• Vištytis Jewish Memorial
A monument in a small memorial complex in Vištytis (German: Wysztyten, Polish: Wysztyniec), which lies in south-western Lithuania, commemorates the town's annihilated Jewish community - the 220 Jewish men, women and children as well as other civilians who were shot by Lithuanian irregular troops in the summer of 1941.
Image: Vištytis, around 1900, Historic postcard, public domain
Vištytis, around 1900, Historic postcard, public domain

Image: Vištytis, 2005, Memorial to the murdered Jews, Howard Sandys
Vištytis, 2005, Memorial to the murdered Jews, Howard Sandys
Vištytis was a small Jewish-Lithuanian shtetl located on the border to the German province of East Prussia. Jews had lived here since the first half of the 16th century. In 1795, Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire; the region of Vištytis followed some 20 years later. The area - the Suwalkija region - was part of the Pale of Settlement, the region in which Jews were allowed permanent residency between the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century in the west of the Russian Empire. Many natives of Vištytis emigrated to Prussia; later many left for Palestine, South Africa and America, while others moved to the interior of Imperial Russia. Before the First World War, about 600 of the 2,600 residents of Vištytis were Jewish. After 1918, Vištytis was part of the independent Republic of Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. At the end of June 1941, the German Wehrmacht occupied this region. At the time, Vištytis had a population of about 1,000. Lithuanian SS volunteers shot over 220 Jews and other civilians in two operations (»Aktion«) on July 14 and August 9, 1941, thereby annihilating the town's Jewish community. In order to save ammunition, children were supposedly killed by their heads being thrust against trees.
Image: Vištytis, around 1900, Historic postcard, public domain
Vištytis, around 1900, Historic postcard, public domain

Image: Vištytis, 2005, Memorial to the murdered Jews, Howard Sandys
Vištytis, 2005, Memorial to the murdered Jews, Howard Sandys
On July 14 and August 9, 1941, Lithuanian SS volunteers shot 222 Jewish men, women and children, Soviet activists and Komsomol members from Vištytis and nearby villages on site.
Image: Vištytis, undated, Interior of the former synagogue, Yad Vashem
Vištytis, undated, Interior of the former synagogue, Yad Vashem

Image: Vištytis, 2009, Ruins of the synagogue, now used as a shed, Stiftung Denkmal
Vištytis, 2009, Ruins of the synagogue, now used as a shed, Stiftung Denkmal
After 1944, Lithuania was once again forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union. Already in 1947, a monument was erected on the site of the shootings of July 14, 1941, in which about 70 Jews and other civilians from Vištytis and nearby villages were murdered. In the mid-1960s, the authorities had the remains of about 150 Jewish women and children, who had been shot at a site 600 meters away on August 9, 1941, moved to this mass grave. It was not mentioned that the majority of the victims had been Jewish. The following inscription was added after the political transformation 1990/1991: »Here lie the remains of Jewish men, women and children from Vištytis, who were brutally murdered by Nazi executioners and their local helpers on July 9, 1941. The remains of the children and women were transferred to this site in 1965«.
Today, Vištytis is located on the border to the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast. As in almost all of Lithuania, Jewish life could not be rekindled here. Only the ruins of the synagogue, which are now used as a shed, and the Jewish cemetery serve as reminders of a world that has been annihilated.
Image: Vištytis, 2005, 1947 memorial complex, Howard Sandys
Vištytis, 2005, 1947 memorial complex, Howard Sandys

Image: Vištytis, 2018, Memorial stone and information plaque in front of the ruins of the former synagogue, Stiftung Denkmal
Vištytis, 2018, Memorial stone and information plaque in front of the ruins of the former synagogue, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Vištyčio žydų paminklas
Address
Taikos gatvé
70037 Vištytis