The Holocaust in Marijampolė. Places of Jewish mass execution.

The Holocaust ( Gr. – hólos „whole“ + kaustós „burnt“) or the Jewish word Shoah ( Hebr. HaShoah  – „catastrophe“) is mass execution of the Jews, which took place during the WWII in European territories occupied by nationalsocialists. People living in the occupied areas often collaborated and helped nationalsocialists. Lithuanians and people from Marijampolė also collaborated with the Nazis. Collaboration with the nationalsocialist government and the assistance in murdering the Jew communities throughout Lithuania are the most sorrowful and painful events in Lithuanian history.  The Holocaust in Lithuania is treated as the greatest catastrophe in the history of new times. 96 percent of Jews were murdered in Lithuania. The survivors were those who, as the front was moving,  managed to escape to the depth of Soviet Russia or were saved by Lithuanians. It is told that the interwar famous family the Babarskai, saved a nine-month girl born in Kaunas ghetto,  Rūta, the daughter of a Jew Leiba Bass.

The military town of Marijampolė – the barracks standing out in the town area – was built in the second half of the 19th century according to the standards of Russian Empire. All Marijampolė Jews were driven into the part of the barracks that the people called stable and were imprisoned there. In the territory of the barracks on September 1, 1941 around 5090 of Jews – men, women, children – were shot. The execution took place from 10 o‘clock in the morning till 4 o‘clock in the afternoon. The shooting and cries were heard around, not more than 15 nationalsocialists were assisted by twice as many local Lithuanians. About 300 Jews who tried to escape were killed.

They were killed and buried in the northern part of the military town, near the river Šešupė (present Varpo street). The Jews from vicinal places – Balbieriškis, Kalvarija and Liudvinavas – were also killed here. The Jews from Marijampolė district were killed in the places around Marijampolė – in Rūdžiai grove (Šunskai eldership, Rūdžiai village) and Šunskai grove. The places of their death are marked with memorial stones there. September 23rd is significant to all people in Lithuania and Marijampolė as it is the Day of the Jewish genocide – commemoration of the murdered victims of the Holocaust.