by Jurgita Šakienė, kaunodiena.lt

Thursday respects were paid in a schoolyard in Kaunas to the memory of around 50 men who were murdered brutally. These events of more than 80 years ago–the Lietūkis garage massacre–are among the most horrific in the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

Members of the Kaunas Jewish Community gathered at the site of the tragedy.

“We must not forget,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas said.

Members of the Jewish community then went to the old Jewish cemeteries in Slobodka and the Žaliakalnis neighborhoods. It is believed the bodies of victims were brought to these locations for burial.

The mass execution was carried out on June 27, 1941, at what is now Miško street. The executioners publicly humilaited, tortured and then murdered victims who had been rounded up at random as a crowd looked on. Their selection was based on their Jewish ethnicity.

According to eye-witnesses the victims were beaten with metal crowbars, sticks and boards…

Photographs by Laurynas Andrijauskas.