• Memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Biržai
In 2019 a new monument was dedicated in Biržai to the murdered Jews of the northern Lithuanian city.
Image: Biržai, 1938, City view in winter, Yad Vashem
Biržai, 1938, City view in winter, Yad Vashem

Image: Biržai, 2019, View of the memorial with the names of 522 victims, lzb.lt
Biržai, 2019, View of the memorial with the names of 522 victims, lzb.lt
Biržai (German also: Birsen, Polish: Birże, Russian: Birzhaj), situated in the north of Lithuania not far from the border with Latvia, belonged for centuries to the noble family Radziwiłł, which played an important role in Polish-Lithuanian history for centuries. Since the family converted to Protestantism, the city was also a stronghold of the Reformation. After the partition of Poland, Biržai belonged to the Russian Tsarist Empire. From about the middle of the 18th century a larger Jewish community with about 1,000 members and a synagogue is known to have existed in the city. According to the 1897 census, Biržai had 4,413 inhabitants, more than half of them were Jews.
During the First World War the city was occupied by German troops for three years. By the end of the war Lithuania became independent.
In the interwar period the economic situation in Biržai was difficult for both Jews and Lithuanians. In June 1940 Lithuania became part of the Soviet Union as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Most businesses were nationalized, religious and political organizations banned. Some families, including Jewish ones, were deported to Siberia.
The German Wehrmacht occupied Biržai on June 26, 1941, four days after its attack on the Soviet Union. Anti-Semitic Lithuanian nationalists immediately took violent measures against Jews. A month later, all Jews were forced to move to a ghetto set up in a particularly poor district of the city. Over the next days men were repeatedly taken from the ghetto and shot at the Jewish cemetery. On August 8, 1941, the entire Jewish population of Biržai was murdered. In groups of 100-200 people, the inhabitants of the ghetto were led to a place in the woods 3.5 kilometers north of the city, where they were shot by members of the German Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) A with the help of Lithuanian accomplices. Approximately 900 of the 2,400 victims were children.
Image: Biržai, 1938, City view in winter, Yad Vashem
Biržai, 1938, City view in winter, Yad Vashem

Image: Biržai, 2019, View of the memorial with the names of 522 victims, lzb.lt
Biržai, 2019, View of the memorial with the names of 522 victims, lzb.lt
In July and August 1941, German units and their Lithuanian accomplices murdered the entire Jewish population of Biržai, a total of over 2,500 children, women and men.
Image: Biržai, 1939, Children of a Jewish school, Yad Vashem
Biržai, 1939, Children of a Jewish school, Yad Vashem

Image: Biržai, 2019, Memorial stones with Lithuanian and English inscription, lzb.lt
Biržai, 2019, Memorial stones with Lithuanian and English inscription, lzb.lt
Only a few Jews from Biržai had survived the Holocaust, especially young men serving in the Red Army. After the end of the war, Lithuania was once again a republic of the Soviet Union. Shortly after the war, the site of the mass graves in the woods was fenced in and a memorial stone was erected. The Lithuanian and Russian inscriptions read: »Here lie 3,000 Soviet citizens shot by Hitler's fascists in 1941«. In the Jewish cemetery, where about 30 other Jews were shot, a memorial with a similar inscription was erected, which also did not explicitly mention the Jewish origin of the victims. After the independence of Lithuania both commemorative plaques were exchanged for new ones with Lithuanian and Yiddish inscriptions.
In June 2019 a new memorial was inaugurated near the mass graves in the woods. The initiative came from Abel and Glenda Levitt from Israel, who had been campaigning for years for the memory of the murdered Jews of Biržai. The monument was designed by the French artist Joseph Rabie, whose family also came from the area. The central element of the monument is a 30 metre long bridge lined with corrugated metal plaques into which the names of 522 known victims of the mass shooting of August 8, 1941 are milled.
Image: Biržai, 2019, View of the memorial, lzb.lt
Biržai, 2019, View of the memorial, lzb.lt

Image: Biržai, 2019, View of the bridge, lzb.lt
Biržai, 2019, View of the bridge, lzb.lt
Name
Biržų memorialas Holokausto aukoms atminti
Address
Rajoninis kelias 1311
Biržai
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.