Paneriai

Introducing Paneriai

Here Lithuania's brutal history is starkly portrayed. Over 100, 000 people were murdered here by the Nazis between July 1941 and July 1944 at this mass-murder site, 10km southwest of central Vilnius. About half the city's Jewish population - about 35, 000 people - had already been massacred here by the end of the first three months of the German occupation (June to September 1941) at the hands of Einsatzkommando 9, an SS killing unit of elite Nazi troops. Lithuanian accomplices are accused of doing as much of the killing as their German overseers.

The forest entrance is marked by a memorial, the Panerių memorialas. The text in Russian, dating from the Soviet period, remembers the 100, 000 'Soviet citizens' killed here. The memorial plaques in Lithuanian and Hebrew - erected later - honour the 70, 000 Jewish victims.

A path leads to the shocking Paneriai Museum (Panerių muziejus; 264 1847, 260 2001; Agrastų gatvė 15; 11am-6pm Wed-Sat Jun-Sep, by appointment Oct-May). There are two monuments here, one Jewish (marked with the Star of David), the other one Soviet (an obelisk topped with a Soviet star). From here paths lead to a number of grassed-over pits where, from December 1943, the Nazis lined up 300 to 4000 victims at a time and shot them in the back of the head. The bodies were then covered with sand to await the next layer of bodies. The Nazis later burnt the exhumed corpses to hide the evidence of their crimes. One of the deeper pits, according to its sign, was where they kept those who were forced to dig up the corpses and pulverise the bones.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009