Lithuania Holocaust Murders

Background

This database consists of lists of Jews drawn up either in advance of their murder or after the fact. It includes the following data sets:

Salakas Jews murdered in 1941

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania, which was under Soviet control.  Lithuanian paramilitary groups rose up to support the Nazis and reinstalled all ethnic Lithuanians who had held government positions before the Soviet takeover of the country a year before.  Within weeks, Jews throughout Lithuania were expelled from their homes and placed in ghettos.  The ghettos in provincial towns were temporary – most Jews were systematically murdered within two months.  On July 16, 1941, the re-established Lithuanian government, on the pretext of planning food distribution, ordered the leaders of every municipality to submit lists of their "landless" residents, with Jews in particular to be listed separately from others*.   Few of these lists have come to light, but the list for Salakas was found in the Lithuanian State Central Archives (LCVA).  It shows a Jewish population of approximately 650 in 210 families. Only the head of each family was listed by name. The list was submitted on July 27, 1941; a month later the massacre of the Jews of Salakas was complete and it's doubtful anyone on the list remained alive.

*A copy of this order can be found at https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext/view/280117565, image 22.

Joniskis Jews murdered in 1941

Joniskis is a village in Utena county, formerly in Vilna uyezd of the Russian empire, and not to be confused with the larger village of the same name in Siauliai uyezd. The murder of the Jews of Joniskis is described in http://holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/1/item/118/

“At the beginning of August, 1941 several dozen white armbanders came from the Raša manor (near Labanoras) to Joniskis. They were led by Algirdas Petronis. Together with the local white armbanders they moved all the towns’ Jews, in accordance with a prepared list of names, to the stock yard, which was close to the staff headquarters of the local white armbanders. The Jewish men were separated from the women and children and taken to Arinas lake next to the Catholic cemetery. There they were lined up in rows and shot. Several white armbanders stayed behind and buried them. The others returned to the stock yard for the women and children. The women and children were taken to the other side of the town and shot about one half kilometer away from town, near the lake. The execution allegedly was lead by commander of the squad from the Raša manor Algirdas Petronis. According to the list of names of the executed Jews drawn up by the Joniskis regional municipal administration in 1948, 124 Jewish residents were murdered.”

The 1941 "prepared list of names" mentioned above has not been found, but the 1948 list, written in Russian, was found in the Lithuanian Special Archives (KGB archives). It shows 34 families totaling 124 people. These 34 families form part of this data set. Only the head of each family is named.

A different list referring to the same killings is also included in this data set. The header of this list says that it is a list of Soviet citizens of Jewish nationality who were killed by the Whitearmbanders under the command of Algirda Petronis, the son of Petras, in the area of Joniskis in the year 1941. Given that the Soviets returned to Lithuania in 1944, we can infer that this undated list was created sometime after that, perhaps 1945. This list, including a few unnamed wives and children, adds up to 121 people, but it concludes by adding "and additional people not listed."

The accuracy of both lists is questionable. There are certainly numerous spelling errors and inconsistencies which we have not tried to correct, and the two lists correlate imperfectly.

Russ Maurer

January, 2025

Searching the Database

This database can be searched via the JewishGen Holocaust Database, the JewishGen Lithuania Databaseor the JewishGen Unified Search