The slaughter of the Jews of Jonava

Leyb Koniuchowsky collected 121 testimonies from Holocaust victims, which were made public in: The Lithuanian Slaughter of its Jews: The Testimonies of 121 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Lithuania, recorded by Leyb Koniuchowsky, in Displaced Persons’ Camps (1946-48).

My speech at the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Center on October 27, 2022 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1MlXTQjEK8

Lithuania did not punish a single Holocaust perpetrator, instead, the government of Lithuania deem many of the murderers as their national heroes. Lithuania is the only country in the world to have gone to court to defend the good reputation of a genocidal murderer of Jews.

1. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE JEWS IN THE LITHUANIAN TOWN OF JONAVA

Reported by Gershon Reybshteyn, born in Jonava on June 10, 1909. His father’s name was Borukh. He lived in Jonava until 1935. From 1935 until the war he lived in Kaunas. During the German occupation he was in the Kaunas ghetto. He survived the Kaufering concentration camp, Dachau camp #11, in Germany. After the liberation he was in Jonava.

Spiritual and Economic condition of the Jews

The town of Jonava is located 35 kilometers from Kaunas, and the same distance from Ukmerge. In the middle of the city flows the river Vilie (Neris). Before the war about 4,000 Jews lived in the town.

When the Germans arrived in Jonava about 3,000 Jews were there.

The town had a Yavne school, a Tarbut school, and a Yiddish “Morgn Shul” (an elementary school), and a Yiddish evening school for adults. Jonava had a yeshiva where a few hundred young men and boys studied, and a Talmud Torah for children of religious parents. The heads of the yeshiva were Rabbi Mendl and Rabbi Zamdman.

Jonava had a well-organized community bank. The director was Efroyim Abramson, and his last successor was Moyshe Ivinsky. Jonava had a large synagogue and eight study houses.

Most of the Jews were specialized artisans. A small number of Jews were engaged in trade. Only a few worked in agriculture also. There were many factories, workshops and craft shops in Jonava belonging to Jewish businessmen. The furniture factory belonged to the partners Yakov-Leyb Landman, Kopl Reznik, Shmuel Tsherneman, Zusl Klotz, Monish Klibansky and others.

The large factory was a sawmill which used to take raw materials and turn them into finished boards and other lumber products for various kinds of furniture. After they received various parts from the factory, the partners would finish the items of furniture in their own workshops.

There was also a match factory which belonged to the partners Dovid Burshteyn and Khayem Levin.

There was also a large mill belonging to the Jew Abe Upnitsky.

A very large number of Jews were smiths, tailors and carpenters. The attitude of the local Lithuanian population was good in public.

Behind the scenes they were sharpening their knives to use them on the Jews of Jonava.

Outbreak of War; The First Jewish Victims; The Pogrom

When the war broke out thousands of Jews left the town. The majority wanted to flee together with the Red Army toward the Soviet Union. Others left the town temporarily and hid in the countryside until the front passed the town. A number of people escaped and arrived safely in Soviet Russia.

The majority, however, didn’t manage to do this, and were caught by the German Army, because the Lithuanian population prevented them from escaping.

Near the town of Jonava there were large battles between the motorized units of the Red Army and the German military. Not far from Jonava there were motorized units of the Red Army which had lately been stationed at the polygon eight kilometers from Jonava. The battle in and around the town lasted for more than 24 hours. The entire town was bombarded and burned. The town was turned into mountains of ash in the great battles. Only a few houses at the edge of the town remained whole.

Jews from Kaunas, and some from other towns, had gathered in Jonava at that time. They didn’t manage to flee further. When the huge bombardment began, many Jews from Kaunas and Jonava descended into a cellar on Kaunas Street belonging to the Jew Liber Farber. A bomb fell into the building. About a hundred men, women and children suffocated in the cellar.

On Thursday, June 26 at 4:00p.m., the Germans entered the town of Jonava. The Lithuanian armed townspeople immediately demonstrated their friendliness toward the Germans, and began looking for hidden Jews.

The first ones murdered by the Lithuanian murderers from town were:

1. Motl Fleyshman, from town.
2. Shaul Kaidansky, a teacher from town.
3. Ruven and Ilke Kaidansky, Shaul’s sons.
4. Moyshe Shamit.
5. Shabse Rits.
6. Shmuel Rits, Shabse’s brother.

More than twenty Jewish men in all were caught that Thursday evening. The Lithuanian murderers stabbed all these innocent Jews with knives in the courtyards and streets of the town.

Motl Fleyshman and the teacher Kaidansky and his two sons were taken away to the Jewish cemetery. There the Lithuanian murderers demanded money, gold and valuables from the Jews. The Lithuanian murderers stabbed the innocent Jews with knives at the cemetery.

The Lithuanian murderers carried out this pogrom without the knowledge of the Germans. The following Lithuanian murderers from town took part in the pogrom:

1. Leonas Zacharinas
2. Jonas Shtrashunas.
3. Simonas Bolgatzas.
4. Vacys Mongartas.
5. Juozas Shopis.
6. Grigeliunas (the agronomist from Jonava).
7. Ludvikas Prashtziuknas.
8. Stasys Simonavitzius.

In addition to these, there were dozens of others at the pogrom, whose first and last names Reybshteyn does not remember.

A neighborhood with a few houses intact remained on Kaunas Street in Jonava. Some of the Jews of Jonava settled into these houses. The majority were in the villages or lived in the fields and forests.

Armed Lithuanians seized adolescent Jewish girls during the second week of the war and took them out of town, near the bathhouse. There five young girls were raped.

The five girls were:

1. Eydl Grinblat (aged 15).
2. Rivke Zalmenovits (aged 17).
3. Beylke Beten (aged 17).
4. Gite Kagansky (aged 17).
5. Nekhome Selsky was raped before her mother’s eyes.

They were raped by a band of Lithuanian murderers, headed by Antanas Gineika.

Chicaneries and Insults of Jews

Jonas Strashunas was in charge of taking Jews to work until August 12, 1941. When the Jews were taken to work they were guarded by armed Lithuanians. The work was hard. The Jews had to clear the streets, repair the roads and highways, bury the corpses of animals, and so forth.

One time fifty elderly Jews were gathered together, headed by the rabbi of Jonava, Rabbi Dovid Ginsburg. The rabbi was ordered to bring along a red flag. The beadle Berl Shapiro also had to prepare a red flag and bring it along to work. All fifty Jews had to gather at the old marketplace, near the former cinema. There everyone was lined up in rows of four. All of the Jews were forced to do calisthenics. They had to run and fall. Meanwhile they were murderously beaten. The civilian population in town meanwhile stood laughing uproariously. There the elderly Jews had their beards cut off, and some were pulled out by force. The Lithuanian murderers gave an order for all of the Jews to get rid of their beards.

Those unable or unwilling to do so themselves had their beards torn out or cut off by the Lithuanian murderers. The Lithuanian townspeople stood and applauded at the brilliant ideas of their Lithuanian brothers. The murderers stripped the rabbi of his long caftan, put a short shirt on him, and ordered him to climb up to the balcony of the burned cinema. The rabbi had to stand on the balcony and deliver a speech to the Jews and Lithuanians in Yiddish and Lithuanian. He was forced to give a speech welcoming Stalin.

Then the beaten and tormented Jews had to march out of town. The rabbi and the beadle went in front, carrying the flags. The rest of the Jews followed them. On the way they were forced to sing Russian songs.

When they got outside of town they were stopped. A wagon load of spades were brought, and the fifty Jews were forced to dig a long, deep pit. The murderers forced the Jews to go into the pit, and shot over their heads. Some of the Jews fainted in terror. The murderers ordered the Jews to leave the pit again.

Some of them had to be pulled out of the pit, because they had fainted or been badly beaten. All the Jews were brought back to town then. During the time when the Jews were out of their houses, a second group of murderers robbed all of the possessions of the Jews from their houses.

The Jewish Committee; The Requisition

On August 15, 1941 groups of armed Lithuanians surrounded the small Jewish neighborhood and drove out all of the Jewish men over the age of 14. All of the men were taken to the barracks. At the barracks the men were not given any food. The men were only allowed to bring along small packages in their arms.

Right after that there was an order from the Lithuanian commandant in town Simonas Dolgatzas, stating that all of the men who were located in the villages or in the fields around Jonava had to come to Jonava to report for work. All of the men came from the villages to town. Everyone was immediately herded together into the barracks. The Lithuanian murderers ordered the Jews to appoint a committee of three men. The task of this committee consisted of immediately gathering 120,000 rubles which was requisitioned.

The murderers promised that after the sum was raised they would release the Jews. The Jews did not appoint a committee, so the Lithuanians appointed a committee themselves. The committee consisted of three respected Jews: Rabbi Ginsburg of Jonava, Kagan the pharmacist and Moyshe Zak.

All three Jews went to the Kaunas ghetto on August 18, accompanied by Lithuanian guards. The three Jews complained that they had no way of raising that much money without co-operation from Kaunas. For that reason the three Jews were taken to the Kaunas ghetto. The three respected Jews from Jonava sought advice in Kaunas. The Jews in Kaunas had been confined to the ghetto in Slobodka by then. The Jewish council in the Solobodka ghetto convinced their helpless brothers from Jonava not to give the money to the murderers.

It was decided that the requisition would not be paid. Gershon Reybshteyn spoke to his fellow townspeople in the Kaunas ghetto at that time. The pharmacist Kagan from Jonava told Reykhshteyn about everything that had happened in Jonava, and added that it had been decided that the requisition would not be paid. All three Jews were taken back to the barracks in Jonava.

The Total Annihilation of the Men Women and Children

On August 17, 1941 the Lithuanian bandits chose three young, healthy men and took them out of the barracks.

The three men were:

1. Aron Samuelov (aged 30).
2. Ber Mekhanik (aged 33).
3. Avrom Reybshteyn (Gershon’s cousin).

The three men were not brought back to the barracks. For five days the Jews had to dig pits from early in the morning until dark. All night they were interned in the cellar of the police headquarters. None of the Jews knew about the pits being dug.

In the morning of August 21 and 22, 1941 armed groups of Lithuanians under the leadership of Germans took all the men out of the barracks. Wagons were ready to carry the elderly and weak men. All of the men were taken in the direction of the railroad station. On the way the murderers promised the Jewish men and their wives in town that the men were being taken to a ghetto.

The men were taken to a forest called Girelkiai, three kilometers from Jonava and three kilometers from the station. In the forest the Jews found pits already dug. The murderers forced the Jews to strip to their underwear. Groups were taken to the pit and shot. In Reybshteyn’s opinion more than six hundred Jewish men from Jonava were shot at that time. Two men managed to escape from the pits. They ran a couple of kilometers away from the pits. However, they were stopped by other Lithuanian murderers, and shot on the spot.

While taking the Jews to the pits the Lithuanian murderers beat them with whips, sticks and poles. Several Jews were shot or beaten to death on the way. Thus, for example, Gershon’s father Borukh Reybshteyn and others were shot on the way. Before the Jews were shot at the pit the rabbi said something to the Jews. Gershon doesn’t know what he said there.

Gershon was told about the shooting of the men in great detail by Nokhem Plumberg. Nokhem Plumberg was hidden by a forester. The forester would meet with the Lithuanian murderers, get all the information and pass it on to Nokhem. Nokhem Plumberg later came to the Kaunas ghetto and told Reybshteyn exactly what had happened.

The women had no idea of the tragic shooting of their husband, brothers and fathers in Girelkiai. The murderers told the women that all of the men had been taken to a ghetto.

The day after the men were shot, all of the women and children were taken to the barracks in wagons and on foot. The women were only allowed to bring along small packages and something to eat. Some of the women found goodbye letters left in the barracks for loved ones in the town. But the women did not know the exact fate of their husbands.

For one night the women and children slept in the barracks. Some of them began to settle in, arranging places for themselves and their children to stay.

On the morning of August 23, 1941, large groups of armed Lithuanians and Germans came to the barracks and took out all the women. The murderers told the women that they were being taken to join the men in a ghetto. When they were brought to the pits a girl named Hene Yudelevits (aged 20) encouraged the women to run wherever they could. She gave a speech in a loud voice. The murderers shot all the women and children at Girelkiai, near the men who were shot. The girl Hene Yudelevitz was buried alive.

Groups of women, children and a few men were in hiding in various villages at that time. Grigeliunas issued an order stating that all the women and men who were hiding with peasants should not be afraid to report at Jonava. He promised to send all the survivors to the Kaunas ghetto. 208 men, women and children reported to Jonava. They were all placed into wagons and taken to the Kaunas ghetto. The 208 Jews were taken on October 22, and on October 28 most of them were taken during the “Big Action” in the Kaunas ghetto.

After the Big Action the Jews who had been taken from Jonava were gradually taken in various transfer actions, and later to internment camps. Only four of the 208 survived, one man named Nokhem Blumberg and three women: Khane Blumberg, Hele Khoshed, and Mrs Maryashe Baron.

The Death of the Jews in Hiding

1. There were Jewish peasants in the countryside before the war. As soon as the war began and the lives of the Jewish peasants became insecure, all of the Jews left their farms and went into hiding. The Lithuanian peasant Kuzenauskas from the village Markutishkiai, a forester, hid 23 Jews. He hid the Jews in a well-prepared bunker in his compound. The 23 Jews hid with the good Lithuanian peasant until the end of 1943. In the winter of 1943 a neighbor peasant reported him to the German Gestapo. All 23 Jews and the peasant Kuzenauskas were taken to Girelkiai and there they were all shot. The village of Markutishkiai is located twelve kilometers from Jonava.

2. The Jewish family Lafer from Jonava, consisting of a woman, her twelve-year-old son Hirshl and a daughter named Khane (aged 15), hid with a peasant in the village of Ragazh, four kilometers from Jonava. They lived there in hiding until the end of 1943. One time Hirshl went to the village for food. Lithuanian peasants found out where the three were hiding, and reported to the Lithuanian police and partisans. A group of armed murderers surrounded the house where the three were hiding, and they shot the mother on the spot. The daughter absolutely refused to identify herself as Jewish.

The Lithuanian murderers raped her and tortured her in various ways. Yet she still refused to identify as Jewish. Then they hung her with her head down in the door of the barn, beat her murderously and poured cold water on her. It was already quite cold outside. She still didn’t admit she was Jewish, and the murderers tortured her to death.

At that time Hirshele was in the countryside looking for food. He learned from peasants about the tragic death of his mother and sister, and escaped to a different place. He knew Lithuanian well, and didn’t know much Yiddish, and he pretended to be a Lithuanian. He went to work for a peasant as a shepherd and survived. Now he lives alone in Jonava. He is now the only Jew in town. His aunt also survived, and lives in a village not far from Jonava.

After the End of the War

When Gershon Reybshteyn returned to Lithuania after he was liberated, he went to Jonava to find out about his parents and brothers. The peasant woman Lapinskiene from the town of Jonava told Gershon: “Your father was taken to be shot with all the men. Your father was pale and weak, and couldn’t stand it. Peasants from town ran after the Jews, joyfully teasing and mocking them. The peasants joyfully shouted after the helpless Jews that soon they were all going to be shot. Borukh Reybshteyn fell to the ground and couldn’t walk any more. The murderer Antanas Ginaike shot Borukh and threw him into a wagon.”

Then Gershon Reybshteyn went to the pits where all the Jews of Jonava had been shot. The pits had been exhumed, and they were empty. As Gershon found out, all the dead bodies had been dug up and burned. The work of burning the bodies was done in the spring of 1944.

Gershon was told about it by residents of Jonava. Gershon himself saw the spot where the dead bodies of the murdered Jews of Jonava had been burned.

Dveyre Shabses was among the 208 Jews brought from Jonava to the Kaunas ghetto. She told Gershon Reybshteyn that the murderer Stasys Meldas and twenty other young Lithuanian Gentiles had stoned two Jews, Ben-Tsion Yudelevits and Abe Adelevits. Both Jews were caught in the village of Stasantz. This was after the men from the barracks were shot. The dead bodies of both Jews who had been stoned to death were brought to Girelkiai and buried.

2 . THE SLAUGHTER OF JEWS IN THE LITHUANIAN TOWN OF JONAVA

Reported by Shloyme Katsas, born in the. small town of Taujenai, in Ukmerge county, on May 5, 1892. His father’s name was Avrom. For thirty years he lived at the Ishori compound, eighteen kilometers from Kaunas, thirteen kilometers from Jonava. The compound is located next to the Kaunas Jonava highway. Until the war, he lived at the Ishori compound. He graduated from elementary school in Jonava. He was a farmer by trade, and he owned the Ishori compound. The compound comprised 146 hectares.

When the war began Katsas was in the compound for the first days. Katsas had the opportunity to observe the great panic of the Jews, who escaped in the tens of thousands from Kaunas in the direction of Jonava and Ukmerge.

Old and young, women pushing baby carriages or carrying children in their arms, the elderly and the sick, left their homes as soon as the war began and tried to escape together with the retreating Red Army. Quite a few of them died at that time. The German airplanes ceaselessly bombed and strafed the highway. On all the roads and at the sides of the highway lay hundreds of suitcases, bedding and clothing which the Jews discarded, so that they could ease their burdens and escape faster from the approaching danger. About sixty Jews who had escaped from Kaunas, along with Lithuanians waiting for the front to pass by, stayed at Katsas’ compound, and were given food and drink.

The front rapidly approached. The village of Ishori became a field of slaughter. The village changed hands three times. At the compound the Germans later stationed artillery, from which they shot at the town of Jonava. The hidden Jews lay in two bunkers. The German army took Jonava on Friday evening, June 27, 1941. After they took Jonava, the German field police settled into Katsas’ compound.

As the Jews began returning from Jonava and Ukmerge they were detained and forced to bury the dead, to bury the corpses of horses, and clear the streets and highways. All of the Jews who had been staying with Katsas returned to Kaunas. Only some of the Jews who had been detained for work returned to Kaunas on their own. The rest were handed over to the Lithuanian armed partisans, who were getting organized in the surrounding countryside at that time.

The Jewish detainees were taken to the Seventh Fort at Kaunas by the Lithuanian murderers.

The dentist, Dr Kats from Kaunas, died not far from Jonava while escaping from Kaunas. His wife (born Etkin) arrived in Ukmerge with her daughter, her brother Meir and her sister. On the way back from Ukmerge they all stopped at Katsas’ compound, and they stayed until the Kaunas ghetto was established (August 15).

Shloyme’s son Yitzkhok by his first Jewish wife, left the compound and went to the Kaunas ghetto, because it became mortally dangerous for him to stay at the compound with his father. The Lithuanian murderers were searching for Jews throughout the entire region, taking them away and torturing them.

The wife of the dentist, Dr Kats, and Yitzkhok received passes from the German field police, who were still at Katsas’ compound at that time, permitting them to travel to the Kaunas ghetto. Katsas had a sister named Libe, who lived with her three children in Jonava. Her husband was named Mendl Manishevits, a tailor.

The Jews of Jonava returned from all the surrounding villages. Jonava was completely destroyed and burned. Most of the Jews who gathered there lived on Kestutsio Street, near the edge of town, or on Zhuviu Street. The men were already working at various tasks.

Not far from the compound, four kilometers away in the village of Uzhusuoliai, lived a Jewish family named Karnovsky, consisting of a husband, a wife, two daughters, their husbands and two sons. Karnovsky had a mill and thirteen hectares of land in the vilage. Two kilometers from Uzhusuoliai lived a second Jewish family in the village of Kolnancai II. The family, named Borov, consisted of a husband, a wife, five children and a son-in-law.

On August 14 Karnovsky ran to Katsas to decide what to do. He told Katsas that the Lithuanian agronomist Grigaliunas from Jonava had ridden to Karnovsky’s home and recorded an inventory of everything he had. The agronomist had done the same thing at Borov’s home. The agronomist had been accompanied by two other armed Lithuanian murderers. At that time the agronomist was the leader of the armed Lithuanian murderers in Jonava. He would ride through the villages, catch Jews and take them to Jonava.

Karnovsky wanted Katsas to advise him what to do next. Karnovsky’s son and two sons-in-law, along with Borov’s entire family, had been taken away to a small camp in Jonava by the agronomist. The camp had originally held Red Army prisoners. The camp was located in the former Russian barracks.

Katsas advised Karnovsky to travel immediately to the Kaunas ghetto with his entire family, and protect their lives. Karnovsky and his wife went to the Kaunas ghetto. That was the day the Kaunas ghetto was sealed. The daughter-in-law of the Jew Borov went to the ghetto with Karnovsky.

The village of Uzhusuoliai is located not far from the town of Jonava. The village was exclusively populated by Russian peasants. At the beginning of July 1941 an entire German military detachment arrived in the village, together with Lithuanian murderers under the leadership of former Lithuanian officers. They surrounded all of the nearby villages, including Rudman, Paskutishkiai, and Budu, as well as Uzhusuoliai. A couple of hundred Russian peasants were driven out of their homes in these villages.

Everyone who was taken was suspected of belonging to the Communist Party. Everyone was gathered in the elementary school and its courtyard in the village of Uzhusuoliai. The murderers beat everyone with whips and sticks.

The Lithuanian murderer Vilkevitsius, from the railroad station at Kalnantsai, pointed out which of the assembled peasants had collaborated or sympathized with the Red Army or the Communist Party.

According to Vilkevitsius, 56 peasants were selected at that time, along with the Polish nobleman Lukovsky. The nobleman owned the Kalnantsai I estate. He had a store called Ratas in Kaunas, on the corner of Laysves and Presidento Streets. He was also the director of the Lithuanian Credit Bank.

A Lithuanian worker betrayed the nobleman, claiming that he had given bread and milk to Red Army soldiers who had escaped into the forest.

Pits had been dug next to the above-mentioned villages, and each of the peasants was·supposed to be shot next to his own village. The chief of the German field police, however, ordered that everyone be shot at a cemetery in Uzhusuloiai. All 56 were shot there. Among the Lithuanian murderers who took active part were Lopata, who lived not far from the Kalnantsai station; two brothers named Malinovsky from Kalnantsai; and the Lithuanian Malinovsky from the village of Daiklunu, all under the leadership of the famous murderer, the Lithuanian Vilkevitsius.

In addition to these, there were also Lithuanians from Kaunas under the leadership of former Lithuanian officers. A short time later the agronomist from Jonava Grigaliunas came to Uzhusuoliai and took away the two Jewish families, Borov and Karnovsky.

In the morning of August 21 and 22, 1941 armed groups of Lithuanians under the leadership of Germans took all the men out of the barracks. Wagons were ready to carry the elderly and weak men. All of the men were taken in the direction of the railroad station. On the way the murderers promised the Jewish men and their wives in town that the men were being taken to a ghetto.

The men were taken to a forest called Girelkiai, three kilometers from Jonava and three kilometers from the station. In the forest the Jews found pits already dug. The murderers forced the Jews to strip to their underwear. Groups were taken to the pit and shot.

The shooters covered over the pit. The two murderers reported that before the shooting the men had to strip naked. The clothing was taken to Jonava in a truck. Katsas was so terrified that he doesn’t remember any of the other Lithuanian murderers who were singing. Katsas’ sister Libe Manishevits, her husband and four children were shot that day as well.

The Jews were shot in the forest of Giralke, exactly a kilometer from where Burshteyn’s mill used to be, near the highway leading to Ukmerge, near the fork where an unpaved road leads to the Konceptija compound. The pit is about a hundred meters from the Ukmerge highway, and about fifty meters from the road to Konceptija. Katsas does not remember the exact date when the Jewish men, women and children were shot.

After the Jews of Jonava were shot, Jews who were still hiding in the fields and forest, or a few at the homes of peasants, began to be arrested. There was an announcement that all Jews who were in hiding should report to Jonava. There was a promise that they would be taken away from Jonava to the Kaunas ghetto. A few hundred Jews gathered in Jonava at that time. They were placed in the former Russian camp. The Jews of Jonava who had already been shot had earlier been in that camp.

Katsas could no longer remain at his compound, because he was very afraid that one day he too would be arrested and shot, even though the Lithuanian population only considered him as a half-Jew; he had a Lithuanian wife, and his children had been raised in the spirit of Lithuanian nationalism. He went to Jonava with his family. Katsas and his wife went to the Kaunas ghetto together with the Jews of Jonava.

His two daughters continued living in the city of Kaunas.