New Monument at the grave of Jewish men at the Jewish cemetery murder site. Screenshot from the film "There Once Was a Town," Yad Vashem, The Visual Center V 1725
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615921
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Murder Story of Olkieniki Jews at the Ejszyszki Jewish Cemetery
Murder Site
Ejszyszki
Poland
On September 20, 1941 the German governor of the Vilna District, Horst Wullf, ordered all the Jewish men in Olkieniki to assemble in the square in front of the town’s fire station. The old and the sick were taken in carts to the town of Ejszyszki, while the others were forced to march there under heavy guard, tortured and humiliated all the way. A few young people managed to escape. On the following day the women and children were collected in the same square and also brought to Ejszyszki, the sick and the elderly by cart, the others on foot.
In Ejszyszki the Jews from Olkieniki were incarcerated in a stable, together with Jews from the towns of Ejszyszki, Deksznia, Lejpuny, Salo, etc. When the stables was full, some of the Jews were taken to the town’s three synagogues.
For sixty hours the Jews were held in the barn and the synagogues, deprived of water and food, and prevented from going outside to relieve themselves. Afterwards, all the Jews were taken to the horse market, where they were surrounded by Lithuanian policemen and SS men, and were forced to hand over all their valuables.
On September 24 the Nazis said that they needed strong young men to dig holes for a fence to be erected around an area where the Jews would be housed. A group of young people volunteered. The Germans took them to the local Jewish cemetery and ordered them to dig pits. Then the young Jews were shot (according to another source, the pits were dug by Poles). When the other Jews heard what had happened, they refused to move. The Germans threatened that, if the Jews did not obey, they would be shot on the spot. To expedite the execution, the Lithuanian police and German gendarmes were brought in as reinforcements. Then all the Jewish males were taken to the Jewish cemetery murder site and shot at the same pits.
The women, small children, the elderly, and the sick who were physically unable to walk to the murder site, remained at the horse market. All of them were taken at night to the pits where they were also shot.
According to the Jaeger report, 3,446 Jews were executed by Einsatzcommando 3a in Ejszyszki on September 27, 1941 - 989 men, 1,636 women, and 821 children.
Related Resources
Written Testimonies
German Reports / Romanian Reports
Sholem Sonenzon, who was born in 1903 in Ejszyszki (today Eišiškės, Lithuania), testified:
On the evening of Rosh Hashanah 1941 (the eve of the Jewish New Year) all the Jews were collected in three large synagogues. Jews from the towns of Olkieniki, Lejpuny and Salo - a total of 2,000 people - were brought to our town on that evening as well. Some 150 who were mentally ill remained in the town of Salo. While they [the Jews] were incarcerated for three days and nights, peasants from the surrounding villages came to town and looted the Jews’ possessions, taking them away on their carts. For three days we did not get anything to eat or to drink.
On September 24, 1941 all the men, women, and children were taken to the horse market, forced to walk in a column with four people in each row. We understood that this meant our death. We were guarded by drunk and murderous Lithuanians, who beat us with the butts of their guns; the crying babies they either flung into in the air or dashed to the ground….
Then they selected strong men, supposedly to take them for work. That is how they took the first group of 300 men. These men were taken to the 350-year old Jewish cemetery, where pits had been already been dug by Polish residents of the town who, before they dug the pits, had been promised that they would get the dead people’s belongings.
We received a note from a Jew named Milikowski, who was in the first group. He was forced to write that they were working on the Polish landowner’s estate, that they were well, and had enough food. But we didn't believe this since we had heard the shootings….
All the men were taken and shot by the end of the evening. Only very few managed to be saved by a woman who hid them beneath some packages….
We escaped to the town of Raduń. I ran away together with my wife and two children. According to the news I heard when I arrived in Raduń, all the women and children were shot on the next day, September 26, 1941….
YVA O.3 / 2295
Gita Giliat, who was born in Ejszyszki (today Eišiškės, Lithuania), testified in Yiddish:
... Sunday afternoon, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah [the Jewish New Year] 1941, armed thugs entered the town from all directions. The entire town was surrounded. All the ways out were strictly guarded by strongly armed thugs. All the Jews were taken out of their houses and were forbidden from taking anything with them. While understanding what was going to happen, they were helpless and it was too late for them to do anything to escape. They were taken to the three synagogues in town. The same Sunday Jews from Olkenieki were taken to Ejszyszki and were incarcerated in the stable in the yard of the town’s council building. Armed thugs were placed on guard all around the town. Some Jews from Olkenieki were held in one of the synagogues, where it was impossible to breathe, sit, or lie down. They had to relieve themselves inside the synagogue since they were forbidden from going outside. The crowding and lack of fresh air had a bad effect on the elderly and children. Many could not stand it and fainted, some died….
After being incarcerated in the synagogues for two days, just after Rosh Hashanah all the Jews were taken to the town’s horse market, where the men were separated from the women and children. On the Wednesday after the holiday all the men were taken out of town, to the area of the old cemetery, where they were forced to undress and then shot....
YVA O.71 / 92
Ejszyszki
Jewish cemetery
Murder Site
Poland
54.168;24.994
Photos
New Monument at the grave of Jewish men at the Jewish cemetery murder site. Screenshot from the film "There Once Was a Town," Yad Vashem, The Visual Center V 1725
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615921