Obj. ID: 58585 Holocaust memorial at the Gystus River near Veliuona, Lithuania
Memorial Name
Veliuonos žydų žudynių ir užkasimo vieta - Mass Murder Site and Burial of Veliuona Jews
Who/What is Commemorated?
159 Jews from Veliuona, victims of the Holocaust
Description:
The monument stands in a small forest; it consists of a gray granite stele on a small pedestal. A Star of David is engraved at the top, and an inscription in Yiddish and Lithuanian appears at the bottom.
Around 2020, an information board about the Veliuona Jewish massacre was erected nearby.
Inscription:
In Yiddish:
אויף דעם ארט האבן די
היטלערישע רוצחים און
זייערע ארטיקע באהעלפער
דעם 1941.09.04 דערמארדעט
159 ווילאנער יידן -
מענער, פרויען, קינדער
Translation: At this place, Hitler’s murderers and their local helpers, on September 4, 1941, murdered 159 Jews from Vilone - men, women, children.
In Lithuanian:
Šioje vietoje hitleriniai budeliai
ir jų vietiniai talkininkai 1941.09.04
nužudė 159 Veliuonos žydus – vaikus,
moteris, vyrus
Translation: At this site, Nazi executioners / and their local collaborators on September 4, 1941 / murdered 159 Jews from Veliuona—children, / women, and men
Commissioned by
In late July 1941, an armed unit arrived in Veliuona with a list of Jews prepared by the Lithuanian secret police. Local police and white armbanders arrested 40–50 middle-aged Jewish men and held them in the synagogue overnight. The next day, they were marched toward a pine forest near Antkalnė, where they were forced to line up and were shot by white armbanders, assisted by the Seredžius unit and Veliuona police. Afterwards, some perpetrators left, while others remained to cover the bodies.
According to the Veliuona District Council’s record of the exhumation, in August 1958, the remains of 85–90 people were exhumed near the Gystaus River. The remains of the victims were transferred to the site of the Jewish massacre (c. 10920) in the Pakarklė Forest near the village of Jaučakiai.
Unique site code 38956
Status Listed on register since 2015-11-19
Jakulytė-Vasil, Milda. Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas (Vilnius: VIlna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2011), http://holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/1/item/58/.
Kultūros vertybių registras (Register of the Cultural Heritage), https://kvr.kpd.lt/#/heritage-detail/8e9b52a2-be5a-4709-a368-ea38806cf966.