Šilalė (, Samogitian: ''Šėlalė'', yi, שילעל ''Shilel'', pl, Szyłele) is a town in Western Lithuania,

Samogitia Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

Tauragė County Tauragė County (Lithuanian: ''Tauragės apskritis'') is one of ten counties in Lithuania. It is in the west of the country, and its capital is Tauragė Tauragė (; see other names) is an industrial city in Lithuania, and the capital of ...

. It is located north of

Tauragė Tauragė (; see other names) is an industrial city in Lithuania, and the capital of Tauragė County. In 2020, its population was 21,520. Tauragė is situated on the Jūra River, close to the border with the Kaliningrad Oblast, and not far from ...

. The River Lokysta flows through the town and there is a pond in the centre of the town.

History

The town is part of the Samogitian

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

region of Lithuania Lithuania can be divided into historical and cultural regions (called ethnographic regions). The exact borders are not fully clear, as the regions are not official political or administrative units. They are delimited by culture, such as count ...

and was first mentioned in the sixteenth century. Its name derives from the generic word sila ("Pinewood") and Samogitian suffix ''-alė.'' In July 1941, 135 Jewish men from Šilalė were shot on a site in the Jewish cemetery. In September 1941, the Jewish women and children of Šilalė were shot in the Tūbinės forest. Around 1,300 Jews were massacred by an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; 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 imp ...

of Germans and local Lithuanian collaborators.

Population

Ethnic composition

2011 - population of 5,492 people: * Lithuanian - 99.02% (5438); * Russian - 0.33% (18); * Other - 0.66% (36). 2001 - population of 6,281 people: * Lithuanian - 99.23% (6235); * Russian - 0.37% (23); * Other - 0.37% (23).

Notable people

* Ferdinand Ignatius Piłsudski (c1670-c1719),

Lithuanian nobleman The Lithuanian nobility or szlachta (Lithuanian: ''bajorija, šlėkta'') was historically a legally privileged hereditary elite class in the Kingdom of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Lithuania (including during period of foreign rule 1795–1918) ...

, and a Colonel and Commander in the

n division of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...

. * Franciszek Piłsudski (1713-1791)

, ''

Podczaszy Deputy cup-bearer () was since the 13th century a court office in Poland and later in Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of E ...

'' (Deputy Cup Bearer) and member of the Sejm in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. * Stasys Girėnas (1893-1933),

Lithuanian-American Lithuanian Americans refers to American citizens and residents who are Lithuanian and were born in Lithuania, or are of Lithuanian descent. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in the United ...

pilot *

Lukas Lekavičius Lukas Lekavičius (born March 30, 1994) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. Standing at , he plays the point guard position. He was named to the LKL ...

, professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player

References

Cities in Lithuania Cities in Tauragė County Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania Rossiyensky Uyezd Holocaust locations in Lithuania Šilalė District Municipality {{TauragėCounty-geo-stub