Ignalino
IGNALINO Pre- 1939: Ignalino (Yiddish: Ignaline), village, Wilno województwo, Poland; 1939– 1940: Ignalina, Švenˇcionys apskritis, Lithuania; 1940– 1941: Ignalina/Ignalino, Sventsiany uezd, Lithuanian SSR; 1941– 1944: Ignalina, Kreis Schwentschionys, Gebiet Wilna- Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post- 1991: rajonas center, Utena apskritis, Republic of Lithuania Ignalino is located 84 kilometers (52 miles) north- northeast of Wilno. In 1925, there were 593 Jews living in Ignalino out of a total population of 773. On the outbreak of war in 1939, there were approximately 800 Jews residing there. Between September 1939 and June 1941, the inhabitants of Ignalino witnessed two regime changes, as the region was first transferred from Polish to Lithuanian control in the fall of 1939, then came under Soviet rule in June 1940. At the start of the German invasion in June 1941, very few Jews managed to flee the village. German armed forces occupied the town at the end of June. In the first days of the German- Soviet war, a Lithuanian partisan squad of 20 to 30 men, headed by Jonas Liutkeviius, was formed in the area, which subsequently became an auxiliary police unit. The Lithuanian partisans, who wore white armbands, participated in the widespread plunder of Jewish property. The partisans also soon started to arrest Communists and Jews. Most of those arrested were taken into the forest near Lake Ilgio, where they were shot and buried. According to the research of Arunas Bubnys, based on Soviet trial records, the partisans shot 14 Red Army soldiers and 26 Communist activists in late June 1941, then another group of 30 men and women, most of them Jews, in the first or second week of July. Soviet postwar exhumations uncovered four mass graves, containing the bodies of 32 civilians and 25 soldiers. During July 1941, in the area around Ignalino, a group of 10 Jewish men, women, and children was murdered in the village of Maksimonys and another 10 between the lakes of Mekšrinis and Pel|dinis. In early July 1941, units of the German army passed through the village, humiliating the Jews; but they soon moved on to the east. According to the recollections of Jewish survivor Tevye Solomyak, a new Lithuanian local administration, headed by Izidorius Tijulenis, assisted by police chief Vladas Žil|nas and other partisans, administered Ignalino on behalf of the Germans. The new authorities issued a series of anti- Jewish regulations. Jews were ordered to wear yellow patches, they were prohibited from using the sidewalks or having any contacts with non-Jews, and they were confined to the village. Within a few weeks a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was appointed, which included Dovid Soloveytzik, Ele Gilinsky, Gershon Kideshman, and Ruven Kagan among its members. The Jews were also required to perform forced labor, including especially degrading tasks during which they were beaten by the Lithuanian guards. In August 1941, authority in the region was officially transferred to the German civil administration, and Ignalino became part of Gebiet Wilna- Land, within Generalkommissariat Litauen. On August 18, 1941, Gebietskommissar Horst Wulff issued an order for the confinement of Jews within ghettos; another order, issued by the police chief in Swieciany, in mid August, instructed the local authorities to prepare for the transfer of the Jews of the Swieciany subdistrict to the barracks near Nowe Swieciany, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Swieciany, and for the confi scation of their property. According to the research of Christoph Dieckmann, based mainly on the testimony of Tevye Solomyak, on September, the Jews of Ignalino were moved into an open ghetto, which was located on Gavn Street (later Ateities Street), one of the poorest sections of town. The Jews were permitted to leave the ghetto for only one hour each day other than for forced labor. The Jews lived in overcrowded conditions, and there was very little food for the Jews, many of whom worked repairing the railway lines. Estimates of the number of Jews in the ghetto vary between 400 and 1,200, but probably there were around 700 Jews living there. Even after the move into the ghetto, the Lithuanians continued to plunder the impoverished Jews; on one occasion, aged Rabbi Aaron Hyatt was beaten severely by a pillaging Lithuanian. During September, reports of the mass murders in other Lithuanian towns started to arrive from Utena, Ligmainai, and Dukszty. Allegedly the Judenrat was warned on September 20, 1941, that something terrible was about to happen. However, the Judenrat did not pass on this warning throughout the ghetto, for fear of spreading panic.7 Shortly before September 26, the Jews had to pay a “contribution” of 21,000 rubles to the Lithuanian authorities. By now armed Lithuanian partisans were guarding the ghetto perimeter to prevent any escapes. It is estimated that about 80 Jews, including the families of some Judenrat members, managed to flee just before or during the ghetto’s liquidation, mainly to other ghettos in neighboring Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien. In late September 1941, the Germans liquidated the Ignalino ghetto. Uniformed Germans and armed Lithuanian policemen entered the ghetto to assemble the Jews at a central point. During the roundup some Lithuanians acted with great cruelty, killing a small child and raping a woman. The assembled Jews were then escorted to an overcrowded barracks at the military camp (fi ring range), also known as the Poligon transit camp, near Nowe Swieciany. Carts driven by local peasants were used to transport the old, sick, and children, while the remainder had to walk. On October 9, 1941, after being held in the Poligon camp for more than a week under atrocious conditions, most of the Jews from Ignalino were shot, along with other Jews who had been collected in these barracks. Only a small group of craftsmen was selected just before the shooting and moved to the Swieciany ghetto.
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