Obj. ID: 45485
Modern Jewish Art  Symbolic tombstone at the Cheap Houses in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1993

To the main object: Cheap Houses in Vilnius, Lithuania

The Cheap Houses were built in 1897-1898 in order to provide affordable and hygienic housing for poor Vilnius Jews.

With the German occupation in 1941, their Jewish dwellers were driven to their murders in Ponary or resettled in the ghetto. The two buildings were converted into a camp for the wives and children of Red Army officers who stayed in the city when the Red Army retreated from the city. By the autumn 1943, some of these women had been killed in Ponary and others were sent for forced labor in Germany, while the children were sent to orphanages. A plaque in memory of those women and children was affixed to the eastern building (49 Subačiaus St.) in the early 2000s.

In late August and early September 1943, the buildings were converted into an army vehicles repair shop known as The HKP (Heereskraftfahrpark Ost 562), and a labor camp for Jews working there. The idea to create a separate camp for Jewish workers was came from Major Karl Plagge, a German Officer and the head of HKP (he would later be named as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2004). After the annihilation of the ghetto, the camp also housed the wives, children and sometimes parents of the workers. In November 1943, there were 1,218 registered inmates and in March 1944 there were 1,257.

On March 27, 1944, a children’s Aktion was conducted, during which all children under the age of 16 were seized. According to some sources, the children were transferred to death camps in Poland, while according to others they were killed in Vilnius and buried in the Third Jewish cemetery.

On July 1, 1944, Plagge announced that the HKP was to be relocated because of the approaching Red Army, and indirectly warned the prisoners about a planned murder. On July 3, 1944, those who were not hiding were sent to Ponary. On July 4, 1944, SS men undertook a search of the building, and the around 200 discovered Jews were shot immediately near the buildings. On July 9, the Red Army arrived to the camp and those who had not been found – about 150-200 people – were set free.

After the war, the buildings were used by the Soviets as a camp for German POWs.

The monument was erected on the initiative of Yeshayahu Epstein and funded by the members of the "Nusah Vilna" organization in New York.

There is, however, a discrepancy about the unveiling date of the monument. According to Guzenberg 2013 (p. 60), the tombstone was erected in 1992 on the initiative of Yeshayahu Epstein and funded by donations from Israel and the USA. According to Guzenberg 2021 (p. 602) and Agranovskii 2014 (p. 201), tombstone was erected in 1991. The correct date, however, is July 13, 1993, and this monument was unveiled together with a larger monument and the plaques nearby.