The Plungė massacre (in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

Plungyan – פלונגיאן) was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

massacre committed on 13 or 15 July 1941 in the town of Plungė, in Lithuania. Following the anti-

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

June Uprising in Lithuania The June Uprising ( lt, Birželio sukilimas) was a brief period in the history of Lithuania between the first Soviet occupation and the Nazi occupation in late June 1941. Approximately one year earlier, on June 15, 1940, the Red Army occupied Li ...

and the

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invasion as part 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 ...

, Plungė was captured by German forces on 25 June 1941. Lithuanian nationalists, led by Jonas Noreika,„Die Mörder werden noch gebraucht“
''Der Spiegel'', Von Leonid Olschwang, 23 April 1984
Chicago Tribune, Ron Grossman, 14 January 2019 formed a town administration and

police force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

. German forces killed 60 young Jewish men, accused by the Lithuanians of being a rear guard for the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

, shortly after the town's capture. On 13 or 15 July the Lithuanian nationalists transported the Jews to ditches near the village of Kausenai where they were shot. Of the 1,700-1,800 remaining Jews of Plungė, only a few survived.The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 ''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945'' is a seven-part encyclopedia series that explores the history of the concentration camps, ghettos, forced-labor camps, and other sites of detention, persecution, or state-sponsored murder r ...

, Geoffrey P. Megargee, Martin C. Dean, and Mel Hecker, Volume II, part B, p. 1105.

Background

Jews first arrived in Plungė in 1348; by 1900, the population of more than 2,500 Jews comprised more than half of the people of the town.Around the Jewish World Lone Jew in Lithuanian Town Spends Life Preserving the Past
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 13 June 2002 Following the anti-Soviet

and the

German invasion of the Soviet Union 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 afte ...

, Plungė was occupied by German forces on 25 June 1941.

Ghetto and repressions

Lithuanian nationalists, led by Jonas Noreika, formed a town administration and

. While relatively not involved in subsequent events, German forces executed 60 young Jewish men who were accused of being a rear guard for the Red Army. On 26 June 1941, the Lithuanians forced the Jews to the area around the local Beth midrash and synagogue which they declared a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

. Lithuanians took Jews out of the ghetto to perform hard manual labor, accompanied with humiliations and beatings, and some were murdered and did not return to the ghetto. The living conditions (filth, overcrowding, lack of food and water) in the ghetto led to high mortality and disease, particularly so among the elderly. Valuables were extorted from the Jews by the Lithuanian authorities.

Massacre

On 13 or 15 July the Lithuanian nationalists transported the Jews to ditches near the village of Kaušėnai in Nausodis eldership where they were shot. Of the 1,700–1,800 Jews of Plungė, only a few survived. Survivors included people deported to the Soviet Union prior to the German invasion, and six who were sheltered by Lithuanian friends. Catholic priest Petras Lygnugaris baptized 74 Jewish maidens, in an effort to spare them, but the Lithuanian activists killed them there, notwithstanding. Plungė was perhaps the first town in German-occupied Europe where all of the Jewish inhabitants were murdered, including children, women and the elderly.Captain Jonas Noreika Museum. Grant Gochin's "Query Regarding Jonas Noreika’s Criminal Gang."
Andrius Kulikauskas, 15 June 2018

Aftermath

72 Plungė Jews joined the Red Army, of which 42 died in combat. Following the war there were 138 Jews in Plungė, most emigrated to Israel, South Africa, and the United States. By 1970, 45 remained. By 2002, Jacob Bunka was the last Jew in Plungė. Bunka died in 2014. Bunka created massive wooden sculptures commemorating the massacres in Plunge and other sites as well as the life of the Jewish community. Remembrance sites for the events of 1941 exist in and around the town. A memorial wall bearing the names of most of the 1,800 killed Jews stands at the Kaušėnai Holocaust memorial.Lithuania

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (until January 2013 known as the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research or ITF) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1998 which ...

Jonas Noreika was executed for treason in 1947.

References

External links