Žasliai, Lithuania

In the middle of the nineteenth century, nearly 650 Jews lived in the town of Zasliai. By the summer of 1940, on the eve of the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, the 1,000 Jewish inhabitants of the town made up fifty percent of the entire population. They earned their livelihood from commerce, artisanship, and agriculture On June 22, 1941, the German army invaded Lithuania, entering Zasliai two days later. Lithuanian nationalists took over the town and began looting Jewish property and assaulting the local Jews. Accusing the Jews of collaborating with the Soviets, the Lithuanians detained Jewish men, and transferred them to the nearby town of Kaisiadorys {no. 3552486}. On August 17, 1941, in the middle of the night, most of the town’s Jewish inhabitants were driven out to Kaisiadorys. Ten days later, they were murdered along with Jews from Kaisidorys and Ziezmariai. On September 22, 1941, Zasliai’s remaining Jews were transferred to the nearby town of Semeliskis, and were shot on October 6, 1941, along with the town’s entire Jewish population. The Red Army liberated Zasliai in the summer of 1944.