Obj. ID: 46198 Holocaust Memorial at the site of the Mass Grave in Obeliai, Lithuania, c. 2000
Who is Commemorated
The 1,160 Jews of Obeliai killed and buried here.
Description
This memorial is located in a grove of trees on a hill on the outskirts of Obeliai, next to the Degsne forest. partway up the hill, a gravel path leads to a blue metal fence. Next to the fences gate is a small stone stele inscribed with a Magen David and the words "Holocaust Mass Graves"in Lithuanian and English.
The path continues in a straight line, flanked by curated trees, until terminating at a series of concrete panels laying on the site of the mass grave with a pair of dark stone stele upright and positioned behind the monument's central axis. except for the path and the monument, the forest floor is allowed to grow naturally.
The two stele are on top of a small pedestal of the same material, and are inscribed with a comemoration of the mass murder that happened here in Yiddish and Lithuanian. While not officially a part of the monument, many visitors leave flowers, candles, or small stones in front of these stele as a way of commemorating the victims.
Inscription
On the Monument
Yiddish:
אין 1941 זיינען דאָ
פון די נאציסטן
און זייערע אָרטיקע
מיטהעלפערס אכזריותדיק
פארניכטעט געוואָרן
1160 יידישע קינדער,
פרויען און מענער.
זאָל זיין הייליק
דער אָנדענק פון די
אומשולדיק
אומגעקומענע!
Translation: Here in 1941 Nazis and their local helpers murdered 1,160 Jewish children, women and men. May the memory of the innocent victims remain sacred!
Lithuanian:
Čia 1941 m. naciai ir jų
vietiniai pagalbininkai
nužudė 1160 žydų
(vaikų, moterų, vyrų)
Tebūnie šventas
nekaltai žuvusiųjų
atminimas
Translation: Here in 1941 Nazis and their local helpers murdered 1,160 Jewish people (children, women and men). May the memory of the innocent victims remain sacred.
On the small stone stele at the entrance:
Lithuanian:
Holokausto aukų kapai
English:
Holocaust Mass Graves
12 image(s)
In the summer of 1941, Antanase manor near Obeliai was used to hold some of the Jews from the Rokiskis region, mainly women and children. On August 25th, about thirty Rokiskis Guard Unit troops and a number of German Gestapo officers arrived at the manor. Obeliai white armbanders marched the Jews 1.5 kilometers to the edge of the Degsne forest, where Soviet POW's had dug two large pits.
The Jews were marched in groups of around one hundred to the killing site, ordered to undress, and then shot by members of the Rokiskis Guard Unit, Obeliai auxiliary police, or German Gestapo, a process which took the entire day. The local colaberators were each rewarded 100 rubles for participating in the mass murder.
The Jager Report records 1,160 Jews were murdered here; 112 men, 627 women, and 421 children.
A wooden obelisk was erected at the site after the war, until it was replaced with a stone memorial in 1965, which in its turn was replaced by the current monument circa 2000.
Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania, ASS MURDER OF THE JEWS OF THE ROKIŠKIS REGION NEAR THE ANTANAŠĖ MANOR, http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/1/item/76/., http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/ (accessed December 20, 2022)
Jakulytė-Vasil, Milda. Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas (Vilnius: VIlna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2011).
Levinson, Yosif, Skausmo knyga. The Book of Sorrow. Dos bukh fun veytik. Sefer ha-keev (Vilnius: VAGA Publishers, 1997)., 148.