The Holocaust in Lithuania

Šeduva Jewish History Museum "The Lost Shtetl" is a museum of the history of Jewish towns that has been being built with private funds in Šeduva, Radviliškis district, since 2015, and scientists from different countries are working on the concept.

The museum, dedicated to the Lithuanian Jewish community and the perpetuation of their cultural heritage, is scheduled to open in August 2025. The word “shtetl” means a town where Jews lived before World War II. Šeduva was one of the places where the Jewish community flourished with its unique traditions, crafts, and religious life.

The aim of this modern museum is to introduce visitors to the life of Jews in Lithuania and their tragic fate during the Holocaust. Through interactive exhibits and technologies, the museum will allow visitors to see and experience how Jews lived in Lithuanian towns, what their daily lives were like, their holidays and religious traditions. It will display authentic objects, documents, photographs and audio and video recordings reflecting the life of Jewish communities at that time.

"The Lost Shtetl" will remind us of the tragedy that the Jews experienced during World War II. During the Holocaust, the Jewish communities of Lithuania were almost destroyed, and the museum seeks to preserve this painful history for future generations, promoting memory and empathy among visitors. In addition, the museum complex includes a restored Jewish cemetery and monuments dedicated to the memory of the Jewish community of Šeduva.

The Lost Shtetl Museum is an important place of memory, education, and reconciliation, striving to preserve the traces of Lithuanian Jewish culture and history.

In Pakuteniy forest (Radviliški district), about 8 km southeast of Šeduva, next to a gravel road, there is one of the 3 sites of the Jewish Holocaust in Šeduva.

In this place in 1941 in August, 27 Jews were killed, including the last rabbi of Sheduva, Mordechai David Henkin. Meanwhile, around 700 more people were killed in two other places in the People's Forest.

After the Nazis occupied Šeduva on June 25, 1941, the town's Jews were forcibly evicted from their homes in early July and driven to the neighboring village of Pavartyčiai, where a ghetto was established. On August 25-26, a small part of them were shot in Pakutenii, the rest in Liaudiškii forest.

2014-2015 On the initiative of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund, the places of the massacres were cleaned up and made accessible for visitors. On the site of the massacre of the Jews of Pakuteniy, the monument "Swiesas žvaigdas bveinė" by the sculptor Romo Quintus has been installed.

The sites of the Šeduva I and II holocausts are located in Liaudiškių forest (Radviliškis district), about 10 km southwest of Šeduva. A point of interest is placed on the gravel road.

The first cemetery for the remains of people of the Jewish nationality occupies an area of 375 m², surrounded by a forest, most of which is paved with stones. About 400 people were killed and buried in this place. About 500 m away is the second cemetery. The remains of people of Jewish nationality are buried in an area of 144 m². The terrain of the site is flat, most of the territory is also paved with stones. About 300 people were killed and buried in this place.

in 1941 the entire Jewish community of Šeduva - almost 700 people - was killed in these places. Before that, they spent another month in the ghetto established in the village of Pavartyčiai. August 25-26 The inhabitants of the ghetto were taken to the People's Forest. Condemned people who were killed by local policemen and white-collar workers on the orders of the Germans were herded near the excavated pit. Among those killed were 230 men, 275 women and 159 children.

2014-2015 On the initiative of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund, the places of the massacres were repaired and made accessible. There are 2 monuments of the sculptor Roman Quintus: "Door" and "Star-Ray".

In 2014, the Jakov Bunka Charity and Support Foundation established the Litvaks Memorial Garden in the Žemaitija National Park, in the village of Medsedžiai, approximately 2 km from the center of Plateliai. This monument is dedicated to the memory of the destroyed Lithuanian Jewish communities.

The 12-acre garden replicates the outline of Lithuania, and the places where Jewish communities were destroyed in 1941-1944 are marked with forged metal apple trees. The author of the forged apples is Artūras Platakis. Apples in trees - families who lived in communities. Litvaks all over the world can contribute to the creation of the garden by ordering new apple trees and apples in memory of their ancestors. Karelian granite columns are also being erected in the garden to individually honor the achievements of Litvaks in the world.

In 2016, this initiative was expanded - the commemoration of Lithuanian Lithuanian and Jewish saviors during the Holocaust was commemorated with apple trees. The stand at the entrance to the garden tells about the former Jewish communities of Lithuania in numbers.

At the moment, an apple tree has already "grown" in the garden in memory of the Jewish communities of Alytus, Alsėdžii, Kalvarija, Mosėdis, Plateliai, Plungė, Telšiai, Vabalninka, Viekšnii and others.

A memorial to the victims of the Kaušėnai Holocaust has been installed in the village of Kaušėnai (Plungė district) at the site of the Jewish massacre. The memorial is dedicated to the memory of the Jewish community of Plunge and surrounding villages destroyed during the Second World War.

The memorial was founded on the initiative of the last Jew of Plunge, Jakov Bunka. The first monument was erected in 1952 to the victims of the Second World War, and in 1986-1989 a memorial was built to honor the dead Jews. In 2011, the Memorial Wall was installed, which is made of 1,800 bricks from the demolished Plunge synagogue, each of which is dedicated to the memory of the murdered person, and plaques with the known names of 1,200 (out of 1,800) Jews are attached to the wall. Rescuers' Alley has been created next to the memorial, where individuals who saved condemned Jews in Plunge and its surroundings during the Nazi occupation are listed on separate name columns.

On July 12-13, 1941, about 1,800 Jews from the Plunge region were killed and buried in the Plunge synagogue in brutal conditions. On the day of the genocide, those who could walk were driven to walk 5 km to the place of execution, others were transported by trucks in separate groups. The victims were ordered to dig holes for themselves, after which they were shot. The other group had to bury the dead and dig a new hole for themselves.

The memorial is in the top ten of the most impressive memorials reflecting the tragedy of the European Jewish people.

A hill called Jazminų kalnas, located on the outskirts of the town of Plateliai. At the foot of the hill in July 1941, 30 Jews from Plateliai were shot (some of the Jews from Plateliai were shot on the Laumalenkai Peninsula). During the interwar period, about 100 Jews lived in Plateliai, but “[…] the fate of all was the same. At first, as was customary, they gathered the men, right here near Plateliai, you see, where the monument stands – they shot them there. A couple of weeks later, they took the women, children, and the elderly here, outside Plateliai, a few kilometers away into the forest, and shot everyone there,” said Eugenijus Bunka, the son of Holocaust survivor folk artist Jakovas Bunka.

Around 1985, his father, folk artist Jakovas Bunka, carved and erected a decorative sculpture of Moses on the mountain. In 2016, the sculpture collapsed, and in 2018, a copy was erected, carved by folk artist Antanas Vaškis.

At the foot of the mountain, a monumental granite slab was also erected in memory of the Jewish genocide, with inscriptions in Yiddish and Lithuanian: "The blood of 30 Jews – children, women, men – was shed here. They were brutally murdered by nationalists and their local collaborators in July 1941. May the memory of the innocent victims be sacred." In 2019, two more granite slabs were added with a list of Jews living in Plateliai in 1939.

Venclauskių House-Museum is an exclusive residential house of interwar historicist architecture located in the city of Šiauliai. The building, nicknamed the White House, was built in 1926. in the former Šiauliai suburb lands for the family of Kazimieros and Stanislavas Venclauskiu. Kazimieras and Stanislava Venclauskiai - actors of the Lithuanian national movement and the restoration of the Lithuanian state, also famous as guardians of many strays and orphans.
During World War II, Stanislava Venclauskienė and her daughters Danuta and Gražbyle became famous as saviors of Jews. Despite the fact that the German commandant's office was located in their house during the war, they helped the Jews imprisoned in the Šiauliai ghetto and hid them at home. Danutė Venclauskaitė had permission to enter the Šiauliai ghetto, visiting there secretly bringing food and medicine. All three women have received the title of Righteous Among the Nations and have been awarded the Cross for the Rescue of the Perishing.
in 1991 Gražbylė and Danutė Venclauskaitė donated the family home to the "Aušros" museum in Šiauliai. In the building in 2019 after the reconstruction, the Venclauskių House-Museum was established. The permanent exposition of the museum tells the story of the Venclauski family, and the rooms in the basement are devoted to the themes of the Holocaust and the rescue of Jews.

Until 1890 The Russian Empire had built a system of fortifications around the perimeter of the city of Kaunas. It included 8 forts and 9 artillery batteries. The construction of IX Fort started in 1902, but was completed shortly before the First World War. During the time of the Lithuanian state, 1924 the fort became a branch of Kaunas prison. During the USSR, the NKVD prison was located here, as a transfer point to the GULAG camps. During the German occupation - the Holocaust, it was a place of execution. Today, a history museum has been established here.