Žasliai

In the middle of the nineteenth century, nearly 650 Jews lived in the town of Žasliai. By the summer of 1940, on the eve of the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, the 1,000 Jewish inhabitants of the town made up 50 percent of the total population. They earned their livelihood from commerce, artisanship and agriculture. On June 22, 1941, the German army invaded Lithuania, entering Žasliai two days later. Lithuanian nationalists took over the town and began looting Jewish property and assaulting local Jews. Accusing the Jews of collaborating with the Soviets, the Lithuanians detained Jewish men, and transferred them to the nearby town of Kaisiadorys. 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 Kaisiadorys and Ziezmariai. On September 22, 1941, Žasliai’s remaining Jews were transferred to the nearby town of Semeliskes, where they were shot on October 6, 1941, along with the town’s entire Jewish population. The Red Army liberated Žasliai in the summer of 1944.