Algirdas Klimaitis
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Algirdas Klimaitis (1910 in KaunasBaltic News
/ref> – 29 August 1988 in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
) was a Lithuanian paramilitary commander, infamous for his role in the Kaunas pogrom in June 1941. It is likely that Klimaitis was an officer in the Lithuanian Army. During the pre-war years he was editor of the tabloid (Ten Cents). His attitudes shifted to
anti-communism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
and
anti-semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
. He joined the Voldemarininkai movement. When Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania in June 1941, at the start of
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
, Klimaitis formed a military unit of roughly 600 members, which was not subordinate to the Lithuanian Activist Front or the
Provisional Government of Lithuania The Provisional Government of Lithuania ( lt, Laikinoji Vyriausybė) was a temporary government aiming for independent Lithuania during the last days of the first Soviet occupation and the first months of German Nazi occupation in 1941. It w ...
, and engaged in firefights with the Soviet army for the control of Kaunas. On the evening of 23 June, most of the city was in the hands of the insurgents. On the night of 25–26 June, Kaunas pogrom led by Klimaitis' unit was instigated by
Franz Walter Stahlecker Franz Walter Stahlecker (10 October 1900 – 23 March 1942) was commander of the SS security forces ('' Sicherheitspolizei'' (SiPo) and the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) for the '' Reichskommissariat Ostland'' in 1941–42. Stahlecker commanded '' ...
, commanding officer of
Einsatzgruppe A (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...
. By 28 June 1941, according to Stahlecker, 3,800 people had been killed in Kaunas and a further 1,200 in surrounding towns in the region. Klimaitis' men destroyed several synagogues and about sixty Jewish houses. Modern sources claim that the number of victims in Stahlecker's report were probably exaggerated. Murder of Slobodka's Rabbi, Rav Zalman Osovsky, is attributed to Jonas Klimaitis's gang. After the war, Klimaitis moved to
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
, Germany, where he was discovered in the late 1970s. Hamburg Police launched an investigation, but Klimaitis died before the case could be brought to trial. He died in 1988.


See also

* Lithuanian collaboration with Nazi Germany


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klimaitis, Algirdas 1910 births 1988 deaths Military personnel from Kaunas People from Kovno Governorate Lithuanian collaborators with Nazi Germany Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania