Merkine is a beautiful town in Lithuania, located at the confluence of two rivers in a national park in Lithuania. It is a very old town, first mentioned in writing in 137BC. The first mention of Jews in Merkine was in 1539. The population of Merkine in 2011 was only 1,228 people, however, for such a small town, it produced famous Jewish scholars. What Merkine is most famous for is September 10, 1941, when the Jews of Merkine, Liepalingis, Liskiava and Seirijia were concentrated in Merkine and brutally murdered by Lithuanians. For a town of only 1,228 people, they managed to murder 853 Jews in one day. 223 were adult males, 640 were adult females, and 276 were babies and children.
At the beginning of September 1941, following the order of B. Naujokas, Police Chief of Merkinė, Lithuanian policemen from Merkinė and other Lithuanians drove the Jews into the synagogues and a school. They were held there for five to six days. A selection took place there. The first group selected and led off were men under 40. The next day young women and girls were taken somewhere. According to some witnesses, local Lithuanians marched two large groups of Jews (one about 300, the other about 400 people) to the Alytus prison, before they were shot in Merkinė.
These Jews were murdered on September 10, 1941. Two vehicles brought troops dressed in Lithuanian and German uniforms from Alytus the night before. On the morning of September 10, 1941, the newly arrived troops and local Lithuanians marched the Jews to a small pine grove beyond the Jewish cemetery. Victims were undressed and made to lie in the ditches and then were shot from above. Jews of working age were shot first, then women, children and the elderly. Merkinė Lithuanians took part in the shooting. Police Chief Naujokas was also at the scene of the mass murder.
Less than 20 miles from Merkine is a town named Varena. During the initial days of September of 1941, local Lithuanians forced the Jews of Varėna into the small town’s synagogue. They were held there for several days. On September 10, 1941, the Chief of the Lithuanian security police of the Alytus region, Pranas Zenkevičius, his deputy Juozas Kvedaravičius and 30–40 Lithuanian troops arrived in Varėna. Along with local Lithuanian volunteers, they forced 541 male adult Jews, 141 female adult Jews and 149 Jewish children and babies to undress to their underwear and marched them to a grove of trees, 0.9 miles from the village of Druckūnai. The Jews were marched onto a former Tsarist military reservation. Two large pits had been dug there 82 feet apart, one for the men and one for the women. Lithuanians forced the victims in groups toward the pits and murdered them there. Then the murderers looted the possessions of their victims
Independent has never punished a single Jew murderer, nor a single thief that stole from their murder victims. They do honor some of the murderers as national Lithuanian heroes.
Lithuanians today tell us how regretful they are that their families murdered ours, and they assure us that they love and miss us and we should go and spend our money there, while they celebrate the murderers. The Lithuanians take us Jews for gullible fools, but their actions give them away.
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