The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

Pre-1940: Alytus (Yiddish: Olite), town, apskritis center, Lithuania; 1940–1941: Alytus/Olita, uezd center, Lithuanian SSR; 1941–1944: Olita, Kreis center, Gebiet Kauen-Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post-1991: Alytus, rajonas and apskritis center, Republic of Lithuania

Alytus is located 56 kilometers (35 miles) south of Kaunas. In 1939, the Jewish population of the town was about 1,730, including a number of Jewish refugees from the Suwałki Region, which was annexed by Germany in 1939.¹

German armed forces attacked the town on June 22, 1941. During the fighting, which lasted until June 24, 214 residences and 160 other buildings were destroyed by German bombardment.² A number of Jews died in the bombing and under the ruins, but on June 23, after two members of the Wehrmacht had been found killed near a mill, German soldiers shot the first civilians: 42 people, some of whom were Jews.³

Immediately after the occupation of the town, Lithuanian nationalist activists established local authorities. The commandant of the town (later the mayor) was Major of the General Staff Juozas Ivašauskas, and the head of the district was Captain Stepas Maliauskas. The head of the district police was Air Force Captain Antanas Audronis; the chief of the Lithuanian Security Police was Lieutenant of the Reserve Pranas Zenkevišius; and the head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police was Alfonsas Nykštaitis. At their disposal for the guarantee of order and security in the town of Alytus in July 1941 were 50 policemen and 100 Lithuanian partisans.⁴ The newly created Lithuanian institutions were subordinated at first to the German military commandant (Hauptmann von der Marwitz); after August 5, when authority in Lithuania was transferred to a German civil administration, the Gebietskommissar Kauen-Land, SA-Oberführer Arnold Lentzen, assumed command.

According to Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, several prominent Jewish citizens, including Dr. Abramovich and Rav Levin, were arrested soon after the occupation; they were forced to work until near exhaustion, and then some were killed. On June 25, 1941, several hundred Jews were taken to Suwałki by Lithuanian nationalists for forced labor and killed. Other instances of violence occurred before the creation of the ghetto in Alytus—including the destruction of a synagogue after hundreds of Jews had been forced inside.

On July 1, 1941, the town mayor ordered the organization, as of July 5, of forced labor for Jewish males aged between 16 and 55 and Jewish females between 16 and 45.⁵ The forced labor consisted of clearing the streets of rubble created by the bombardments.

On July 12, a series of new restrictions applying to Jews was announced: as of July 14, they had to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing; they could not use the sidewalks; they were subject to a curfew between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.; they could shop only after 11:00 a.m.; they were prohibited from trading with non-Jews, while other Lithuanians were forbidden to sell food to the Jews; Jews also could not use the services of non-Jewish hired workers; and they were forbidden to swim in certain parts of the Memel River, to move from one place to another, or even to speak Yiddish on the telephone. They had to hand over radios, bicycles, and motorcycles, and they could not appear in public places in groups of more than two people.⁶ On July 14, 1941, the German military commandant’s office established a daily food ration for the Jews: 875 grams (3 ounces) of bread per week, 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of flour, and 75 grams (2.6 ounces) of groats.⁷

At the same time that these restrictions went into effect, the Lithuanian policemen and Lithuanian partisans began arresting and shooting Communists and Jews. In the entire Alytus district, before July 16, 1941, 82 Communists were shot, 389 arrests were made, and 345 more people were under investigation.⁸ As a result of denunciations, in the town of Alytus alone, before the end of August 1941, 36 Communists, 9 members of the Red Army, and “a large number of Jews” were arrested.⁹

In late July and early August 1941, all the Jews of Alytus were placed in a ghetto, for which several streets in the poorest part of town were allocated. The ghetto contained between 1,300 and 1,500 people, including Jews from the surrounding area. Responsibility for maintaining order in the ghetto was assigned to the Jewish Council (Judenrat), which had three members (the lawyers Halperin and Salansky, as well as Kopl Nemunaitzky).¹⁰ Information regarding living conditions in the ghetto remains scant, as very few of its inmates survived.

The liquidation of the ghetto in Alytus was carried out in several phases. First, on August 13, 1941, 617 men and 100 women were shot. From August 13 to August 31, 233 more Jews were shot, mainly people who were forced to come to Alytus [End Page 1039] from neighboring localities. On September 9, 1941, the liquidation of the ghetto was completed: 1,279 people were shot (287 men, 640 women, and 352 children).¹¹ The victims also included Jews from nearby localities, around 1,000 in number, who not long before this Aktion had been forcibly driven into the town and were held for a short time in the yard of the prison.¹² The shootings were carried out in the Vidzgiris Forest by a detachment of Einsatzkommando 3, assisted by the Lithuanian Security Police under the leadership of Zenkevišius and 20 Lithuanian partisans led by Jonas Borevišius. Also participating in the last mass shooting was a Lithuanian platoon under the leadership of Air Force Lieutenant Bronius Norkus, which was subordinated to Einsatzkommando 3.¹³

Among the few Jews from Alytus who survived were some who received help from local Lithuanians. For example, two Lithuanians hid the Jewish girls Belkin and Chayah Kaplan throughout the occupation period. Another Lithuanian woman was imprisoned for helping Jews, as was a Lithuanian peasant, who was arrested and tortured for assisting Jews.¹⁴