Žeimelis Evangelical Lutheran Church Memorial site

In the center of the town of Žeimelis stands the Žeimelis Evangelical Lutheran Church. It was built in 1793, on the site of the old church built in 1540. In 1753–1759, the priest in Žeimelis was the Latvian writer and folklorist priest Gothardas Frydrichas Stenderis, who created the first grammar of the Latvian language.

From 1929 to 1949, the church was served by the priest Erik Leijer, who became famous for his fight for the preservation of churches during the Nazi and Soviet occupations. E. Leijer did not leave Lithuania in 1941, when almost all Evangelical Lutheran priests had fled to Germany (only 8 parishes out of 55 were active), and he took care of Evangelical Lutheran parishes throughout the country.

During the Soviet occupation, he actively opposed the closure of churches, restored parishes, appointed clergy to them, and protested against the confiscation of churches and the arrest of priest Jurgis Gavėnys. He hid Meilutė Marija Raštikytė-Alksnienė, the daughter of General Stasys Raštikys, Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Army, and a relative of President Antanas Smetona, from exile at his home. E. Leijeris provided her with new documents and took care of her education himself, not allowing her to go to school.

At the end of 1949 he was arrested by Soviet structures, convicted "for anti-Soviet activities" and exiled to the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He died in 1951 in the Mikhailovka camp, the place of his grave is unknown. In 1989 he was rehabilitated.

A monument was erected in memory of E. Leijers in the cemetery of the town of Žeimelis, a street was named after him, and a memorial plaque was hung in the church.