KAMAJAI
Pre-1940: Kamajai (Yiddish: Kamei), village, Rokiškis apskritis, Lithuania; 1940–1941: Kamajai/Kamaiai, Rokishkis uezd, Lithuanian SSR; 1941–1944: Kamajai, Kreis Rokischken, Gebiet Ponewesch-Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post-1991: Rokiškis rajonas, Panevėžys apskritis, Republic of Lithuania
Kamajai is located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) east-northeast of Panevėžys. In 1923, there were 336 Jews living in Kamajai, comprising 53 percent of the total population.
German forces occupied Kamajai on June 26, 1941. A number of Jews attempted to escape to the Soviet Union, but many became trapped in Rokiškis and shared the fate of the Jews there. In the interim period, before the arrival of the Germans, Lithuanian nationalists took revenge on Jews for the repression of Lithuanians under Soviet rule; several Jews were murdered, and others were beaten or had their property ransacked. The savagery against the Jews continued under German occupation. Jews were evicted from their homes and imprisoned in the large synagogue without regular provision of food or water.
A few weeks later all the Jewish men were sent to Rokiškis, where they were held briefly under even worse conditions. The women and children were sent to the nearby village of Obeliai. All the remaining Kamajai Jews were murdered between August 15 and August 27, 1941, together with other Jews from nearby towns and villages. The men were shot first in the Velniaduobė Woods, 5 kilometers (3 miles) north of Rokiškis. The women and children were shot later near the village of Antanašė, 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of Obeliai. The shootings were conducted by units of Rollkommando Hamann, subordinated to Einsatzkommando 3, assisted by Lithuanian partisans.1
After the liberation, only a few Jews returned to Kamajai. Most of those who survived had managed to escape to the Soviet Union in time.
SOURCES
Information about the persecution and murder of the Jews of Kamajai can be found in the following publications: Dov Levin and Yosef Rosin, eds., Pinkas ha-kehilot. Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities: Lithuania (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1996), p. 604; Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, The Annihilation of Lithuania Jewry (New York: Judaica Press, 1995), pp. 198–199; and Guy Miron, ed., The Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of the Ghettos during the Holocaust (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2010), p. 280.
Relevant documentation can be found in the following archives: LYA and RGVA (500-1-25).
NOTES
1. Report of Einsatzkommando 3, December 1, 1941, RGVA, 500-1-25, pp. 111–112; Josef Levinson, ed., The Shoah (Holocaust) in Lithuania (Vilnius: Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 2006), p. 503; Alfonsas Eidintas, Jews, Lithuanians and the Holocaust (Vilnius: Versus Aureus, 2003), pp. 288–289.
