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'''Marcinkonys Ghetto escape''' was a partially successful escape from [[Marcinkonys Ghetto]] during [[Occupation of the Baltic states by Nazi Germany|Nazi occupation]] of [[Lithuania]] in World War II. It was organized and led by the leadership of the [[Jewish]] community in the small town.
'''Marcinkonys Ghetto escape''' was a partially successful escape from [[Marcinkonys Ghetto]] during [[Occupation of the Baltic states by Nazi Germany|Nazi occupation]] of [[Lithuania]] in World War II. It was organized and led by the leadership of the [[Jewish]] community in the small town.


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[[Category:World War II ghettos]]
[[Category:World War II ghettos]]
[[Category:1942 in Lithuania]]
[[Category:1942 in Lithuania]]
{{The Holocaust}}The '''Kaunas [[pogrom]]''' was the [[Wiktionary:massacre|massacre]] of [[Jew]]ish people living in [[Kaunas]], [[Lithuania]] that took place in late June, 1941. [[Algirdas Klimaitis]] controlled a paramilitary unit of roughly 600 men that was organized from [[Tilsit]] by [[SD]] and was not subordinate to Lithuanian Activists Front, a faction operating out of the Lithuanian embassy in Berlin and inside Soviet Lithuania. On the evening of June 23, the LAF insurgents took control of the city <ref name="Gitelman">[http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0253333598&id=USW9-xQ85FwC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=klimaitis&sig=oa1kVS3fIRHYbqneBGSsK-NICzk Zvi Gitelman (ed.) ''Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR'', ISBN 0253333598. Indiana University Press, 1998, p. 97.]</ref> and much of the Lithuanian countryside, identifying themselves with white armbands. Nazi [[SS]] [[Brigadeführer]] [[Franz Walter Stahlecker]] arrived in Kaunas on morning of June 25 and held agitation speeches in the city to instigate the murder of Jews, initially in the former State Security Department building, but officials there refused to take any action. Later, he gave speeches in the the city. He succeded to convince Algirdas Klimaitis to start [[pogrom]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Einsatz_Baltic.html |title=Extracts from a Report by Einsatzgruppe a in the Baltic Countries |accessdate=2008-08-06 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=jewishvirtuallibrary}}</ref>

In the October 15th report, Stahlecker wrote that they had succeeded in covering up their vanguard unit (Vorkommando) actions, and it was made to look like it was the initiative of the local population.<ref name="Bubnys-Hol">[http://www.genocid.lt/Leidyba/13/bubnys.htm {{lt icon}} Arūnas Bubnys. ''Lithuanian Security Police and the Holocaust (1941–1944)''] F. W. Stahleckeris, pasitelkęs žurnalisto A. Klimaičio tariamą partizanų būrį (iš tikrųjų A. Klimaičio būrys nebuvo pavaldus nei LAF’ui, nei Lietuvos laikinajai vyriausybei), birželio 25 d. Kaune pradėjo kelti žydų pogromus. Tame pačiame 1941 m. spalio 15 d. raporte generolas atvirai ir išsamiai aprašė savo suorganizuotas žydų žudynes: „[…] Netikėtai paaiškėjo, kad suorganizuoti didesnio masto žydų pogromą išsyk gana nelengva. Čia visų pirma pasitelkėme anksčiau minėtų partizanų vadą A. Klimaitį, kurį tuo reikalu instruktavo veikęs Kaune mūsų nedidelis priešakinis būrys. A. Klimaičiui pavyko taip parengti pogromą, kad aikštėn neiškilo nei mūsų duoti nurodymai, nei mūsų iniciatyva. Pirmojo pogromo metu, naktį iš birželio 25-osios į 26-ąją, lietuvių partizanai likvidavo daugiau kaip 1500 žydų, padegė arba kitaip sunaikino keletą sinagogų ir sudegino žydų kvartalą, kuriame buvo apie 60 namų. Sekančiomis naktimis tuo pačiu būdu buvo padaryti nekenksmingais 2300 žydų. Kauno pavyzdžiu panašios akcijos, tik mažesnio masto, vyko ir kituose Lietuvos miestuose, jos palietė ir likusius tose vietose komunistus“</ref> Starting on June 25, Nazi organized [[Vorkommando]] attacked Jewish civilians in the Kaunas suburb of Slobodka (known to Lithuanians as Viljampolė, a Jewish suburb hosting the world-famous [[Slobodka yeshiva]]). SS Brigadeführer [[Franz Walter Stahlecker]], who arrived in Kaunas on June 25, later reported that he had trouble instigating pogroms against Jews by Lithuanian partisans initially, but succeeded after much effort and under supervision of [[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzkommando]]s. Eyewitnesses report{{Fact|date=August 2008}} earlier killings, that opinion is supported by scholar Dov Levin and others{{Fact|date=August 2008}}. The exact number of victims pogrom varies by different authors between 600 and 1200.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Lithuanian National Revolt |last=Budreckis |first=Algirdas Martin |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1968 |publisher=Lithuanian Encyclopedia Press |location=Boston |isbn= |pages=62,63|quote=Again for some unknown reason, Stahlecker exaggerates his statistics. The account by L. Shauss to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission stated that in "the first pogrom on June 25-26, in the Kaunas suburb of Slobodka (Vilijampole), 600 Jews were killed on Arbarski, Paverski, Vilyuski, Irogalski streets.}}</ref>

As of June 28, 1941, according to [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] [[Brigadeführer]] [[Franz Walter Stahlecker]], 3800 people had been killed in Kaunas and a further 1200 in other towns in the immediate region <ref name="Gitelman"/>. According to Rabbi [[Ephraim Oshry]] and other{{who?}} eyewitnesses, there were Germans present on the bridge to Slobodka, but it was the Lithuanian volunteers who killed Jews. The rabbi of Slobodka, Rav Zalman Osovsky, was tied hand and foot to a chair, "then his head was laid upon an open volume of ''[[gemara|gemora]]'' (volume of the Talmud) and [they] sawed his head off." Then they murdered his wife and son. His head was placed in a window of the residence with a sign: "This is what we'll do to all the Jews."<ref name="Oshry"> Oshry, Ephraim, ''Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry'', ISBN 1-880582-18-X. Judaica Press, Inc., New York, 1995, pg. 3.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*Vladas Sirutavičius, ''"Catholic church and the origins of the modern Lithuanian anti-Semitism"''
*Dangiras Mačiulis, ''"Anatomy of a pogrom in Lithuania: Leipalingi, 18 June 1939"''
*Algis Kasperavičius, ''"Lithuanian-Jewish relations in 1935-1944"''
*Dov Levin, ''"Why Lithuanians killed their Jewish neighbors"''
*[[Arūnas Bubnys]], ''"Historiography of Holocaust in Independent Lithuania (1990-2003)"''

==See also==
*[[Elchonon Wasserman]]
*[[Aharon Kotler]]
*[[Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Slabodka)]]
*[[Moshe Mordechai Epstein]]
*[[Isser Zalman Meltzer]]
*[[Lithuanian Activist Front]]
*[[Lithuanian 1941 independence]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.lituanus.org/2001/01_4_04.htm Saulius Sužiedėlis, The burden of 1941]

[[Category:Conflicts in 1941]]
[[Category:Holocaust anti-Jewish pogroms]]
[[Category:History of Kaunas]]
[[Category:History of Lithuania (1940–1945)]]
[[Category:Massacres in Lithuania]]
[[Category:1941 in Lithuania]]
[[Category:The Holocaust in Lithuania]]

Revision as of 15:35, 15 January 2009

Marcinkonys Ghetto escape was a partially successful escape from Marcinkonys Ghetto during Nazi occupation of Lithuania in World War II. It was organized and led by the leadership of the Jewish community in the small town.

Up until November 2, 1942, there were approximately 500 people living in the improvised ghetto in Marcinkonys in former forest-worker huts. The Jews were working in the local canning factory, formerly owned by a local Jewish businessman. They were also forced to perform other work, but compared to the ghettos in some of the larger cities life was somewhat easier.

On November 2, the local German police received orders to liquidate the ghetto. All other ghettos in the area were also being liquidated around the same time. However, at Marcinkance, the local Jews had heard about the liquidation plans, as well as the horrible treatment on the Lithuanian site of the former Eastern Polish province. Therefore, the leadership of the Jewish community decided to avoid a similar fate.

Escape attempt

Local German police and some German forest-workers surrounded the fenced-in ghetto and demanded all of the occupants to assemble. When nothing happened, the Germans threatened to shoot. Aaron Kobrowski and several accomplices came out from the camp, wanting to talk to the leader of the group of Nazis. Aaron had a knife and a plan. However, the leader of the Nazis felt something was wrong and opened fire. The occupants of Marcinkance scrambled to escape but many Jewish men, women, and children were murdered.

Some were able to escape, including some brothers and a sister of Aaron Kobrowski, and were able to survive and fight back in the surrounding woods for the next two years when they were liberated by the Red Army.

The Kaunas pogrom was the massacre of Jewish people living in Kaunas, Lithuania that took place in late June, 1941. Algirdas Klimaitis controlled a paramilitary unit of roughly 600 men that was organized from Tilsit by SD and was not subordinate to Lithuanian Activists Front, a faction operating out of the Lithuanian embassy in Berlin and inside Soviet Lithuania. On the evening of June 23, the LAF insurgents took control of the city [1] and much of the Lithuanian countryside, identifying themselves with white armbands. Nazi SS Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker arrived in Kaunas on morning of June 25 and held agitation speeches in the city to instigate the murder of Jews, initially in the former State Security Department building, but officials there refused to take any action. Later, he gave speeches in the the city. He succeded to convince Algirdas Klimaitis to start pogrom.[2]

In the October 15th report, Stahlecker wrote that they had succeeded in covering up their vanguard unit (Vorkommando) actions, and it was made to look like it was the initiative of the local population.[3] Starting on June 25, Nazi organized Vorkommando attacked Jewish civilians in the Kaunas suburb of Slobodka (known to Lithuanians as Viljampolė, a Jewish suburb hosting the world-famous Slobodka yeshiva). SS Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker, who arrived in Kaunas on June 25, later reported that he had trouble instigating pogroms against Jews by Lithuanian partisans initially, but succeeded after much effort and under supervision of Einsatzkommandos. Eyewitnesses report[citation needed] earlier killings, that opinion is supported by scholar Dov Levin and others[citation needed]. The exact number of victims pogrom varies by different authors between 600 and 1200.[4]

As of June 28, 1941, according to SS Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker, 3800 people had been killed in Kaunas and a further 1200 in other towns in the immediate region [1]. According to Rabbi Ephraim Oshry and other[who?] eyewitnesses, there were Germans present on the bridge to Slobodka, but it was the Lithuanian volunteers who killed Jews. The rabbi of Slobodka, Rav Zalman Osovsky, was tied hand and foot to a chair, "then his head was laid upon an open volume of gemora (volume of the Talmud) and [they] sawed his head off." Then they murdered his wife and son. His head was placed in a window of the residence with a sign: "This is what we'll do to all the Jews."[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Zvi Gitelman (ed.) Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR, ISBN 0253333598. Indiana University Press, 1998, p. 97.
  2. ^ "Extracts from a Report by Einsatzgruppe a in the Baltic Countries". jewishvirtuallibrary. Retrieved 2008-08-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Template:Lt icon Arūnas Bubnys. Lithuanian Security Police and the Holocaust (1941–1944) F. W. Stahleckeris, pasitelkęs žurnalisto A. Klimaičio tariamą partizanų būrį (iš tikrųjų A. Klimaičio būrys nebuvo pavaldus nei LAF’ui, nei Lietuvos laikinajai vyriausybei), birželio 25 d. Kaune pradėjo kelti žydų pogromus. Tame pačiame 1941 m. spalio 15 d. raporte generolas atvirai ir išsamiai aprašė savo suorganizuotas žydų žudynes: „[…] Netikėtai paaiškėjo, kad suorganizuoti didesnio masto žydų pogromą išsyk gana nelengva. Čia visų pirma pasitelkėme anksčiau minėtų partizanų vadą A. Klimaitį, kurį tuo reikalu instruktavo veikęs Kaune mūsų nedidelis priešakinis būrys. A. Klimaičiui pavyko taip parengti pogromą, kad aikštėn neiškilo nei mūsų duoti nurodymai, nei mūsų iniciatyva. Pirmojo pogromo metu, naktį iš birželio 25-osios į 26-ąją, lietuvių partizanai likvidavo daugiau kaip 1500 žydų, padegė arba kitaip sunaikino keletą sinagogų ir sudegino žydų kvartalą, kuriame buvo apie 60 namų. Sekančiomis naktimis tuo pačiu būdu buvo padaryti nekenksmingais 2300 žydų. Kauno pavyzdžiu panašios akcijos, tik mažesnio masto, vyko ir kituose Lietuvos miestuose, jos palietė ir likusius tose vietose komunistus“
  4. ^ Budreckis, Algirdas Martin (1968). The Lithuanian National Revolt. Boston: Lithuanian Encyclopedia Press. pp. 62, 63. Again for some unknown reason, Stahlecker exaggerates his statistics. The account by L. Shauss to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission stated that in "the first pogrom on June 25-26, in the Kaunas suburb of Slobodka (Vilijampole), 600 Jews were killed on Arbarski, Paverski, Vilyuski, Irogalski streets. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Oshry, Ephraim, Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, ISBN 1-880582-18-X. Judaica Press, Inc., New York, 1995, pg. 3.

Further reading

  • Vladas Sirutavičius, "Catholic church and the origins of the modern Lithuanian anti-Semitism"
  • Dangiras Mačiulis, "Anatomy of a pogrom in Lithuania: Leipalingi, 18 June 1939"
  • Algis Kasperavičius, "Lithuanian-Jewish relations in 1935-1944"
  • Dov Levin, "Why Lithuanians killed their Jewish neighbors"
  • Arūnas Bubnys, "Historiography of Holocaust in Independent Lithuania (1990-2003)"

See also

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