Obj. ID: 52880
Memorials Holocaust memorial in the New Jewish Cemetery in Kupiškis, Lithuania
To the main object: New Jewish cemetery in Kupiškis, Lithuania
Memorial Name
Who is Commemorated?
About 1,500–2,000 Jews from Kupiškis, Šimonys, Subačius and Viešintai rural districts murdered at this site.
Description:
The monument is situated in the Jewish cemetery.
The monument consists of two concrete steles painted white. they are connected by a metal construction which bears two wooden plaques, inscribed in Yiddish (right) and Lithuanian (left). It seems that the plaques were installed in the early 1990s, instead of a Soviet-style inscription that existed from the 1960s.
The monument stands on a platform. A pathway and stone stairs lead to the platform from the direction of the entrance to the cemetery. Another stone stairway is situated behind the monument and leads to the direction of the river. A low concrete wall surrounds the rear stairway and tt seems that it marks the actual mass grave.
Inscription:
Yiddish:
צום אנדענק
די קרבנות פון יידן-גענאציד,
ליטווינער, רוסן און מענטשן פון אנדערע
נאציאנאליטעטן, וועלכע די נאציס
מיט זייערע ארטיקע באהעלפער
האבן דא דערמארדעט אין 1941 יאר
Translation: In memory of / victims of the Jewish genocide, / Lithuanians, Russians, and people of other / nationalities, whom Nazis / with their local helpers / murdered here in 1941.
Lithuanian:
Atminimui žydų genocido aukų
taip pat lietuvių ir kitų tautybių
žmonių, kuriuos 1941 metais
čia žudė vokiškieji nacistai
ir jų talkininkai
Translation: In memory of victims of the Jewish genocide / as well as Lithuanians and people of other nationalities / who were killed in 1941 / here by German Nazis / and their henchmen.
Commissioned by
The Lithuanian Jewish Community (?)
18 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Throughout July and September 1941, about 1,500–2,000 Jews from Kupiškis, Šimonys, Subačius and Viešintai rural districts were murdered at this site. The shootings were carried out by the Kupiškis self-defense unit.
The first monument was set up at the site in the 1960s. Probably it was partially remodelled in the 1990s and new inscriptions were made on wooden plaques.
On February 12, 1993, the monument was registered in the State Cultural Register of the Republic of Lithuania as a site of national importance (no. 10997).
Jakulytė-Vasil, Milda. Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas (Vilnius: VIlna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2011), p. 134.
Kultūros vertybių registras, https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/static-heritage-detail/540ecf39-0488-40fa-9f59-7e68abdb0822., https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/ (accessed April 24, 2022)
Levinson, Yosif, Skausmo knyga. The Book of Sorrow. Dos bukh fun veytik. Sefer ha-keev (Vilnius: VAGA Publishers, 1997)., p. 117.