Obj. ID: 53267
Jewish Funerary Art Holocaust memorial near Tauragė, Lithuania, 1991
Who is Commemorated?
635 Jews from Tauragė murdered at this site.
Description:
The monument is an obelisk-like structure consisting of three parts: a concrete base; a "cone" of stones based on the Star of David, with some stones carved as sculps; a section with plaques with inscriptions in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Lithuanian; and an upper part looking like flame and surmounted by the Star of David.
In front of the obelisk-like structure, there is a memorial granite stone inscribed in Yiddish and Lithuanian. It was made by local artists Antanas and Elena Bagdonai in 1991.
Twenty meters from the main memorial, there is a smaller memorial, marking another mass grave:
At the entrance to the memorial new information plaque is installed in Lithuanian, English, and Braile.
Inscriptions on the old monument:
Yiddish:
אויף דעם ארט האבן די
היטלערישע רוצחים און
זייערע ארטיקע באהעלפער
אין 1941 דערמארדעט
בערך 3000 יידן –
מענער, פרויען, קינדער
Translation: At this place / Hitler’s murderers / and their local assistants / in 1941 murdered / about 3,000 Jewish / men, women, children.
Hebrew:
במקום הזה
הרוצחים ההיטלריסטיים
ועוזריהם המקומיים
בשנת 1941
השמידו בערך 3000 יהודים -
גברים, נשים וילדים
Translation: At this place / Hitler’s murderers / and their local assistants / in 1941 murdered / about 3,000 Jewish / men, women, children.
Lithuanian:
Šioje vietoje
1941 metais
hitleriniai žudikai
ir jų vietiniai talkininkai
nužudė apie 3000 žydų -
vyrų, moterų ir vaikų
Translation: At this place / in 1941, / Hitler’s murderers / and their local assistants / murdered about 3,000 Jewish / men, women and children.
Inscription on the stone installed in 1991:
Yiddish:
זייער איינצילע שולד –
זיי זיינען געווען יידן,
וועמעס אבות האבן ארהונדערטער דא
בשלום געלעבט אויף דער ערד
האבן זיי געבויט הייזער, געווען
האנטווערקער, הענדלער, דאקטוירים
און געלויבט אין איין-איינציקן גאט,
אייביק איז זייער אנדענק
Translation: Their only gilt - / they were Jews, / whose forefathers lived here around peacefully in this land. / They built houses, were / artisans, tradesmen, doctors / and believed in one God, / May their memory be eternal.
Lithuanian:
Jų vienintelė kaltė –
jie buvo žydai,
kurių protėviai šimtmečiais čia
taikiai gyveno šioje žemėje
Jie rentė namus, buvo amatininkai,
prekiautojai, gydytojai ir tikėjo
į vieną viešpatį Dievą.
Jų atminimas liks amžiams
Translation: Their sole guilt was / that they were Jews / whose ancestors had lived / in this land in peace for centuries. They built houses, were artisans, / tradesmen, doctors and believed / in one God. / Their memory will remain forever
Inscription on the information plaque next to memorial:
Lithuanian:
Tauragės žydų žudynių vieta ir
kapai
1941 metų rugsėjo 6 dieną Tauragėje išleisti nurodymai,
kuriais remiantis žydai buvo izoliuoti ir neteko pilietinių
teisių. Rugsėjo 12 d. vokiečiai žiedu apsupo mišką,
Tauragės-Šilalės plentą ir tiltą per Šunijos upelį.
Antšunijų kaimo miško pakraštyje buvo sušaudyti
moterys ir vaikai ir užkasti dviejose duobėse. Kruviname
genocide dalyvavo ir vietiniai nacistų pagalbininkai.
Antšunijų kaime sušaudyta apie 3000 žydų.
Čia įrengtos genocido aukų kapavietės. Vieną masinį
kapą žymi kuklus akmuo, o prie kito 1991 m. pastatytas
paminklas (aut Antanas ir Elena Bagdonai). Jo simbolika –
pagrindinė paminklo dalis sumūryta iš akmenų, panašių į
žmonių kaukoles. Į šešiakampį pagrindą besiremiantys
akmenys viršuje pereina į liepsną, iš kurios vėl iškyla
šešiakampė žvaigždė. Pagrindinio paminklo trijose
plokštumose iškalti tekstai ivrito, jidiš ir lietuvių kalbomis.
English:
The Site of the Massacre and
the Grave of the Jews of
Tauragė
On 6 September 1941, instructions on the isolation of the Jews
and loss of their civil rights were issued in Tauragė (Yiddish:
Tovrig). On 12 September, the Germans surrounded the
forest, the road from Tauragė to Šilalė and the bridge over the stream of Šunija.
Women and children were gunned down and buried on the
outskirts of the village of Antšunija. Local Nazi aides took part
in this massacre where approx. 3000 Jews were killed.
At present, it is the site of the graves of the victims of genocide.
One mass grave is marked by a modest stone, and a monument
designed by Antanas and Elena Bagdonas was built at the
other site in 1991. The monument is highly symbolic: the main
part is built from stones resembling human skulls which rest
on a hexagonal foundation that becomes flame-shaped
towards the top, which, in turn, is crowned by the hexagonal
Star of David. Texts in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Lithuanian are
carved on three surfaces of the main part of the monument.
Commissioned by
Local authorities (?)
16 image(s)
sub-set tree:
width 3,23 meters
Granite stone: height: 76 cm
width: 178 cm
depth: 30 cm
Granite memorial no. 2: height: 64 cm, idth: 84 cm
The second mass murder of the Jews of Tauragė was carried out between July 3 and July 10, 1941, when 122 Jewish men were shot. They were initially arrested by Gestapo men from GPP Laugszargen and Lithuanian police shortly after the German army seized Tauragė.
On September 16, 1941, 513 Jewish children and elderly people were murdered in Antšunija village.
A monument at the killing site was erected in the 1960s or 1970s (exact date unknown). In 1991 a new monument by local artists Antanas and Elena Bagdonai was installed. A small monument nearby was probably erected at the same time.
On February 22, 1993, the monument was registered in the State Cultural Register of the Republic of Lithuania of national importance (no. 11249).
https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/heritage-detail/f576e5b1-5dc3-440e-a19a-5ef680a9e7c8
Kultūros vertybių registras, https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/ (accessed April 24, 2022)
Jakulytė-Vasil, Milda. Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas (Vilnius: VIlna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2011), pp. 206-207.
Levinson, Yosif, Skausmo knyga. The Book of Sorrow. Dos bukh fun veytik. Sefer ha-keev (Vilnius: VAGA Publishers, 1997)., pp. 168-169.