אתר רצח Gerulių miškas Related Communities
# Follow us
Languages
English
ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
RESEARCH & COLLECTIONS
COMMEMORATION
EDUCATION & E-LEARNING
MUSEUMS & EXHIBITIONS
RIGHTEOUS
Murder story of Laukuva Jews in the Geruliai Forest
Murder Site
Gerulių miškas
Lithuania
On July 8, 1941, the Jewish women and children, who had remained in Laukuva after the deportation of the men to labor camps, were assembled at the town's beth midrash. They were held there for four days without food or water. Then, they were transported in trucks to the Geruliai camp, about 10 kilometers east of Telšiai. Apart from the Jews of Laukuva, Jewish women and children from Telšiai, Alsėdžiai, Varniai, Žarėnai, Luokė, Nevarėnai, and some smaller nearby villages were also collected in this camp. On August 30, 1941, the elderly women and children from the Geruliai camp, including those who had been brought there from Laukuva, were marched in columns of seventy-five into the forest, where pits had been dug in advance. They were murdered and buried in these pits. According to Soviet sources, a total of 1,580 men, women, and children were buried in mass graves at this site.
Related Resources
Written Testimonies
Written Accounts
Yoysef Aronovitz [Jozefas Aronovičius], who was born in 1918, and lived in Laukuva in 1941, testifies:
In late August, Yosef Smilansky from Heydekrug, who had lived in Laukuva before the war, received a letter from his wife, which was delivered by a German soldier. The letter informed him that all the women and children from Laukuva were at the Geruliai estate near Telšiai, and that they were doing agricultural work for the peasants. There was also a second letter, with exactly the same information.
In the late fall of 1941, the [Jewish] men at the [Matzicken labor] camp learned that all the women and children had been shot near Telšiai. It was impossible to find out more exact details at that time.
YVA O.71 / 9
Gerulių miškas
forest
Murder Site
Lithuania
55.977;22.392