The monument in Pivonija forest commemorates the Jews from the area of Ukmergė (also Vilkomir), a county town northwest of Vilnius, who were murdered during the Second World War. The memorial stone was erected in 1953, at the site of mass shootings. In the 1970s, Jewish residents of Ukmergė set up a statue in honour of the victims.
Ukmergė was a centre of Jewish culture and learning since the 17th century. It was home to numerous synagogues and prayer houses, Jewish schools, clubs and organisations. In 1939, half of the town’s 12,400 inhabitants were members of the Jewish community. Lithuania's occupation by the Soviet Union in 1940 destroyed Jewish life in Ukmergė. After the German Wehrmacht's invasion in 1941, the Eisatzkommando 3 (task force) of SS-Einsatzgruppe A (mobile killing squad) followed and conducted several mass shootings in August and September in the area of Ukmergė. The Jews from the surrounding areas were first herded together in the town. From there, German members of the SS and their Lithuanian helpers took the men, women and children to Pivonija forest in small groups, and shot them there. Around 6,350 Jews from Ukmergė and vicinity perished. The shooting site in Pivonija forest was used until 1943.
By their own account, German members of the SS and Lithuanian partisans shot 2,295 Jews, 2,228 Jewesses and 1,825 Jewish children from Ukmergė until the end of September 1941 alone. In all, more than 12,000 Jewish men, women and children were murdered in Pivonija forest until 1943.
A concrete memorial stone was erected in 1953 at the site of the mass shooting in the forest of Pivonija. Attached to it is an inscribed granite plaque, which was renovated in 1998 and fitted with a Hebrew translation. In addition, a traditional Lithuanian carved wooden statue was installed in the 1970s by Jewish residents of Ukmergė alongside the road leading to the forest. It depicts a larger-than-life eagle with a helpless person in its claws.
In the town of Ukmergė itself there is not much left to remember its former Jewish inhabitants. The Jewish cemetery was destroyed by Soviet authorities. There is now a park and a memorial stone at its former location.
In the town of Ukmergė itself there is not much left to remember its former Jewish inhabitants. The Jewish cemetery was destroyed by Soviet authorities. There is now a park and a memorial stone at its former location.
- Name
- Žydų žudynių vieta Pivonijos miške
- Address
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Pivonija forest
20131 Ukmergė - Open
- The monument is accessible at all times.