ŠVĖKŠNA
Pre-1940: Švėkšna (Yiddish: Shvekshne), village, Tauragė apskritis, Lithuania; 1940–1941: Švėkšna/Shvekshna, Taurage uezd, Lithuanian SSR; 1941–1944: Schwekschne, Kreis Tauroggen, Gebiet Schaulen-Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post-1991: Švėkšna, Šilutė rajonas, Klaipeda apskritis, Republic of Lithuania
Švėkšna is located 51 kilometers (32 miles) northwest of Tau-ragė. According to the census of 1923, Švėkšna had a Jewish population of 519. By June 1941, the size of the community had been reduced somewhat by emigration in the 1930s.
German forces occupied the village on June 22, 1941, the day of their invasion of the USSR, and therefore almost no Jews managed to evacuate. Before the village was taken, it was subjected to artillery bombardment, and this caused many Jews to flee to surrounding villages. Upon returning, however, they found that Lithuanians had looted their homes.
As soon as the town was captured, Lithuanian nationalists formed a local authority and a police force, which began implementing anti-Jewish measures. The Jews had to surrender all radios, bicycles, and precious metal objects. They were prohibited from using the sidewalks or associating in any way with non-Jewish Lithuanians. They also were required to wear yellow patches in the shape of the Star of David on their clothing. Jewish men were compelled to perform heavy labor and Jewish women to do menial cleaning jobs.
On June 27, 1941, members of the 2nd SS-Sturm/20th SS-Reiter-Standarte (SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Struve commanded the Standarte; SS-Untersturmführer Theodor Werner Scheu led the Sturm), assisted by Lithuanian partisans, gathered about 150 to 200 able-bodied Jewish males in the synagogue. They were instructed to bring a cup, a plate, and a change of clothes. After forcing the Jews to witness the burning of their religious books, the Jews were shaven, robbed, beaten, and forced to perform gymnastics. The physical abuse lasted several hours. The following day, Scheu selected 120 of these men, including the town’s rabbi, and they were taken on trucks to the labor camp at Heydekrug (Šilutė). Those deemed unfit for labor were probably killed outside the village. Many of the Jews sent to Heydekrug became victims of the successive killings at the camp in the summer and fall of 1941. Only a few survived to be transferred, first in July 1943 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, then after selections there, on to other locations in the camp system.1
In Švėkšna, 4 women and 1 man were killed on the spot on June 27 after leaving their homes in violation of instructions to remain at home. On June 28, Lithuanian partisans murdered 3 more girls, who were Komsomol members. According to German investigative sources, at least 20 Jews were murdered in Švėkšna at the end of June or in July 1941, either by members of the Border Police from Memel or the Staatspolizei based in Tilsit.2
The approximately 300 women, children, and old people remaining in the village were moved into a ghetto, which was located on the “Jewish Street.” The women were forced into hard labor and suffered from hunger and physical abuse.
The ghetto was liquidated on September 22, 1941. Lithuanian partisans shot the remaining Jews in a forest between the villages of Inkakliai and Raudiškiai.3
SOURCES
Information on the fate of the Jewish community of Švėkšna during the Holocaust can be found in these publications: Dov Levin and Yosef Rosin, eds., Pinkas ha-kehilot. Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities: Lithuania (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1996), pp. 673–676; Ruth Leiserowitz, “Grenzregion als Grauzone. Heydekrug—eine Stadt an der Peripherie Ostpreussens,” in Christian Pletzing, ed., Vorposten des Reichs?: Ostpreussen 1933–1945 (Munich: Meidenbauer, 2006), pp. 129–149, here pp. 138–149; Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, The Annihilation of Lithuania Jewry (New York: Judaica Press, 1995), pp. 253–254; and “Sveksna,” in Shmuel Spector and Geoffrey Wigoder, eds., The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and during the Holocaust (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem; New York: New York University Press, 2001), p. 1268.
Documentation regarding the murder of the Jews of Švėkšna can be found in the following archives: BA-L (ZStL, II 207162/59); GARF (7021-94-429); LCVA; and YVA (Leyb Koniuchovsky Collection, O-71/File 14; and O-3/2580).
NOTES
1. See LG-Aur, verdict of June 26, 1964, against Struve et al., in Justiz und NS-Verbrechen, vol. 20 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1979), Lfd. Nr. 579, pp. 308–310; Oshry, The Annihilation of Lithuania Jewry, p. 254.
2. See LG-Ulm, verdict of August 29, 1958, against Hans-Joachim Böhme et al., in JuNS-V, vol. 15 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1976), Lfd. Nr. 465, pp. 159–160. Very few details are available concerning this Aktion—it is possible this reflects the killing of those men deemed unfit for labor.
3. YVA, Leyb Koniuchovsky Collection, O-71/14 (testimony of Moshe Ment, Yitzchak Markowitz, Naphtali Ziv, and Meir Shmulevitz); and O-3/2580 (testimony of Meir Ladon).
