Obj. ID: 44527 Holocaust memorial near the Jewish cemetery in Jurbarkas, Lithuania, 1990s
Memorial Name
Who is Commemorated?
370 Jews of Jurbarkas
Description:
The killing site is close to the Jurbarkas Jewish cemetery. The site consists of the monument and 4 pits marked by concrete curbs. The site is fenced by a fence made of yellow brick poles and metal bars. The path to the monument is paved with concrete tiles; there are also concrete paths between the four pits.
The monument is made from yellow bricks in the shape of an arch or a gate. In front of the monument, there are four granite blocks put in a L shape. Each block has a plaque with an inscription in Lithuanian and Yiddish.
Block no 1:
Lithuanian:
Amžina atmintis genocido aukoms
Translation: Eternal memory of the victims of genocide
Yiddish:
אייביקער אנדענק
די קובנות פון חורבן
Translation: Eternal memory of the victims of destruction.
Block no 2:
Lithuanian:
1941 metais buvo sunaikinta
visa Jurbarko žydų bendruomenė –
daugiau nei 2000 žmonių. Šioje
vietoje hitlerininkai ir jų vietiniai
talkininkai liepos 3 d. nužudė
daugiau nei 300 žydų, kelias
dešimtis lietuvių ir rusų
Translation: In 1941 the whole Jewish community of Jurbarkas of more than 2,000 people, was destroyed. At this place, on July 3, 1941, Hitler’s henchmen and their local helpers murdered more than 300 Jews and a few dozen Lithuanians and Russians.
Block no 3:
Yiddish:
דאׇ האׇבן די היטלעריסטן און זייערע אׇרטיקע
באהעלפערס דערמאׇרדעט דעם 3 יולי 1941
מער ווי 300 יידן און עטלעכע צענדליקער
ליטווינער און רוסן. אין 1941 יאׇר האׇט מען
אומגעבראכט די גאנצע יורבורגער קהילה –
מער ווי 2000 מענטשן.
Translation: Here, Hitlerites and their local / helpers murdered on July 3, 1941, / more than 300 Jews and several dozens / Lithuanians and Russians. / In the year 1941, the entire Yurburg community was exterminated - more than 2,000 people.
Block no 4:
Lithuanian:
Čia nužudytas žymus Lietuvos
skulptorius Vincas Grybas
Translation: The famous Lithuanian sculptor Vincas Grybas was murdered here.
Yiddish:
דאׇ האׇט מען דערמאׇרדעט
דעם באוווסטן ליטווישן
סקולפטאׇר ווינצאס גריבאס
Translation: The famous Lithuanian sculptor Vincas Grybas was murdered here.
A private monument (a granite plaque) to Reyzele Berzaner was established by her siblings in the far end of the most eastern pit. It has a Star of David and a Yiddish inscription:
פאר אונדזער שוועסטער
רייזעלע בערזאנער
1924 – 1941
און פאר אירע צוויי טייערע פריינט
דו וועסט אייביק זיין אין אונדזער הארצן
מיט ליבע
דינאלע און מוטע
Translation: To our sister / Reyzele Berzaner / 1924 - 1941 / and to her two dear friends. / You will eternally be in our hearts. / With love / Dinale and Mute.
Another private monument is a tin plaque attached to a tree above the same pit. Its Hebrew inscription reads:
לזכר עולם
לסבתי היקרה
מרת רחל לאה קורנפלד
בת ר' יהושע צבי
ולבתה היקרה ינטע ליבע שטוק
בת ר' נחמיה
בעלה ר' נתן שטוק ובנותיהם
שנרצחו ע"י בני עוולה יחד עם קדושי
קהילת יורבורג בשואה
תש"א – 1941 הי"ד
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.
Translation: Eternal memory to my dear grandmother, Mrs. Rachel Leah Kornfeld, daughter of r. Yehoshua Tzvi, and to her dear daughter Yenta Libe Stuk, daughter of r. Nehemiah, her husband r. Nathan Stuk and their daughters who were murdered by the wicked together with the martyrs of the community of Yurburg in the Holocaust, 1941, ьay God avenge their blood. May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.
Commissioned by
The Lithuanian Jewish Community
height: 225 cm, width: 308 cm, depth: 38 cm
1st block:
height: 50 cm, length: 100 cm, depth: 15 cm
2nd-4th blocks:
height: 65, length: 80 cm, depth: 16 cm
A conference held at the office of Mayor Gepner decided to carry out the first mass murder of Jews in the afternoon on July 3, 1941. The site chosen was the Jewish cemetery. A brigade of 40 Gestapo personnel arrived in the city. Together with local police, they began capturing Jewish men. By 1 P.M. about 300 Jewish men and several dozen Soviet activists had been assembled. This did not meet the quota and another 60 Jewish men and 3 women with children who did not want to leave their husbands were brought. Jews who were sent earlier to the cemetery had dug a pit, a long ditch, and later dug another three. When the procession arrived those who werenʼt digging were ordered to break tree branches and to mask the area off from sight from the road and city. The shooting lasted 4 hours.
The date of installation of the first monument is unknown, probably in the 1950s.
Exhumed bodies from surrounding killing sites were also reinterred in this site: Kalnėnai village - 909 bodies, Berancynė forest - 700 bodies, Šilinė forest - 140 bodies, Stakiai village - 60 bodies, Jurbarkas forest - 5 bodies (in 1958).
A new monument was erected in the early 1990s, by the Jewish Community of Lithuania.
On January 25, 2001, the monument was registered in the State Cultural Register of the Republic of Lithuania as a site of national importance (no. 10498).
Jakulytė-Vasil, Milda. Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas (Vilnius: VIlna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2011), pp. 190-191.
Kultūros vertybių registras, https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/static-heritage-detail/45683249-5C95-4178-82F9-E401C6F98448., 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. 91.