Murder story of Linkuva Jews in the Atkučionai Forest

On Monday August 4, 1941, between noon and 1 p.m., armed forces arrived and ordered the women and children to leave the barn and to line up in rows of four. Infants, who could not walk, and children who could not walk far were thrown into two wagons. Then it was “forward march!” The women were taken by force to the Atkučionai Forest, to pits that had been dug ahead of time. Thirty-forty meters from the pit they were ordered to lie down on the ground, as the men had been ordered to do. Then six to eight of the women were forced to strip naked and approach the edge of the pit. Then there was a hail of bullets and they fell. That was the way it was usually done. My wife, who was holding our daughter close to her, asked one of the murderers, an acquaintance who used to visit us occasionally: “Why are you shooting us?” He replied:” One shot and your skull will fly out of your head. One shot and the girl will be dead…” A boy age eleven pleaded before the murderers: “Have pity on me, don’t shoot me. Let me live. I will work for you, I will feed your animals. Just let me live.” After he spoke to the Germans, they told him he should stand aside. [But] one of the [Lithuanian] murderers, named Simanaitis, grasped what was going on and shouted:” Not even the memory of a single Jew should remain" and he fired two shots into the child's head.