Mažieji Lietuvos žydų getai ir laikinos izoliavimo stovyklos 1941-1943 metais

ENThe author of this article deals with the set-up, functioning and liquidation of the small Jewish ghettos and interim detention (concentration) camps with the aim of defining their specific features and role in the Nazi Holocaust leading to the eradication of the Lithuanian Jewish community. While large ghettos (in particular those of Vilnius and Kaunas) have been analysed in rather great detail both by Lithuanian and foreign historians, those of smaller towns have not yet received proper attention. The present article examines the differences between the large and small ghettos in terms of the statistics, confinement conditions, duration and other related aspects. The study is based on the method of regional selection, i.e., at least one ghetto and/or detention camp from each major area of Lithuania (Žemaitija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija and Dzūkija) were chosen for analysis. The foundation of the ghettos and detention camps in Lithuania was a constituent part of the Nazi Holocaust policy. The initiators of the persecution of the Jewish people were the German occupational institutions (the Nazi Security Police and Sicherheitsdienst (SD), military commandants and district commissars); they also organized the mass killings. Lithuanian administrative bodies and police subject to the Nazis were involved in the implementation of the Holocaust. The set-up of ghettos and camps was launched in July 1941 and it proceeded almost simultaneously throughout Lithuania. Most of those ghettos and camps existed merely a few weeks. Only in Lazdijai and Vilkaviškis they were liquidated in November and in Telšiai in December of the same year.Large numbers of Jews had been killed before the final liquidation of the ghettos and camps- During mass exterminations the men were the first to be shot, then followed the women, and lastly the children were killed. Mass killings were led by German Gestapo officers. Lithuanian police and the so- called partisans brought the victims to the site of the massacre and guarded the place. Often they themselves participated in the killings. The liquidation processes were conducted extremely efficiently and carried out smoothly. The occupational authorities were unanimous as regards the extermination of the Jewish people. Most probably those living in the provinces were not considered important as a labour force and they could be annihilated without detriment to the German military economy. Therefore tiic set-up of the ghettos and detention camps in small towns was only the initial stage in the preparation for the final extermination. The Jews were herded into ghettos and segregated from the non-Jews in order to make their organized extermination easier. [From the publication]