Grave of Lithuanian volunteer and public figure Tomas Algirdas Zaukas
Memorial site

The grave of Lithuanian volunteer and public figure Tomas Algirdas Zauka is located in the Kuršėnai Old Cemetery.

Tomas Algirdas Zauka (1899 – 1970) was a Lithuanian pilot and public figure, a pioneer of sports aviation in Lithuania. TA Zauka became famous in 1944. together with aviation captain I. Vylius, for hiding the remains of transatlantic pilots from the Soviet occupiers. With the help of VMU Faculty of Medicine employees, the coffins with the remains of the pilots were moved from the chapel of the Faculty of Medicine to the basement and walled up in a niche in the wall, where the bodies of the pilots remained for 20 years. In 1963. while preparing to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of the transatlantic pilots, he helped reveal the place where their remains were hidden.

During the Nazi occupation, wishing to erect a monument to S. Darius and S. Girėnas in Kaunas, but realizing that political circumstances might prevent this, TA Zauka came up with the idea of perpetuating the memory of the pilots in Anykščiai - in 1942–1943. he collected donations and organized the carving of relief portraits of S. Darius and S. Girėnas in the Puntukas stone. Later, he was tried for this and sent to a camp.

In 1945–1952, he was imprisoned in the Pechora, Yertsovo (Arkhangelsk region), and Vorkuta camps, returning to Lithuania in 1953. He died under unclear circumstances in 1970, while under the watchful eye of the KGB.

Today, you can visit his grave with its distinctive tombstone, decorated with a cross of two crossed propellers.