Massacre in Pravieniskės camp

1941 June 26 Prisoners' extermination campaign was carried out in Pravieniskes camp. Not only was the massacre different from other massacres, it was also the case that all prisoners of Pravieniskes camp and their caretakers with their families were killed without exception.

At the beginning of the war, 444 to 451 prisoners were imprisoned in Pravieniskes, behind three rows of barbed wire. Prisoners who have already been sentenced to imprisonment for up to two to four years have been detained here. Among them were 80 interned Poles, 20-30 of whom were convicted of various crimes. Pravieniškės camp also differed from other places of imprisonment in that all the guards and supervisors were Lithuanian. In addition, the inmates had to work on the hardest peat extraction work. Prisoners were constantly trying to flee the camp because of the terrible conditions in which they were being held, and its administration responded with the most brutal terror.

At the outbreak of the war, prisoners of Red Army were armed and deported (not only in Lithuania, but also in Gudia, Ukraine). The camp guard was strengthened and the remaining prisoners closed in barracks. June 26 a Red Army platoon with armored vehicles arrived at the camp. According to the testimony of surviving prisoners, the initiator of the shooting was the release of Lieutenant from the camp when the war began. Kiselev (the 5th Division of the USSR 11th Army retreated there, and it is believed that Lieutenant Kiseliov arrived with a unit of troops from that division). His revenge can be used to explain the shooting of the caretakers and their families. 21 camp workers, 6 women and 13 and 16-year-old girls were killed.

The Red Army lined up prisoners driven from the barracks to the enclosed courtyard and began firing on machine guns and machine guns. Shoot for 15-20 minutes. According to K. Gailius, the survivor of the massacre, "there was an unimaginably screaming scream, supplications and moans of the wounded. [...] Those who were closer to the high barbed fence were already injured, clinging to the barbed wire with their bloody hands, and falling to the ground again for hitting. " The survivors ended up with a bayonet and a grenade dropped into the heap of corpses and wounded. Kaunas City Commandant Officer Matas Valeika 1941 June 28 the report said "230 people were killed and caretakers with their families were also shot. That day, 444 people on the meal lists. Meaning, 214 have escaped. Among them, 50 were injured. Some of them died during the evacuation ”(ambulance arrived from Kaunas only on June 28 due to the raging surrounded Red Army workers). About 260 people were victims of this crime.

1941 June 29 In the territory of Pravieniškės camp 182 dead bodies were buried, 50 of them were taken away by relatives.