.Borovsky
19.Kh.Doktorsky
20.Vizhansky
21.H.Chesler
22.Alter the carpenter
23.J.Podgursky
24.M.Rud
25.Ts.Rud
26.Soloveichik
27.Brazovsky
28.Kh.Shultz
29.L.Ofchinky
30.A.Berkman
31.A.Tsimerman
32.M.Kapulsky
33.Dumblevsky
34.Lozovsky
35.Sh.Kukliansky
36.J.Khmilevsky
37.Fridkovsky
38.B.Rud
39.Fridman
40.----------
41.Kabrovsky
42.Solnitsky
43.Fainsod
44.I.Mlinarsky
45.J.Doktorsky, F.Doktorsky
46.J.Kukliansky
47.Z.Pitler
48.Z.Shultz
49.G.Kukliansky
50.J.Goldin
51.P.Yedvobnitsky
52.Ts.Rubin
53.L.Flaxman
54.N.Mlinarsky
55.J.Kukliansky
56.Kh.Yedvobnitsky
57.Kh.Iglovsky
58.Miler
59.Sheinkin, Yankovsky
60.Hofman
61.A.Shnaider, M.Shnaider
62.V.Fleisher
63.Sh.Fink
64.---------
65.Sh.Flaxman
66.Berznitsky
67.Kh.Pitler
68.A.Pitler
69.Berkman
70.Gail
71.Arnberg
72.Ribak
73.H.Khmilevsky
74.Peltin
75.M.Frank