Tombstone "Pieta" Memorial site

The monument stands in the old cemetery of the city of Telšiai.

On the night of June 24-25, 1941, in the Rainiai forest, employees of the Telšiai County Department of the NKVD-NKGB and their assistants executed 75 political prisoners from the Telšiai prison. The victims were tortured in the most brutal ways – some had their eyes gouged out, their ears and genitals cut off, and their heads crushed. Only 10 prisoners were shot. After the massacre, not a single living witness remained, except for the executioners themselves. Near the burial site of the victims, 3 corpses of Red Army soldiers with gunshot wounds to the back of the head were found buried, their burial place is unknown. The remains of 65 victims of terror were buried in the old cemetery of the city of Telšiai. During the Soviet occupation, attempts to commemorate the anniversary of the Rainiai massacre, to take care of the grave or to install a tombstone with names were prevented.

Today, the cemetery is home to the monument "Pieta", unveiled on June 23, 1996, depicting the Mother of God holding the body of Christ taken down from the Cross on her knees. The authors of the monument are the artist-sculptor Antanas Kmieliauskas, sculptor Osvaldas Neniškis and architect Algirdas Žebrauskas.