Jaszuny

The first Jews in Jaszuny, who settled there in the first half of the 19th century, were either artisans or entrepreneurs, and they opened small enterprises – a resin and turpentine factory, a sawmill, etc. – in the village. Despite the relatively small size of the local Jewish community, Jaszuny had a synagogue that boasted a collection of 800 books. Jews began to settle in the village in greater numbers from the beginning of the 20th century, when some of the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in rural areas were lifted by the Tsarist Russian authorities. In 1922-39, Jaszuny was part of the Second Polish Republic. In the late 1930s, Jews made up the majority of the local population. In September 1939, World War II began, and Jaszuny was occupied by the Soviets, but in October that year it was assigned to Lithuania. In 1940, the USSR annexed Lithuania, and the area came back under Soviet control. In June 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out, and Jaszuny was occupied by the Germans. On September 25, 1941, the Jews of Jaszuny were murdered by the Lithuanian Special Squad (Ypatingasis Būrys) that had arrived from Vilnius, under the supervision of SS Einsatzgruppe 3, near the village of Lenkiszki, 1.5-2 kilometers southwest of Jaszuny. The Einsatzgruppe report (the so-called "Jäger Report") speaks of the murder of 575 Jews – 215 men, 229 women, and 131 children – from Jaszuny (and probably from several other smaller villages in the area) on that day.