shtetlinks
Gargzdai (Gorzd), Lithuania


Gargzdai and the Holocaust

by

John S. Jaffer


   Table of Contents

I.    Jewish Residents of Gargzdai killed in the Holocaust

II.    Einsatzgruppe A

III.    Einsatzkommando Tilsit

IV.    Killing of the Jewish Men of Gargzdai

V.    Killing of the Jewish Women and Children

VI.    Orders to Einsatzkommando Tilsit

VII.   Visiting the Memorials

VIII.    Discrepancy between German and Soviet Records as to Number of Victims at Men's Killing Site

IX.    Did Jewish civilians take up arms against the invasion?

X.    The Kovno Ghetto

XI.    The Ablinga Massacre


   I.    Jewish Residents of Gargzdai killed in the Holocaust

    The total number of Jewish residents killed in or near Gargzdai is at least 500: 200 men (and one woman) killed on June 24, 1941, and 300 women and children killed on September 14 and 16, 1941.
    
Yad Vashem has posted online its Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names. A search for the location Gargzdai or Gorzd yields a list of 714 names as of April, 2017, but this total includes instances of multiple entries for single individuals. A search for the town name yields persons killed in Gorzd, and those born in Gorzd who perished elsewhere. Each name is linked to further information from the report in the Yad Vashem archives, as well as a copy of the report. This site is an invaluable resource for anyone researching Gorzd.
    A list containing names of 78 victims was compiled by the Gargzdai Town Secretary during the War: Jewish residents of Gargzdai killed in June and September, 1941. The original list is now kept at Gargzdai Area Museum. 
    The Court Judgment in Ulm (Vol XV, Case. No. 465, summarized here), 1958, lists twelve Jews from Memel killed in Gargzdai.
    The figure of 200 men and one woman is set forth in the German trial records, and is supported by written reports by the perpetrators nearly contemporaneous with the killings.  The figure of 300 women and children is set forth in Pinkas Hakehillot Lita and on the monument at one of the two women's sites.
     Soviet investigations before the end of the war included exhumation of the killing sites: "Act about Slaughter of Civil Soviet People by Fascist Aggressors on the Temporary Occupied Territory of the Gargzedai [sic] Volost, the Kretinga Uyezd, the Lithuanian SSR," The Tragedy of Lithuania: New Documents on Crimes of Lithuanian Collaborators during the Second World War, ISBN 978-5-903588-01-5, pp. 205, 219, formerly online at http://common.regnum.ru/documents/the-tragedy-of-lithuania.pdf. (cited below as Tragedy). According to the report dated February 11, 1945 the killing site within the town of Gargzdai contained bodies of 396 men shot by firearms. At the women's sites in the forest, the Soviet report states that one of the mass graves contained 107 "girls," while the other contained 347 women and children. The report dated April 11, 1945 gives a total of 850 "innocent Soviet citizens - men, women and children" killed in Gargzdai, a figure which the report says was confirmed by opening the graves and through the testimony of three witnesses.

     The events surrounding these killings are set forth below.



      II.    Einsatzgruppe A

    Germany invaded the Soviet Union beginning on June 22, 1941. Mobile killing squads known as Einsatzgruppen followed the German Army into the occupied areas. There were four Einsatzgruppen (A, B, C and D), which were in turn divided into smaller units called Einsatzkommandos and Sonderkommandos.
    Einsatzgruppe A, commanded by SS - Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker, carried on mass executions of the Jewish population in Lithuania and other Baltic areas. Einsatzkommando 3 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A) operated in Lithuania. The deeds of Einsatzkommando 3 were set forth in an infamous document known as the Jäger report, which was dated December 1, 1941.   In that document Karl Jäger, commander of Einsatzkommando 3, set forth totals of executions by location in Lithuania. The executions outlined in the report began on July 4, 1941, and totaled over 137,000. The Gargzdai killings are not included in the
Jäger report.



    III.    Einsatzkommando Tilsit

    The execution of the Jewish men in Gargzdai took place on June 24, 1941, prior to the first execution listed in the Jäger report. These killings in Gargzdai were the first mass execution following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and may be regarded as the start of the Holocaust.   The group which perpetrated the killings is sometimes called Einsatzkommando Tilsit.  Tilsit was in East Prussia, close to the border with the Soviet Union.
    Einsatzkommando Tilsit was not formally part of Einsatzgruppe A, but acted as an adjunct to it.  The Tilsit unit was commanded by SS-Major Hans - Joachim Böhme, and composed of personnel from the Gestapo and Security Service in Tilsit, as well as police from Memel (led by Oberführer Bernhard Fischer-Schweder) and Memel Border Police.  It committed mass executions in the area of the Soviet Union close to the border with Germany.
    The killings by the Tilsit unit were reported to Berlin in the same "Operational Situation Reports" which reported the killings by Einsatzgruppe A.  Report No. 12, dated July 4, 1941, states that Stapo Tilsit had so far carried out 200 shootings.  These are evidently the shootings in Gargzdai.  Report No. 14, dated July 6, 1941, lists the killings in Garsden (the German name for Gargzdai), as well as in Krottingen (Kretinga) and Polangen (Palanga). The Report lists these killings under the heading of Einsatzgruppe A, but states that "Tilsit was used as a base" for these "major cleansing operations." The Report sets forth that 201 persons were executed in Garsden, and gives a cover story to explain the Garsden shootings - that the "Jewish population had supported the Russian border guards." Similar cover stories were given with regard to the other two towns.
    In Report No. 19, dated July 11, executions in additional towns are attributed to "Stapo Tilsit," including Tauroggen (Taurage), Georgenburg (Jurbarkas), and Mariampol (Marijampole). The author no longer found it necessary to give any supposed excuse for the executions.
    In Report 26, dated July 18, a total of 3302 executions are attributed to "Police Unit - Tilsit," and these are set forth separately from Einsatzgruppe A.
    Stahlecker later wrote a document dated October 15, 1941, known as the Stahlecker Report, which referred to a total of 5502 killed by State Police Security Service Tilsit.
    The summary figures in Report 26 and the Stahlecker Report presumably include the 201 persons previously reported as killed in Garsden.
    Scholars have more recently discovered in the archives of the former Soviet Union
Report from Staatspolizei Tilsit to RSHA, July 1, 1941. This document was evidently used as a source for Operational Situation Report No. 14 (which was dated five days later), and also contains additional information.



    Several members of Einsatzkommando Tilsit were prosecuted by the West German Government for War Crimes. These trials took place in Ulm and Dortmund, West Germany, for crimes including the killings at Gargzdai/Garsden.  Summaries of War Crimes prosecutions related to Gargzdai (including the sentences) are located at the site for the University of Amsterdam.



    IV.    Killing of the Jewish Men of Gargzdai

    The Court in Ulm entered a lengthy Judgment which is a major source of information about the Gargzdai killings.  This Judgment is now available online (Vol XV, No. 465). It was published in Justiz und NS-Verbrechen, Vol. XV, University Press Amsterdam (1976), and in KZ-Verbrechen vor deutschen Gerichten, Band II: Einsatzkommando Tilsit - Der Prozess zu Ulm, (Frankfurt am Mein: Europaïsche Verlagsanstalt, 1966). The judgment is summarized in the Gorzd Yizkor Book, pages 75-79 [Image 426].  Further information about the killings is contained on page 38 of the Gorzd Yizkor Book [Image 463].
    Two letters about the killings are posted at the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project. One is a
letter in the Gorzd Yizkor Book from Leyb Shoys (or Leibke Shauss), dated February 5, 1945, page 342-344 [Yiddish section]. Shoys had returned to Gargzdai, collected information from town residents, and wrote this report to his brother in South Africa about the killings. A similar letter from Shoys to his uncle Khaim Shoys in America is set forth in the book Lite, as the Chapter titled "The Destruction of Gorzd". Lite gives the name only of the uncle who received the letter and not the nephew who wrote it, but the Gorzd Yizkor Book, page 38, identifies the author as Liebke Shauss.
    Further details are contained in the Gorzd Chapter in
Pinkas Hakehillot Lita, also posted at the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project.
    In the Court Judgment, the following facts are reported:
    At the time of the attack, Gargzdai had a population of around 3000, of which 600-700 were Jews.  This included Jewish refugees who had come from Klaipeda/Memel after Germany annexed the Memel Territory in 1939.
    Germany attacked at 3:05 AM on June 22, 1941.  There was heavy resistance by the Soviet army, and the town was not secured until the afternoon of June 22.  During the fighting, most of the civilians hid in a cellar, and much of the town was burned.
    The Gestapo and SD (Security Service) from Tilsit began to round up the Jewish men, as well as suspected Communists, for execution.  They were held overnight in the park.  The males were forced to work on defense trenches, an old rabbi was abused, and a Jewish boy was shot for allegedly not working hard enough.
    On June 24, the men were led to a trench. They were shot by a firing squad consisting of 20 persons, including the Tilsit personnel as well as police from Memel.  Some of the victims who were refugees from Memel knew their executioners among the Memel police. The total number executed on that day was 201 persons.
    The Shoys letters add some additional details. The men were kept without food or water until the 24th. The shootings took place near a house belonging to David Wolfowitz, at around 1:00 PM.
    The Gorzd Yizkor Book [Image 463] states that the killings took place in a field at the end of Tamozhne St.  A town diagram in the book [Image 13] shows this name for the main street leading west to the old border and Laugallen. ("Tamozhnya" is the Russian word for "Customs.") The Report of Staatspolizei Tilsit states that the 201 persons killed on June 24, 1941 included one woman. The persons committing the shooting were selected by the police director in Memel, and consisted of 30 men with one police officer.
    According to a Soviet report dated February 11, 1945, exhumation of this site revealed a total of 396 men, killed by firearms.
"Act about Slaughter of Civil Soviet People by Fascist Aggressors on the Temporary Occupied Territory of the Gargzedai [sic] Volost, the Kretinga Uyezd, the Lithuanian SSR," The Tragedy of Lithuania: New Documents on Crimes of Lithuanian Collaborators during the Second World War, ISBN 978-5-903588-01-5, p. 219.
    The oldest known photograph of the men's killing site from ground level was taken by George Birman when he visited Gargzdai in April, 1945. This photo is posted online at the collection of George Birman papers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,  Album 2, 1944-1946, Item 9, top row, second photo from left.



    V.    Killing of the Jewish Women and Children

    The women and children of Gargzdai were initially rounded up at the same time as the men. After the men were killed, the women and children were kept prisoner for several months.  The Gorzd Memorial book and the Shoys letters say they were kept in the village of Anelishke and forced to perform hard labor.  Then, during September of 1941, they were taken to the woods northeast of Vezaiciai, on the road to Kule (Kuliai). The Gorzd Book says the children were killed by the Germans with bayonets, and their mothers and grandmothers killed two days later. (Memorial Book, p. 38).
    The Court Judgment points to statements that women and children from Garsden were killed by "betrunkene litauische Hilfspolizisten" (drunken Lithuanian auxiliary police) in August/September 1941, but further states the Court could not determine if Gestapo personnel were involved.  The Court concluded that a minimum of 100 were killed.
    The monument at one of the women's killing sites states that the killing occurred in October, 1941, and 300 were killed. Yosif Levinson, Skausmo Knyga - The Book of Sorrow (Vilnius: Vaga Publishers, 1997), page 110. However, the monuments are not necessarily accurate sources of information as to dates. The monument at the men's site in Gargzdai has a clearly erroneous date of July, 1941 despite the known date of June 24.
Pinkas Hakehillot Lita gives the dates of the women's killings as September 14 and 16, and states that about 300 were killed. The same dates of September 14 and 16 are given by Dr. Hershl Meyer in the Gorzd Memorial Book, p. 38.
    There was one survivor of the women's shooting, Rachel (or Eyne) Yami, who provided chilling detail to Leib Shoys which is set forth in his letters.  Because the former residents of Gorzd would want to know the dates of the killings, it is reasonable to suppose that Rachel Yami was the source for the dates of September 14 and 16 set forth in Pinkas Hakehillot Lita and by Dr. Meyer.
    A Soviet investigation included an exhumation of the sites,
"Act about Slaughter of Civil Soviet People by Fascist Aggressors on the Temporary Occupied Territory of the Gargzedai [sic] Volost, the Kretinga Uyezd, the Lithuanian SSR," The Tragedy of Lithuania: New Documents on Crimes of Lithuanian Collaborators during the Second World War, ISBN 978-5-903588-01-5, p. 219, and also the eyewitness testimony of a priest, Ionas Aleksens, identified in Lithuanian sources as Jonas Aleksiejus. He was riding a bicycle from Gargzdai to Vezaiciai when he encountered the women and children being conveyed to the killing place in the forest. He unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade the perpetrators from committing the killings. "Transcript of Interrogation of Witness Aleksens I.A.," id. at p. 221; Dr. Arunas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuanian Province in 1941 at 40-43. According to the exhumation, one of the graves contained 107 "girls" killed by firearms and blunt objects.  The other contained 347 women and children, with the women having been killed by firearms and the children by blunt objects.  Some of the children had no visible injury, indicating to the investigators that they had been buried alive.

    The Lithuanian Special Archives contain interrogation records of three participants in these killings. Interrogations are translated here. The questions do not deal with motive or mental state of the perpetrators, but merely attempt to establish a sequence of events.

    In attempting to reconcile the bare outline of facts from various sources, two questions arise: 1) what age victims were killed on each of the two days, and 2) which site in the forest contains the victims killed on the first day, and which contains the victims killed on the second day. The information is not entirely consistent.


    Note: Anieliske, Ashmoniske and Perkunai

Anieliske

Anieliske was the location where the women and children were held captive between shortly after the invasion on June 22, 1941, and their killing in September, 1941. It was probably the area shown on older maps as Anielin.

Karte des Deutschen Reiches (1921-1929)
scale in meters



Ashmoniske
An important place name in the account of these killings is Ashmoniske. Bubnys indicates at p. 42 that on the way to the second killing, the column turned into the forest near Ašmoniškiai. The Destruction of Gorzd in Lite states that the killings took place in the Ashmonishke forest. Dr. Meyer states in the Gorzd Memorial Book, p. 38 (image 463), that the killings took place in the Ashmanien woods. This name does not appear on most pre-war German maps. Asmoniške is shown in a clearing within the Vezaitine Forest (Miskas Vezaitine) on the Lithuanian Army topographical maps from 1938-39, very close to the border between maps 1201 and 1301. The Vezaiciai phone book entries for 1940 and 1939 show "Gargždu girininkas [Gargzdai forester], Asmoniškia."





The symbol with the deer horns, to the left of the "A" in Asmoniške, may represent a forest service station or ranger's house. Similar symbols are used for these designations on Russian and German maps. Abbreviations on the Lithuanian maps are "Gir." = Girininkaja = forestry"Eig." = Eiguva = forest station. Lithuanian map symbols at maps4u.lt   On the German Kreiskarte map below, a similar symbol and the notation "W.W." [Waldwärter = forest guard] is shown just above the latitude line, close to where Asmoniške is shown on the Lithuanian Army topographic maps.
Four Lithuanian Army topographic maps of this region may be combined as shown below:


4 topos combined

Combined Excerpts from Sheets 1200, 1201, 1300, 1301

The portion of the composite showing the village of Asmoniske is enlarged below:

asmoniske enlarged

The map is ambiguous as to whether the name "Asmoniske" applies to the forest ranger station, or instead a cluster of buildings above the capital A in Asmoniske, or both. It would seem more logical that references to the village of Asmoniske would apply to the cluster of buildings on the road, rather than a forest ranger station located away from the road.

The name Oszmianiszki is shown on the 1:300,000 Übersichtkarte map of Tilsit (1939) at www.mapywig.org.

oszmian

An earlier depiction is on a Russian map, 1866 - 1872:

osmanishkirussian1872.jpg

1:126,000 Russian Map X-1 (1866-1872) at maps4u.lt
Information about the 1:126,000 (3-verst) map series


osmanishkirussian1872excerpt


For animations comparing maps of the Vezaitine Forest, see here.

Perkunai

The Lithuanian Army map shows the village of Perkunai, northeast of Vezaiciai and just southwest of the forest.  The killing of the women and children is stated to be close to this village in The Tragedy of Lithuania: New Documents on Crimes of Lithuanian Collaborators during the Second World War, ISBN 978-5-903588-01-5, p. 219, 221. The latter reference says the killing site is 5 km from Vezaiciai and 27 km from Perkunai, but evidently "27 km" is a misprint for 2.7 km.

Measuring from Perkunai is ambiguous. Even today, maps differ as to the exact location of this village, which evidently has changed over the years. Also it is unclear whether the given measurement from Perkunai to the killing site is the straight line aerial distance, or instead follows the angles of the roads.


Identification of the Two Killing Sites

kreiskarte with gravesites

Kreiskarte (1941, but based on earlier maps) - added black dots show approximate location of killing sites

(See Photo/Map Comparisons of Vezaitine Forest)


lithtopo with gravesites

Lithuanian Army Topo (1938) - added black dots show approximate location of killing sites

The First Killing
   

    On September 14, 1941 the "young women" from Gorzd were taken to the forest of Vezaiciai and killed. (Pinkas Hakehillot Lita). (Yahadut Lita).


    About 100 young able bodied women taken, purportedly for labor (Bubnys, p. 42) (Gubistas interrogation)


    Exhumation of site revealed "107 corpses of killed and shot girls." Site is 450 m. from road. (Tragedy p. 219).


The Second Killing

    Interrogation of witness, Ionas Aleksens [sic], describes shooting of 300 women and children. (Tragedy p. 221-222).

    Site is "about 27 km [sic]" from Perkunai. (Tragedy p. 221-222) (evidently a misprint for 2.7 km).

    Killings were witnessed by Vezaiciai dean Jonas Aleksiejus. Bubnys, p.42.

    Two days after the killing of the young women, "the rest of the women and children were brought to the same place, and their fate was similar." (Pinkas Hakehillot Lita).

    Exhumation of site found 347 corpses of women and children (Tragedy p. 219).

Identification of the two sites:

    Co-ordinates of SW site are shown at Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania. Google Earth measurement tool shows that this site is approximately 440 m. from the near edge of Road 166, when measured by shortest distance to roadway, and about 525 m from road along north-south direction.

    Co-ordinates of NE site are shown at Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania. Google Earth shows that this site is about 2.5 km from Perkunai by air (i.e. 2.5 km from wheres Google Earth locates Perkunai), and about 350 m from Road 166.

    Memorial sign at NE site refers to the killing of "about 300 Jewish people of Gargzdai."

   Interrogation of Defendant Puzneckis, describing second day's killing, says the carts carrying the victims and guards turned into forest about 1km before reaching Ashmonishki, and then drove carts in forest for about half a kilometer to reach killing site by forest meadow.

        Theory I: NE site is second day, and SW site is first day:

        This is the theory adopted by Gedenkorte Europa in its section on Gargzdai. This German language website describes the southwest memorial as "Gedenkort [Memorial Site] II" for the 100 selected women, and the northeast memorial as "Gedenkort III" with its sign (restored in 2016) referring to approximately 300 victims.

        Evidence supporting Theory I

  • Logically, the more prominent memorial would have been placed by the gravesite with the larger number of victims.
  • Depending on selection of measuring point for Perkunai, distance from Perkunai to NE site may be consistent with Aleksiejus testimony of 2.7 km.
  •   


         

      perkuny without scale
      Karte des Deutschen Reiches (1914) - combined sheets 3 and 4

      perkuny and scale from prie
      Karte des Deutschen Reiches (1914) with meter scale
      "0" aligned with approximate current location of Perkunai, according to Google Earth

        Evidence in Support of Theory I (continued)
    • Direct distance from SW site to road (440 m) is consistent with measurement set forth in exhumation report
    • Sign at NE site, referring to 300 victims, is more consistent with number of victims on second day
    • Rashel Oysher stated in the Gorzd Memorial Book that the reason for two different locations of the women's and children's killings, is that the perpetrators on the second day could not locate the site of the shootings of the first day. The southwest site would have been more difficult to locate than than the northeast site.
            Problems with Theory I:
         

        Puzneckis participated in the killings on both days, and his memory may have confused the two sites.

        For further information regarding the route by which the victims were brought to the southwest site, see the notes regarding the Interrogations, and the comparison of maps and photos of the Vezaitine Forest.

        Another possible inconsistency, set forth in Bubnys, p. 42, is the name of the chief Lithuanian perpetrator at the two respective sites. The name set forth in the Aleksiejus statement as primarily responsible for the second killings, Idlefonsas Lukauskas (Tragedy, p. 222) is named by other sources as in charge of the first killings but not the second. Defendant Puzneckis names Lukauskas as participating in the second killings, although he was not in charge, because he was subordinate to Police Chief "Manchkus." Aleksiejus does not name Gargzdai Police Chief Mockus as present on the second day. Defendant Gubistas stated that both Lukauskas and Mackus were present the first day. Defendant Saliklas said Ildefonsas was in charge on both days.

        The account in the Ulm trial regarding the women and children ("Garsden II") is very brief in comparison to the men, comprising only three pages. (pp. 400-402). The judgment refers to only one shooting, not two. The judgment refers to "at least 100" being killed, which might suggest the account concerns the first killing per the Soviet account. However the Ulm judgment also refers to killing "women and children" which is more consistent with the second killing, per the Soviet investigation. The Court convicted Defendants Böhme and Behrendt of ordering these killings. Böhme gave the original order, which was then relayed by Behrendt.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

        The German judgment also reports a secondhand account, in which a German witness testified as to hearing a comment from the Mayor of Gargzdai. The Mayor had told the witness (a customs official in Memel) that small children from Gargzdai were killed by Lithuanians on June 23, 1941 in a small wooded area close to Gargzdai. pp. 401-402. The source of the Mayor's information is not provided in the judgment. The passage starts with "Es sollen..." which may be translated as "reportedly":

    Es sollen auch schon am 23.6.1941 jüdische Kleinkinder von Garsden dadurch durch Litauer getötet worden sein, dass sie mit den Köpfen gegen Bäume geschlagen worden seien, wie der Zeuge La., der frühere Leiter des Zollkommissariats Memel-Ost, auf Grund einer Mitteilung des Bürgermeisters von Garsden ausgesagt hat....

    Andererseits ist als vermindernder Faktor berücksichtigt worden, dass nach den obengenannten Aussagen des Zeugen La. schon am 23.6.1941 jüdische Kleinkinder aus diesen Familien in einem kleinen Wäldchen bei Garsden ermordet worden sein sollen. 

       In "Lithuania Crime and Punishment," # 6, Jan. 1999, Joseph A. Melamed, Ed., published under the auspices of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, there is an article by Joseph Zak (Zera Kodesh), London, entitled "Infanticide - the Cruel Murder of Jewish Enfants and Babies." The author states regarding Gargzdai, on  p. 130, that after the women and children were separated from the men, they were led by Lithuanian guards beyond the river to a site west [sic] of town where they were to be imprisoned. On the way, many of the children were murdered with stones and clubs. The only source given regarding any of the towns set forth in the article, is that that all the accounts were in "volume 4 of the anthology of Lithuanian Jewry which provides details on the Holocaust." The reference is apparently to Yahadut Lita, published by the Association of The Lithuanian Jews in Israel, Tel Aviv 1967 (Vol. 3) and 1984 (Vol. 4).

        Yahadut Lita states that many of the children were killed on the way to the imprisonment site beyond the Minija River, their heads being bashed into trees and rocks. At the end of the Yahadut Lita article, the sources are stated:

         a)  Lithuania anthology, volume A.

         b)  L. Shaus, letters to Y. Leshem, Yad Vashem archive.

         c)  Rachel Osher Testimony, Bnei-Brak (Herzog dist.).

         d)  Ulm Trial Report.

        Inquiries are underway to determine whether Yad Vashem has letters from Shaus to Leshem (a major contributor to the Gorsd Memorial Book), aside from letters from Shaus to other parties (here, here and here) set forth or referenced in the Gorsd Memorial Book and in Lite.  Can any reader clarify the reference to "Testimony, Bnei - Brak"? Is Bnei Brak listed merely as the residence of Rachel Osher, or instead as a source of written materials in addition to those by Osher in the Gorsd Memorial Book?

        
        The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatsufot reports that after the men were killed, and while the women and children were being transported to their place of imprisonment, "Many of the children were murdered on the way." No source is given for this information, but presumably is the article in Lithuania Crime and Punishment, or Yahadut Lita as described in that article.

        Although the dates and chronology differ, these reports of earlier killing of the small children are somewhat parallel to four other accounts of the first killings in September:

        a) In the Gorzd Memorial Book, p. 38 (English Section), Dr. Hershel Meyer states that in September, all the women and children were taken to the woods, the "Germans seized the children from their mothers and killed them on the spot," and their mothers and grandmothers were killed two days later.

        b) An account similar to Dr. Meyer's is set forth in Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, The Annihilation  of Lithuanian Jewry, Y. Leiman, translator (Judaica Press, 1995), pp. 195-196. He writes that women and children were driven into the forest on September 14, the Germans separated the children from the women, and shot the children," and on September 16th they shot the women. Rabbi Oshry adds that the details were provided by "Mrs. Yami of Visatz" who had "escaped from the women's camp."

        c) In Lita, a letter is quoted from a nephew of Khaym Shoys, stating: "One late-summer day everyone was once again driven to the Ashmonishke forest {Vezaitines forest}. Here they separated children and the young from the elders."

        d)  Saliklis states that the first killing involved 100 women, young girls, and children. This included approximately 20 children, from a baby on up. The second group, a week later, was more than 100, including children of various ages.

        Dr. Meyer's and Rabbi Oshry's chronology for September, in which the victims were taken to the forest together, after which the children were separated from their mothers and killed in the first September killing, seems inconsistent with the physical evidence in the Soviet report (assuming that each grave contained victims from a single day). The bodies of women and children were found together in the second mass grave, while "girls" (presumably young women) were found in the first. The physical evidence also seems inconsistent with Saliklis' testimony that the first killing included approximately 20 children, from a baby on up.

        Thus there are several sources, attributable to the survivor of the second day, that set forth an alternate version of the first day's killings. Instead of the "girls" found in the exhumation of the first site, the victims consisted of "children" separated from their mothers. The mothers had been brought to the forest too, but not killed until two days later. The word "girls" means adolescent girls or young women, and is different than the word for "children."

        The Saliklis interrogation, though it must be viewed with caution, offers evidence independent of Ms. Yami that children as young as a baby were killed on the first day. Saliklis placed the number of these children at 20.  If each exhumed grave contained victims from only one day, the exhumations do not seem to support this alternate version of children killed on the first day.

        How would Yami (age 33 and without children) learn of the children separated from their mothers on the first day? Perhaps she could have been part of a larger group of women and children brought to the forest on the first day. From this group, perhaps only the children were killed, and the remaining adults sent back to Anieleske. Alternatively, she might not have been in the forest herself on the first day, but could have heard of the events from one or more women who were brought back to Anieliske following the killings on the first day.

        Saliklis said there were two deep graves prepared for the first day. It is unclear whether these were adjacent.

       The sources describe one version or the other of the events of the first day, without attempting to harmonize them. If both accounts are accurate, what was the connection between transport of the women with their children into the forest, with the transport of young women purportedly taken for labor? Were they all transported as part of the same group, or were there separate selections and transports for the young women, and the mothers together with their children? Is it possible that they were transported to different sites? Is it possible that more were transported to the site than would fit in the pre-prepared graves, so the mothers were taken back to Anelishke to be killed two days later?   Is it possible that the children separated from their mothers on the first day, were buried in the same grave as those killed on the second day?

        The most likely source of additional evidence would be the interrogation of Puzneckis concerning the first day's killings. His interrogation on the present site concerns the second day. See Interrogation at n. 6. At the time these interrogations were obtained by a researcher for this website, the first day's interrogation could not be located. However another search should be made. In addition, perhaps another researcher has a copy outside the archives. Puzneckis' testimony is largely consistent with the physical evidence with only one simple change: assume his memory placed the second day's killings at the site of the first killings. Such a mistake would be understandable for someone who participated in both. His testimony is also largely consistent with that of the priest present on the second day. Therefore Puzneckis' unknown testimony as to the first day is critical. 

        Further sourcing is also  desirable as to alleged killings of some of the young children on June 23. It seems likely that the Ulm judgment, and not information provided by Yami, Shaus or Osher, was the original source of this information as later related in Yahadut Lita. Yami, Shaus and Osher had all provided infomation for the Gorzd Memorial Book (Yami's information was supplied through others). If the alleged killing of the young children on June 23 had been known to any of them, this information would have been included in the Gorzd Memorial Book and in the other Jewish accounts. Dr. Meyer also reports that the Yami told Liebke Shauss that the women did not believe after June 24 their husbands had been killed. Such disbelief seems unlikely if their infants and young children had already been seized from them on June 23.

        The conflicting accounts could indicate that there are further undiscovered grave sites for children. If the information from the mayor of Gargzdai is accurate, there could be an undiscovered site for those children killed on June 23. If the information from Dr. Meyer, Rabbi Oshry and/or Saliklis is accurate, then either the young children and infants killed on September 14 would have been buried with the victims of September 16, or there would be an undiscovered grave site for those young children or infants killed on September 14.

          There is a difference between the Ulm judgment and Yahadut Lita as to the children supposedly killed on June 23. The Ulm judment specifically says the killing of the young children took place on June 23, but does not tie it into the relocation of the women and children across the river. Yahadut Lita does not give the date but states the killing took place during the journey to the imprisonment site for the women and children. The reason for this difference in the two accounts is unknown.

        The name of the customs official who received the information from the Mayor of Gargzdai is spelled as "Lach" in the book "KZ-Verbrechen vor deutschen Gerichten, Band II: Einsatzkommando Tilsit - Der Prozess zu Ulm"(Frankfurt am Mein: Europaïsche Verlagsanstalt, 1966), pp. 401-402. Lach is cited eleven times in the Judgment as a credible witness. An individual with a slightly different spelling is listed with occupation Customs Inspector in the Memel City Directory, 1942. See note following Part III above.

        The Ulm judgment does not state when the conversation took place between the customs official and the Mayor, the source of the Mayor's information, or the number of links between the Mayor and anyone with first hand knowledge. Because neither the Gargzdai mayor, nor those reporting the information to him, were present in court, the information was at least double hearsay. German courts do not have the same prohibitions against hearsay which generally apply in American courts. Jeremy A. Blumenthal, "Shedding some Light on Hearsay Reform: Civil Law Hearsay Rules in Historical and Modern Perspective," 13 Pace Int'l Law. Rev. 93, 99 (2001); Thompson Reuters Practical Law, Legal Systems in Germany - Overview, 26. Rather than prohibiting hearsay testimony, the German court assesses the reliability of the information.

        Here, the reliability might well be regarded as questionable. The information could have passed through any number of persons before reaching the Mayor.

        The Nuremburg Tribunal also permitted hearsay testimony. Michaela Halpern, "Trends in Admissability of Evidence in War Times Trials: Is Fairness Really Preserved?" 29 Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 103, 108-109 (2018).

      

    _____________________________________________________________________________________________

        The first known photograph of either of the killing sites of the women and children was taken by George Birman when he visited Gargzdai in April, 1945. The photo may be viewed online at the collection of George Birman papers the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Item 8, bottom row, second photo from left.

        In recent years, a considerable number of new sources have appeared regarding the killing of the women and children of Gargzdai. Hopefully further revelations will continue to clarify these tragic events.


    • Letter to Khaim Shoys from his nephew, "The Destruction of Gorzd," Lite, p. 1867, JewishGen Yizkor Book Project
    • Y. Alperovitz, Ed., Sefer Gorzd (Tel Aviv: Gorzd Society of Israel, 1980), NYPL: *PXV (Gargzdai) 88-463; letter from Leib Shoys, dated February 5, 1945, page 342-344 [Yiddish section]; Rashel Oysher, The Destruction of Our Town Gordz, page 325 [Yiddish Section], translated as part of the JewisGen Yizkor Book Project; Dr. Hershel Meyer, Lithuanian Jewry and its Extermination, p. 33, 38 - 40 (English section).
    • Pinkas Hakehillot Lita, p. 187, translated as part of the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project
    • The LitvakSig database on JewishGen lists a birth record for Iami, Rokhel Leia, born in Plunge, 1908.
    • Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry (Brooklyn: The Judaica Press, Inc., 1995), pp. 194-196.
    • The Yahrzheit Dates page compiled by Litvak SIG [Special Interest Group] and formerly posted on JewishGen listed the date of the second killings for Gorzhd as September 14, 1941; 22 Elul, 5701.
    • The Holcaust Atlas of Lithuania has articles about the women's killings here (Item 171) and here (Item 158).
    • The undersigned author of the present website was told by personnel at the Gargzdai Area Museum, that residents who were in Gargzdai in 1941 have provided additional information about the imprisonment of the women and children. The witnesses stated that the women and children were initially imprisoned behind a high fence on the north side of Minijos gatve, where the street begins its descent towards the river. Town residents would throw food over the fence to assist the women and children. The women and children were then moved across the river. 
    • Dr. Arunas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuanian Province in 1941. See especially pp. 40-43
    • KZ-Verbrechen vor deutschen Gerichten, Band II: Einsatzkommando Tilsit - Der Prozess zu Ulm (Frankfurt am Mein: Europaïsche Verlagsanstalt, 1966). The killing of the Gargzdai women and children is set forth at pp. 400-402.
    • Jonas Aleksiejus appears in a chronological list of Gargzdai priests in J. Valanciute, Gargzdu miesto ir parapijos istorija, Vilnius: Diemedzio Leidykla, 1998 (ISBN 9986-23-047-0), p. 438. He served between 1938 and 1944. He is also listed in the Vezaiciai phone book entries for 1940 and 1939:  "Aleksiejus, Jonas. klebonas, Klebonija" (klebona = parson, rector, provost, dean; Klebonija = rectory, parsonage, presbytery).
    • Christoph Dieckmann, "The War and the Killing of the Lithuanian Jews," in Ulrich Herbert, ed., National Socialist Extermination Policies: Contemporary German Perspectives and Controversies (N.Y. and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2000).
    • Sudare Saliamonas Vaintraubas, Garažas, Vilnius (2002), ISBN 9955-9317-1-X, p. 20 (in Lithuanian).
    • A Gargzdai resident born 1928 recalls helping her mother deliver food to the imprisoned women and children. Her father was requisitioned to help transport the women and children to the killing site in the forest. yahadinunum
    • The killing of the women and children of Gargzdai is not set forth in the Jäger Report. Jewish women and children in other Lithuanian towns were killed in the same early to mid-September time frame. See Christoph Dieckmann and Saulius Suziedelis, Persecution and Mass Murder of Lithuanian Jews during Summer and Fall 1941, p. 160 (400 women and children killed in Jurbarkas on September 4th through 6th, 1941); see also the KehilaLinks sites for Kybartai (Kibart) (September 11, 1941); Virbalis (Verzhbelov) (September 11, 1941); Salant (Salantai) (September 12, 1941); Sakiai (Shaki) (September 13, 1941); Skaudvile (Shkudvil) (September 15, 1941); Naishtot (Kudirkos-Naumiestis) (September 16, 1941); and Tavrig (Taurage) (September 16, 1941).
    • There is a link to a plan of the NE site at the Lithuanian Cultural Property Registry
    • Birman's photograph from April, 1945 may be identified as likely the NE site through the following facts: The same day he also apparently photographed the turnoff road to the NE site (Item 8, first row, third photo from left); the NE site would have been easier to find; at the far right of the photograph there appears to be the start of the upward slope which leads to the present-day memorial sign, while the SW site is essentially level.
    • Efraim Zuroff, Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice, pages 157-158. Comparison of Zuroff with the Aleksiejus statement at Tragedy, p. 222, shows that the latter contains several misprints or non-standard spellings regarding the home towns of perpetrators. "Sudaici" on page 222 is in fact Rudaiciai, according to Zuroff. There are at least two towns with similar names, one NW of Kretinga, usually shown with a horizontal line mark over the "u" (shown on Map 1200 at lithuanianmaps.com), and the other N of Vezaiciai, usually shown with no mark over the "u" (shown on Map 1300 at lithuanianmaps.com). The town which Aleksiejus identifies as "Sovlazom" is stated by Zuroff to be "Saulazoles." Saulazoliai is just north of Gargzdai and appears on the Lithuanina Army Topographic Map, 1938 (complete map is Map 1300 at lithuanianmaps.com.)
    •    For information concering the role of the Lithuanian auxiliary police in the mass killings during this time period, see:



        VI.    Orders to Einsatzkommando Tilsit

        The men's killing in Gargzdai is particularly important to historians of the Holocaust because it was the first in the Soviet Union.  The source, timing and content of orders to Böhme concerning the first killings are the subjects of controversy.



        VII.    Visiting the Memorials

        The Memorial to the Men's killing is on the west end of Klaipedos gatve (Klaipeda Street), between a retail store to the west and an apartment complex to the east.  A photo of the Men's Monument is on this website.  The monument erroneously dates the killings in July, 1941, rather than on June 24.  Also on this website is a German aerial reconnaissance photo, taken in January, 1945, obtained from the U.S. National Archives, which shows the area of the killing site.
        There are two Monuments to the killing of the women and children.  Both are in the Vezaitine Forest, northeast of Vezaiciai, on Road 166 leading to Kuliai. Locations of the monuments are set forth in the Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania, Item 171 (southwestern site) and Item 158 (Northeastern site). The location of Vezaiciai and Road 166 to Kuliai may be seen at the openstreetmap.org.
    As of 2009, there were separate marked entrances off the east side of Road 166 leading to the two sites.  The more northeasterly site is more easily located, because there is a direct road from 166 to the site.  The more southwesterly site is more difficult to locate, and a guide may be desirable.  Photos of the Women's Monuments are on this website.


        VIII.    Discrepancy between German and Soviet Records as to Number of Victims at Men's Killing Site

        There is an apparent discrepancy between the German records and the Soviet report as to the number of victims at the men's site.  This discrepancy was noted by Aleksandras Vitkus and Chaimas Bargmanas (Chaim Bargman), "1941 Secrets of the Massacre of Jews in Gargzdai Not Yet Fully Disclosed" (2016). (article in Lithuanian, .pdf format) (article in html format [access in google Chrome browser, right click for English translation]) (pictures and introduction to article in Genocide and Resistance).  The Soviet report of the exhumation indicates there were 396 male victims. Vitkus and Bargman indicate that several Lithuanian witness statements in Lithuanian archives had estimated the number of male victims as 400, not 200 as stated in the Ulm trial records. They point to other discrepancies in the number of victims, both as to the men and as to the women and children. These discrepancies exist in comparing various sources with each other, and also in comparing with pre-war figures for the Jewish population.

         The figure of 396 men may be supported by comments of George Birman, a former resident of Gargzdai, who provided much of the material for the present site.  Mr. Birman told the author (long before the Soviet report became available) that some former residents of Gargzdai believed the German figures were too low in comparison to the Jewish population of Gargzdai at the time. He did not believe that any men who were in Gargzdai at the time of the invasion survived the shootings.  The only survivors were those (like Birman himelf) who were not in the town at the time of the invasion.   

        On the other hand, the figure of 200 men and one woman adopted at the Ulm trial is set forth in early documents, including the Situation Reports used at the trial, and the even earlier Report from Staatspolizei Tilsit to RSHA, July 1, 1941 (a document which was unknown at the time of the trial).  The Ulm judgment points out that the figure of approximately 200 victims at the men's site was supported by seven witnesses who were not defendants in the case, as well as the written Situation Reports.  The judgment states that this number, determined by the Stapo and the SD, was confirmed by Böhme to Einsatzgruppe A and to Section IV of the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office), and by Defendant Hersmann  to Section III of the RSHA.

        The following arguments may support the accuracy of the figure: While a few defendants contended the number was lower, apparently no one at the trial contended it was higher. Further, although some of the male victims were unmarried adolescents or had no family, others had a spouse and several children. For example, an account submitted to Yad Vashem indicates one family with a husband, wife, and five children who all perished in Gargzdai. It would seem that the number of women and children would be substantially higher than the number of males. The ratio of men to women and children might favor the figure of 200 men, rather than 396, in relation to the reported number of women and children found at the exhumation of the two sites in the forest.

        The German judgment states the Jewish population at the time of the invasion was between 600 and 700. If the figure of 200 men and one woman killed at the men's site is correct, then adding the 454 women and children found at the two women's sites totals 655. This figure is within the range of the total Jewish population set forth in the German judgment, but would leave unexplained the discrepancy between the 201 victims stated in the German judgment, and the 396 bodies found in the exhumation of the men's site.

        It is possible to suggest highly speculative theories to account for the conflicting numbers.

        Theory A: The German figure of 200 men was only an estimate, and the actual figure was 396.

        Arguments in favor:

         Is it numerically unlikely that shooting all the men would result in the round number of 200? 
         In light of the unprecedented nature of this first mass shooting of the war, is it possible that accidentally or deliberately, no one kept an exact count on June 24?
         
    During the trial, did prosecution testimony naturally converge on the figures set forth in the written Situation Reports? No one had an incentive to testify to a higher figure.
         Pretrial interrogation of witnesses yielded estimates of between 50 and 300 victims. Tobin (2013), p. 165.
         Yidishe Shtet states pre-holocaust Jewish population was around 800, which compares with the Soviet total of 850 victims found in exhuming the sites.

        Lithuanian witness statements in Lithuanian archives, noted by Vitkus and Bargman, estimated the number of victims at 400.

         Arguments against:

        Given the very large number of mass shootings throughout Lithuania, chance could easily result in an accurate count at one location being an even multiple of 100. It is also possible that the perpetrators decided in advance to kill 200 males. See Jürgen Matthäus, "Operation Barbarossa and the Onset of the Holocaust," in Christopher R. Browning, "The Origins of the Final Solution -The-Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942," University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem, 2004, p.254. Having already decided upon this round number, they then included among the victims enough younger individuals to reach it. The victims included a 12 year old boy. Id. p. 254;  J. Matthaus, "Controlled Escalation: Himmler’s Men in the Summer of 1941 and the Holocaust in the Occupied Soviet Territories," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 21, no. 2 (Fall 2007), 218, 223.
        Failure to keep exact records would be uncharacteristic of SS personnel involved, and other conduct of perpetrators during the Holocaust.
        In pretrial interrogation, driver Kersten gave a figure of 200. Tobin (2013), p. 148. There is no apparent indication he was influenced by the written documents.
        The discrepancy between an estimate of 200 and a true figure of 396 is too large; someone would have realized that the estimate was too low. In his reports Böhme had no incentive to underestimate and could not have done so to this great extent.

        No pretrial estimate given to German investigators was higher than 300. Tobin (2013), p. 165. If the true figure was 396, someone would have provided an estimate higher than 300.
        Some of the Jewish population had left Gargzdai as a result of the 1939 fire, which could account for a discrepancy between the prewar Jewish population and the number of victims.

        __________________________________________________ 

        [Note: Encyclopedia Britannica lists an even larger figure of 800 Jews killed in Gargzdai on June 23 and 24. The source of this figure is not given. As of April, 2017, approximately two dozen other webpages now cite this same figure of 800. 

        The first source of this number may be a Wikipedia article, The Holocaust in Lithuania, which as of April 2017 reads: "Approximately 800 Jews were shot that day in what is known as the Garsden Massacre. Approximately 100 non-Jewish Lithuanians were also executed, many for trying to aid their Jewish neighbors." Wikipedia's footnotes for this assertion cite Porat, Dina (2002), "The Holocaust in Lithuania: Some Unique Aspects, in David Cesarini, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation, Routledge, pp. 161-162, ISBN 0-415-15232-1, and MacQueen, Michael (1998), "The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania," Holocaust and Genesis Studies 12(1): 27-48. Neither source appears to contain either the 800 or 100 figure.  

        Perhaps the figure of 800 is a mistake based on one estimate for the total Jewish population of Gargzdai, including women and children. The Wikipedia author may not have realized that the women and children were killed several months later.

        The German judgment, pp. 401-402, contains a brief secondhand statement that Lithuanians killed some small children from Gargzdai, in a small wooded area adjacent to Gargzdai, on June 23. See discussion in Part V above. The accuracy of this information is questionable.

        Wikipedia is the apparent source of another erroneous statement regarding Gargzdai, which now appears in several Internet souces. Contrary to the Wikipedia article on Gargzdai, the Gargzdai killings are not set forth in the Jäger report. They are set forth in the Einsatzgruppen Reports, and apparently contained within the total executions attributed to Tilsit in the Stahlecker Report.

         The statement in Wikipedia regarding the killing of 100 non-Jewish Lithuanians may refer to the massacre in Ablinga, a tiny village about 12 miles east of Gargzdai. See Section XI below.]

    ___________________________________________________

       
       Theory B:   The grave also contains Soviet troops or NKVD border guards who died in the battle of June 22, 1941

        Arguments in favor:

        Prior to the executions on June 24, the Jewish men were forced to bury Soviet soldiers who had died in the battle on June 22. Dr. Arunas Bubnys, Holocaust in Lithuanian Province in 1941, p. 41.  The number of Soviet troops who died in the battle is unknown (Gargzdai Area Museum). The Ulm judgment reports that approximately 100 German troops died in the unexpectedly difficult attack. The battle lasted 15 hours. (Konrad Kwiet, Rehearsing for Murder: The Beginning of the Final Solution in Lithuania, p. 6).  Were 195 dead Soviet soldiers or NKVD border guards buried in the same ditch as the mass grave of the 201 Jewish victims, or in an immediately adjacent ditch which was not recognized to be separate at the time of the exhumation?

        If the dead Soviet soldiers are not in the same ditch or an immediately adjacent one, where were they buried?

        German reconnaissance photo from January, 1945 may show several ditches end to end within the killing site, although it is unclear whether this photo predates the exhumation.

        Arguments against:

        This theory apparently finds no support in the German trial records, and may be contradicted by the following passage in the judgment:  

    "Die gefangenen Juden wurden bis zur Exekution mit verschiedenen Aufgaben beschäftigt. Einige mussten die herumliegenden Leichen der gefallenen Russen beerdigen. Andere mussten einen von den russischen NKWD-Soldaten angelegten Verteidigungsgraben zum Exekutionsgraben vertiefen und erweitern." KZ-Verbrechen vor Deutschen Gerichten, Band II - Einsatzkommando Tilsit - Der Prozess zu Ulm (Europaische Verlaganstalt, 1966), p. 101.

    (The Jews held prisoner were employed in different tasks prior to the execution.  Some had to bury the corpses of the fallen Russians which were lying about. Others had to deepen and widen a defensive ditch built by the Russian NKVD soldiers into an execution ditch.)

        If half of the bodies wore military uniforms, one might expect at least some durable remnants such as boots, metal buttons and buckles to remain visible upon exhumation, and this fact to be noted in the Soviet report. The border guards were members of the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB); some uniforms of NKVD frontier guards are pictured at armchairgeneral.com

        In response, a reader of this site has suggested that the SS may have foreseen a need for Soviet uniforms to use in future commando operations. For example, the capture of Maikop in August, 1942 was accomplished through the use of 62 members of the Brandenburger Regiment disguised in NKVD uniforms. A few months later, some Germans in Soviet uniforms fought in the Battle of Stalingrad. Geoffrey Jukes, Stalingrad: The Turning Point (Ballantine Books, 1968), p. 94. Approximately 25 SS troops wore US uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge, in Operation Greif organized by Otto Skorzeny. (According to German accounts, compiled by the US Army, Soviet reconnaissance patrols sometimes wore German uniforms. Small Unit Actions During the German Campaign in Russia (Department of Army Pamphlet 20-269, 1953), p. 22-23.) At Gargzdai, uniforms could have been removed from the Soviets prior to burial, which would prevent their identification as military personnel at the time of exhumation. 

        Another possibility is that the investigators realized that some of the bodies were military, but thought it unwise to put that fact into the report, as it was not in accordance with the political purposes of the exhumation. See Mark Harrison, "Fact and Fantasy in Soviet Records: The Documentation of Soviet Party and Secret Police Investigations as Historical Evidence," Warwick Economics Research Paper Series ISSN 2059-4283 (February, 2016).

        Theory C:   Soviet records from the time of Stalin's rule are not reliable enough to be given any credence.  The figure of 396 should be disregarded.

        Arguments in favor:

        There are notorious examples of Soviet manipulation of alleged fact-finding to serve the ends of propaganda.  Best known is the investigation of the Katyn massacre of approximately 22,000 Poles. Although the perpetrators were Soviets, the Soviets planted evidence to implicate the Nazis.  An official Soviet commission in 1944 issued a false report stating the killers were the Nazis.

        Criticisms of the Soviet Commission which resulted in the reports and trials regarding the killings in Lithuania are set forth in Alfonsas Eidintas, Jews, Lithuanians and the Holocaust, Trans. Vijole Arbas and Advardas Tuskenis, Vilnius: Versus Aureus, 2003. See unsigned review at shtetlshkud.com, p. 15. For example, the Commission did not distinguish between Jewish and non-Jewish victims, a motive of the Soviets was to discredit certain Lithuanian individuals including emigres, and some of the convicted individuals may have been innocent.

        Cautions on the use of such Soviet records are set forth in Mark Harrison, "Fact and Fantasy in Soviet Records: The Documentation of Soviet Party and Secret Police Investigations as Historical Evidence," Warwick Economics Research Paper Series ISSN 2059-4283 (February, 2016).

        Arguments against:

        As to Gargzdai, while the Soviet reports contain propagandistic language, and downplay or omit the fact that the victims were Jews, it is difficult to see any propaganda value in inflating the number of victims in a report which was given little if any publicity at the time.

        As to the reliability of the Soviet investigations, see N. Terry, The Einsatzgruppen Reports, paragraphs 20 and 21.

    _______________________________________________________

         Perhaps the Soviet archives contain further information (such as notes or data forming the basis for the report) which will eventually cast further light on the matter. Further information could emerge from Lithuanian archives or other sources. In the meantime, any input from readers would be welcomed.


      IX.    Did Jewish civilians take up arms against the invasion?

        The supposed justification for the Gargzdai shootings, set forth in internal Nazi documents used in the Ulm trial, was that the Jewish population had resisted the German invasion. Operation Situation Report #14, dated July 6, 1941 stated:  "In Garsden the Jewish population supported the Russian border guards in resisting the German offensive." The same language was set forth in the Report of Stapo Tilsit, July 1, 1941, a document unknown during the trial.

        The Ulm judgment found that this resistance had never occurred:

    Die Einwohner von Garsden einschliesslich der Juden beteiligten sich nicht am Kampf. Es wurden von der kämpfenden Truppe auch keine Zivilisten gefangengenommen. Auch lagen keine Leichen der Einwohner herum, aus deren Lage auf eine Beteiligung am Kampf hätte geschlossen werden können. Es wurde auch von den Kompanien dem II./IR 176 keine Meldung über eine Beteiligung der Zivilbevölkerung am Widerstand erstattet. Es war überhaupt an diesem Tag und später beim IR 176 und bei den ihm vorgesetzten Stellen nie von einer Beteiligung der Zivilbevölkerung, insbesondere der Juden, am Widerstand in Garsden die Rede. 

    KZ-Verbrechen vor Deutschen Gerichten, Band II - Einsatzkommando Tilsit - Der Prozess zu Ulm (Europaische Verlagsanstalt, 1966), p. 94 (italics in original).

    "The inhabitants of Garsden including the Jews did not take part in the struggle. No civilians were taken prisoner by the fighting troops. Also no bodies of residents were found lying around, from whose position participation in the struggle could be determined. There were no reports from the companies of II [Battalion] / Infantry Regiment 176 of civilians participating in the resistance. Neither on the day of the invasion nor later was there any discussion in IR 176 or their forerunners regarding resistance by the civilians in Garsden, particularly Jews."

        Contrary information appears in the Gorzd Memorial Book, translated on JewishGen:

    Two young Jewish men, Mendl Man and Josef Osherovitz, who helped the small border garrison to resist the incoming German army were later found dead near a machine gun. The Hitlerists used the fact that young Jewish men fought against them; they staged a public trial against the men in the shtetl. They drove all of the Jewish men together on a side of the shtetl and told them to dig a grave for themselves. When the grave was finished, they carried out the sentence: for staging resistance to the German army, all of the men were sentenced to death by shooting…

    The Destruction of Our Town Gordz, by Rashel Oysher, translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund, p. 325 (Hebrew- Yiddish section).

        A similar account appears in Yahadut LitaPinkas Hakehillot Lita, citing testimony from Ms. Osher as one of its sources, states "Several Jews participated in the resistance."

         Ms. Oysher does not state the source of her information regarding Mendl Man and Josef Osherovitz.  Three pages later, Ms. Oysher states: "Ruchl Yami-Gritziana, who until the end was with all of the women at the grave and survived by chance, later spoke about the tragedy of our Gordz Jews." Id. at 328. This sole survivor may have been the source of Ms. Oysher's information about Mendl Man and Josef Osherovitz. Can any reader of this site provide further information regarding sources used by Ms. Oysher?

        Rachel Osher is pictured with the Gorzd Esperanto club here.

        Josef Osherowitz is mentioned in the Gorzd Memorial Book as a soccer player and actor.  pp. 120; 122 (Hebrew-Yiddish section). The Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names contains pages of testimony regarding two individuals named Joseph Osherowitz in Gorzd.  The one who could be described as a "young man" is Osherowic or Usherovitz, Josef or Yosef, a butcher, age 30, husband of Rivka.

        Mendl Man is mentioned in the Gorzd Memorial Book as a member of the synagogue choir and an actor. p. 108 and List of Names;  p. 124 (Hebrew - Yiddish section). He is listed in the Central Database as age 20, a worker, single, son of Yaakov and Roza.

        A history of the 61 Infantry Division states there were reports that civilians had taken part in the Gargzdai fighting. Walther Hubatsch, "Die 61. Infanterie-Division 1939-1945," Dorfler in Nebel Verlag, p. 18. The author states these reports were followed by the police execution, in which the fighting troops of the Division did not take part.

        If Jewish civilians openly took up arms against the invaders at the time of the invasion, they were legal combatants. The Hague Convention of 1907 provided:

    Article 1.

    The laws, rights, and duties of war apply not only to armies, but also to militia and volunteer corps fulfilling the following conditions:

    To be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;

    To have a fixed distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance;

    To carry arms openly; and

    To conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

    In countries where militia or volunteer corps constitute the army, or form part of it, they are included under the denomination "army."

    Art. 2.

    The inhabitants of a territory which has not been occupied, who, on the approach of the enemy, spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading troops without having had time to organize themselves in accordance with Article 1, shall be regarded as belligerents if they carry arms openly and if they respect the laws and customs of war.

      Annex to the Convention Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Section I, Chapter I, The Qualifications of Belligerents. 

        These Articles were incorporated into the Geneva Convention of 1929. Article 2 quoted above also continues essentially unchanged in the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Article 4(A)(6).

         Although the Ulm court may have misapprehended whether Jewish civilians took up arms against the invasion, a contrary finding would not have changed the verdict. According to the judgment, Böhme and Hersmann stated that the prisoners would have been shot anyway on the basis of Stahlecker's order to carry out the clean-up operation in the 25 km border strip, even if the Jews had not offered any resistance to the German troops. While the majority of scholars now believe Stahlecker did not give such a prior order, the admission of Böhme and Hersmann shows that any resistance to the invasion by Jewish civilians was not the motive for the executions.

        The justification for the killings in the contemporary German reports has been described as a reprisal.  Peter Longerich, Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, Oxford University Press (2010)  p. 197. The possibility of a defense based on legal reprisal is discussed in Matthew Lippman, Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals Before Post-World War II Domestic Tribunals, 8 U. Miami Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 1 (2000), and Shane Darcy, The Evolution of the Law of Belligerent Reprisals, 175 Military Law Review 184 (2003).  There are multiple reasons why the Gargzdai killings could not be justified as a reprisal. These reasons start with the fact there was no showing that any alleged resistance actions by Jewish civilians in Gargzdai were clearly improper. See Darcy, p. 189. For numerous additional reasons, see the principles governing reprisal pronounced by various courts as summarized by Lippman, pp. 28-35, and Darcy, pp. 191-196.

        X.    The Kovno Ghetto

        A number of residents or former residents of Gargzdai who were elsewhere in Lithuania at the time of the invasion were imprisoned in the Kovno Ghetto.  Many died there due to illness caused by intolerable living conditions, or were killed in various "Actions" during which residents were selected for execution.  Executions took place at the old forts ringed around Kovno: at Fourth Fort, Seventh Fort and Ninth Fort. The ghetto was liquidated in 1944, with the males transported to Dachau and the females transported to Stutthof.  Some in the Ghetto tried to hide in underground bunkers, but most of the hidden persons died when the Nazis set the Ghetto on fire.
       
    Gorzd Yizkor Book, page 351 (Hebrew Section), posted at the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project, contains a list of Gorzd residents killed in the Kovno Ghetto and in concentration camps, as well as those who fought in the Lithuanian Division or fell in battle at the front.





       
    XI.     The Ablinga Massacre

        There was a massacre of approximately 42 non-Jewish Lithuanians in the tiny village of Ablinga and a neighboring village on June 23 and 24, about 12 miles east of Gargzdai. The German perpetrators are unknown. Dieckmann and Suziedelis, Persecution and Mass Murder of Lithuanian Jews during Summer and Fall 1941, pp. 103-104. As set forth in Section VIII above, Wikipedia, in the article Holocaust in Lithuania, as well as other websites such as the geni.com article Lithuanian Massacres, both in reference to Gargzdai, assert that 100 non-Jewish Lithuanians were killed, "many for trying to assist their Jewish neighbors." There is no indication in Dieckmann and Suziedelis that the Ablinga massacre was related to the villagers' assisting Jews. Rimantas