StudyGuide - Courses

Uncovering the Holocaust by Bullets

Watch the testimony video, read accompanying documents and answer related questions.

Access to accompanying documents

Witness

Aniceta B.

Country

Lithuania

Birthdate and Birthplace

1931, Pabaliai

Year of video recording

2013

InEvidence link (YahadMap)

Know more

Žagarė, LITHUANIA

Žagare is situated 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of Šiauliai. Pabaliai is located east of a little town called Žagarė which can be found on the northern border of Lithuania near Latvia. Before the war, approximately 2,000 people in Žagarė were Jewish, making up 40% of the population. The town was occupied by German troops in late June, 1941. In July 1941, a ghetto was created in Žagarė for the Jewish population of the Šiauliai region. Both Soviet and German archives reference a shooting in late August 1941 where approximately 40 Jewish men were killed by nationalists and Lithuanian policemen. In early October, 1941, the Žagarė ghetto was liquidated and almost 3,000 Jews were shot in a 120m-long ditch. The shooters were Lithuanian nationalists that were following German orders. After the execution, they organized an auction of the Jews’ belongings at the marketplace. Aniceta witnessed the roundup, the execution of the Jews, and the auction of their belongings.

Aniceta B., born in 1931 © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum

Anicetas house in Pabaliai © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum

Aniceta in an interview with Yahad-In Unum

The town of Žagarė today © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum

Glossary

Police/Local police
Under the Soviet system, local police did not exist. Denunciation to the central administration was the rule. The creation of a local police force was the only German administrative reform in the occupied Soviet territories. This police force received no training and can be likened to a militia.

The 'White Armbands'
The term 'White Armbands' was one of many designations for the Lithuanian TDA battalion (Lithuanian: Tautinio darbo apsaugos; lit.: "National Labor Service"). At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, it was set up by the Provisional Government of Lithuania as a paramilitary battalion and was intended to form the basis for a future independent Lithuanian army but was taken over by the Nazis and reorganized into the Lithuanian auxiliary police battalions. These two units actively participated in the mass murder of Jews in Lithuania and Belarus.

Questionnaire

1. How old was Aniceta at the time of the events?

2. What is the lay-out of the village of Zagare? At which two places did Aniceta witness the crime?

3. How were the Jews brought to the place of execution? Where did the murderers come to find the Jews? Where did they take them? Why was it impossible for the Jews to flee?

4. Who dug the pit?

5. Who supervised the Jews? Who were the shooters? What is the relationship between the teacher and the shooters?

6. What happened to the victims’ clothing?

7. What are the five stages of the crime?

8. What is Aniceta’s opinion of the killers and looters?

9. Why do you think the witness is willing to testify nearly 80 years after the events?

10. Why do you think it’s important to collect and teach about this type of testimony?

Additional Resources

Access supplementary materials, including articles and further reading suggestions, for a comprehensive learning experience.

Historical notes

Before the Second World War 40% of the population of Žagare were Jewish, about 1,928 people. Before the town was occupied by German army at the end of June 1941, it owned seven synagogues, a hebrew school as well as Jewish sports clubs and an own Jewish People’s bank.

The jewish football team of Žagarė © JewishGen

A class photograph of a jewish kindergarten in Žagarė © Yahad- In Unum

1925, A street scene in the new neighbourhood. © Yahad-In Unum

Sources / Archives

Soviet archives

Soviet archives
"On the day of the Jewish New Year, in September 1941, the Žagarė Police requisitioned me to dig pits in the Park of Culture together with 120-130 other people. We worked for two days. On the third day, just before lunchtime, German partisans of Lithuanian origin started to bring the Jews in trucks from the market place to the pits. The trucks were full. The Jews got out of the trucks, undressed completely and lined up near the pit in groups. Some had to lie down at the edge of the pit. After that they were shot with submachine guns and rifles." [Deposition of eyewitness Jonas Labanovich, born in 1886, Lithuanian origin, tinsmith; RG-22.002M.7021-94/436]

German archives
"As the first trucks were full of bodies and wounded Jews, there were others with Jews still alive, men, women, children and the elderly among them. The Jews brought to the park had to get down from the trucks about 30m away from the pit and had to undress until they were in their underwear or even completely. Afterwards the Jews were pushed into the pit in little groups and shot. They were shot by soldiers wearing the uniform of the former Lithuanian army. […] German soldiers in green uniform stayed standing around the killing site. One German was inside the pit firing at the Jews with a short automatic gun. […] 3.000 Jews were shot in the town park of Žagare." [Deposition of a digger Kasis J., born in 1903; B162-7264]

PICTURES GALLERY

YIU TEAM WITH ANICETA B.

On the memorial there is written in Lithuanian and Yiddish: "This is the place where on 2 October 1941 the Nazi criminals and their local collaborators murdered 3,000 Jewish men, women and children from the Šiauliai district". © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum