Pinkas Hakehillot Lita: Kuziai

“Kuziai” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Lithuania
(Kužiai, Lithuania)
55° 59' / 23° 8'

Translation of the “Kuziai” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Lita

Written by Dov Levin

Published in Jerusalem, 1996

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator
Barry Mann

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for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Lita: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Lithuania,
Editor: Prof. Dov Levin, Assistant Editor: Josef Rosin, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

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(Page 559)

Kuziai

In Yiddish, Kuzh, also Kuzhy
Written by Josef Rosin
Translated by Shimon Joffe

A village, 13 km. northwest to the district center, Siauliai near the road leading to Telsiai. 6 Jewish families lived there before the First World War. On April 30, 1915, the Russian front command issued an order, warning the population against the Jews who were suspect of aiding the Germans. The Russians claimed that after the village fell again into Russian hands, having been taken by the Germans previously, the Jews hid German soldiers who then attacked the house of the Russian commander. This announcement appeared in the Russian press and created a great stir among the Jews. A member of the Duma, Kerenski, came to Kuziai to investigate the matter and found that it was a fabricated charge, as when the Germans began to shell Kuziai before invading it, all the inhabitants, including the Jews, fled the town.

The forest near Kuziai became infamous as the Germans, after they invaded the area, murdered and buried there 5000 men, women and children of the Siauliai Jewry during the period June-September 1941. The local priest hid 5 Jews in his home until the liberation. His name is recorded in the Yad Vashem archives.

Bibliography:

Masines zudynes Lietuvoje (Mass Murders in Lithuania), Vol. 2, p. 405.

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Kuziai

In Yiddish, Kuzh, also Kuzhy Written by Josef Rosin Translated by Shimon Joffe

Bibliography:

In Yiddish, Kuzh, also Kuzhy
Written by Josef Rosin
Translated by Shimon Joffe