the Panevezys Ghetto

Panevėžys On the eve of World War II, about 6,000 Jews lived in Panevezys, representing over twenty percent of the town’s population. Panevezys was an important center of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania and was home to one of Lithuania’s largest yeshivas, as well as various other yeshivas. The Jews of Panevezys earned their livelihood from commerce, artisanship, and light industry, as well as from the liberal professions. The town had three systems of Jewish education: Hebrew Zionist, ultra-Orthodox, and Yiddishist. Chapters of Zionist parties and youth movements, Agudat Israel, and the Bund were active in the community. After Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940, private businesses and large residences in Panevezys were nationalized, a number of the Jewish schools were closed while others changed their language of instruction to Yiddish, and the activities of the Jewish parties were discontinued. On June 26, 1941, the Germans occupied Panevezys. Nationalist Lithuanians began to attack and abuse of the city’s Jews, some of whom were arrested or seized for forced labor, even prior to the onset of the German occupation. Numerous Jews were murdered. In early July 1941, the Jews were ordered to gather in a ghetto, and on July 11, 1941, the transfer of the Jews to the ghetto was completed. Jews from nearby townlets were likewise concentrated in its grounds, which occupied a number of streets. The ghetto was encircled by barbed wire, with Lithuanian guards posted to watch over it. While the Jews of the city were transferred to the ghetto, seventy of the community’s most distinguished members were arrested as hostages and taken to Pajuoste, where they were executed. The ghetto was headed by Avraham Rikels and Moshe Levit. The inhabitants of the ghetto became targets of acts of robbery, abuse, and murder perpetrated by the Lithuanians. In early August 1941, a Gestapo officer in charge of the ghetto suggested to the representatives of the Jews that they all move to barracks located near Pajuoste, with the promise of improved living conditions. The community representatives visited the barracks and determined that they were unfit for human habitation. Despite their objections, however, a large group of Jews was taken from the ghetto in mid-August, to the apparently new place of residence. In reality, these Jews were taken in groups to pits near Pajuoste that had been previously prepared, where they were murdered by armed Lithuanians. The rest of the Jews of the ghetto were removed on August 24-26, 1941. They were taken in groups to the killing site and murdered. The last group of people driven out out the ghetto included the patients of the hospital and its entire white-coat-clad staff. Dr. T. Gutman, one of the doctors, addressed the patients and staff; to bolster their spirits he called upon them to die with heads held high. According to German and Soviet sources, over 8,000 people were murdered at this killing site.