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Pravieniškės Cross

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At the beginning of the war, about 450 prisoners were held behind three rows of barbed wire in Pravieniškės. These were prisoners already sentenced, serving short terms of 2-4 years. Among them were 80 interned Poles, 20-30 Red Army soldiers convicted of various crimes, who were armed and taken away at the beginning of the war. The Pravieniškės camp was different from other detention centers in that all guards and overseers were Lithuanians. Additionally, prisoners were forced to do the hardest peat digging work. Due to the horrific detention conditions, prisoners constantly attempted to escape, which was met with brutal terror by the administration. On June 26, 1941, a squad of Red Army soldiers with an armored vehicle arrived at the camp. According to surviving prisoners, the shooting was initiated by Lieutenant Kiseliovas, who had been released from the camp at the start of the war. His revenge explains the shooting of the guards and their families. A total of 21 camp staff, 6 women, and two girls aged 13 and 16 were killed. The Red Army soldiers lined up the prisoners in the enclosed yard and began shooting

at them with machine guns and automatic rifles for 15-20 minutes. Surviving witness K. Gailius described the scene as "an unimaginably horrific scream, pleas, and groans of the wounded. […] Those closer to the high barbed wire fence, already wounded, clung to the wires with bloody hands and, hit again, collapsed to the ground." Those who survived the initial shooting were finished off with bayonets, and a grenade was thrown into the pile of corpses and wounded. According to a report by Kaunas city commandant officer Matas Valeika on June 28, 1941, "230 people were slaughtered, including guards with their families. On that day, there were 444 people on the feeding list, meaning 214 escaped, 50 of whom were wounded. Some died during the evacuation" (due to the rampaging Red Army soldiers, an ambulance from Kaunas arrived only on June 28). About 260 people fell victim to this crime. On June 29, 1941, the remains of 182 murdered individuals were buried in the Pravieniškės camp territory, while 50 were taken by their relatives. (Based on information from the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania)

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2025-11-17

Pravieniškės Cross

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