Holocaust Memorial Site in Vėžaitinė Forest
Memorial site

The memorial site is dedicated to the victims of the Gargždai massacre of women and children. The exact date of the massacre is unknown, but it could have been in August or September 1941. Jewish women and children were arrested at the same time as the men – on June 23, 1941. The arrest was carried out by Gestapo officers from the Klaipėda Border Police Commissariat, led by Dr. Erich Frohwann. The prisoners were kept in a barn on the banks of the Minija River (on the eastern side of Gargždai). In total, about 250–300 Jews were placed there. They were kept there for some time.

Around the beginning of September 1941, young, able-bodied women were taken from the ghetto, supposedly for deportation to work in Plungė. According to eyewitnesses, in execution of the order of the German authorities, Gargždai policemen and white-robed men took about 100 of the arrested people in carts to the Vėžaitinė forest (about 11 km from Gargždai). Two pits were dug in the forest. Ildefonsas Lukauskas led the shooting. Before the shooting, he ordered the women to take off their outer clothing. Later, the Jewish women were brought to the pits in groups (8–10 each) and shot. After the massacre, the executioners themselves buried the pits and, having packed up the victims' clothes, returned to Gargždai.