Obj. ID: 53270 Holocaust memorial no. 1 near Skaudvilė, Lithuania, 1990s
Memorial Name
Who is Commemorated?
500-1800 Jews from Tauragė district murdered at this site.
Description:
The monument is a granite stele standing on a concrete base, with inscriptions in Yiddish and Lithuanian. Above the text is depicted the Star of David. On the right side of the grave one pit is marked with concrete slabs. The perimeter of the grave is fenced.
Inscription:
Yiddish:
אויף דעם ארט האבן די
היטלערישע רוצחים און
זייערע ארטיקע באהעלפער
אין 1941 דערמארדעט
1800 יידן –
פרויען, קינדער
Translation: At this place, Hitler’s murderers and their local helpers killed in 1941 1800 Jews - women and children.
Lithuanian:
Šioje vietoje 1941 m. hitleriniai žudikai
ir jų pagalbininkai nužudė 1800
žydų moterų ir vaikų
Translation: At this place in 1941, Hitler’s murderers and their helpers killed 1800 Jewish women and children
Commissioned by
The Lithuanian Jewish Community
8 image(s) Items per page
The exact date of the shooting of Jews in this place is unknown: it was either at the end of August or the beginning of September 1941. The victims were forced to dig a 100-meter-long ditch which was to become their grave. Then they were forced to hand over their valuables and completely undress. The victims were forced to line up at the edge of the pit and were shot either by shots to the neck or with machine guns. Some of the victims were still alive before they were buried.
At least 500 Jewish women and children were murdered here, although most sources say that the number of victims was between 1,500 and 1,800.
The date of the erection of the original monument at this site is unknown. In the early 1990s, a new monument was installed.
On January 25, 2001, the monument was registered in the State Cultural Register of the Republic of Lithuania of national importance (no. 20688).
Jakulytė-Vasil, Milda. Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas (Vilnius: VIlna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2011)
Kultūros vertybių registras, https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/heritage-detail/8fdf7978-e0f0-4dee-b6a4-626c786ce5fa., 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. 190.