Destruction Timeline
The Timetable of Destruction / Dr. Aharon Einat, Yiddish translation from the booklet "Return to Vilnius - 50 Years Later"
1941
22nd June: Nazi Germany declared war on the Soviet Union; thousands of Jews make their way to the Soviet border.
24th June: The German army occupies Vilna; the Jews are persecuted en route; the Nazi hell is just beginning.
25th June: A group of public activists, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are held hostage.
27th June: The Lithuanian Volunteer Police start abducting Jews for ‘work’.
4th July: Decree: Jews have to wear a white patch; the first Judenrat is established.
8th July: Decree: Jews are prohibited from moving about in the main streets.
10th July: An Aktion in Szpitalna Street: 123 Jews were shot as a ‘punishment’ for Jews having shot some Germans; another group of Jews were murdered in the Borovisk forest without any explanation.
11th July: The first mass murder of Vilna’s Jews in Ponar.
12th July: Aktion - Rabbis: rabbis were caught and murdered after being tortured.
13th July: The Gestapo kidnap Jews on the streets.
14th July: The Užupis Aktion: the Jews of Užupis are taken to their death.
15th July: Decree: the white patch is replaced by a yellow one; the Special Squad of the Lithuanian Police are given the task of systematically kidnapping Jews but take advantage of it to kill Jewish men.
17th July: The Novogrod Aktion: 800 Jews are taken to their death.
3rd August: Decree: Jews are prohibited from walking on the pavements or being on the streets after 6 p.m.
6th August: Decree: Jews have to give a ‘donation’ of 5 million rubles.
7th August: 3 million rubles were transferred to the German government; the Jewish representatives – Eliezer Kruck and Shmuel Feitochovsky – are shot to death.
24th August: Dr. Ya’akov Vigodski, the elderly community head, is arrested.
31st Aug – 1st Sept: The Great Provocation – 5,000 Vilna Jews were murdered.
6th Sept: Vilna Jews are expeltaken into the ghettoes: about 29,000 in Ghetto no. I and about 11,000 into Ghetto no. II.
7th Sept: Jews from Pohulanka, Antokol, Lida, Kalvariska and other streets are crammed into Lukiškės Prison; the Judenrat and the ghetto police are located in the ghetto.
15-12th Sept: The Jews from the Lukiškės Prison are taken to Ponar.
20th Sept: The Trakai Aktion: 550 Jews from Trakai were murdered.
22-23rd Sept: Rosh HaShana: Vilochan Aktion – 1,000 Jews from Vilna from peat bog brigades in Kena, Shums’k, Kamarava, and 3,000 Jews from the villages of New Vileyka, Turgeliai, Jashon (Jašiūnai), Miedniki, Rukan (Rukainai) were murdered at Ponar.
27-28th Sept: Swinzian Aktion: massacre of the Jews from Swinzian, Heydusik and Ignalina.
1st Oct: Yom Kippur Aktion: 2,200 Jews from Ghetto no. I and 1,700 Jews from Ghetto no. II are shot to death at Ponar.
3rd-4th Oct; 2,000 Jews from Ghetto no. II are taken to Ponar.
15-16th Oct: The day after Succot: 3,000 Jews from Ghetto no. II are taken to Ponar.
21st Oct: Ghetto no. II is liquidated: 2,500 Jews are taken to Ponar.
22nd Oct: The Elderly Aktion.
24th Oct: The yellow Schein Aktion: only 3,000 Jews and 9,000 relatives received yellow work permits (each Schein holder was allowed to register three family members), and were given permission to live in the Ghetto. All the others were sentenced to death, including 5,000 who were taken to Ponar.
3rd-4th Nov: The Second Yellow Schein Aktion: about 1,200 Jews are murdered.
15th Nov: The Voranava Aktion: all the residents of Voranava and Binyakon as well as 265 Vilna Jews were shot to death in the village.
4th Dec: Gestapo Workers Aktion: 300 family members of Gestapo workers were murdered.
5th Dec: Underworld Aktion: 160 were killed.
17th Dec: Aktion in Yadi, Kimelishk and other villages.
20th-21st Dec: Chanukah: The Pink (family permit) Schein Aktion: about 400 Vilna Jews were murdered: Moshe Haus and Goldstein resisted and were shot during the struggle.
1942
April-May: Aktions in the following villages: Ilya, Dolhinov, Dakshitz, Vasilishki, Vileyka, Kurenets (Belarus), Krivich.
12th May: Liquidation of the village of Iwye.
15th May: Liquidation of the village of Nemenčinė.
June: Aktions in the villages: Disna (3,000 Jews), Braslaw, Germanovichi, Doksycy, Druya, Halovich, Ziavki, Yadi, Luzhki, Miyari, Neu Fahust, Padsvillye, Plissa, Prozaroki, Shifa.
17th July: Aktion – liquidation of Druya: 2,500 Jews. Pospaishek Aktion: 100 old men and women were taken under the pretext of resting in Pospaishek but were then taken from there to their final resting place in Ponar.
18th July: Aktion – liquidation of Sharkoitzina: 1,800 Jews.
July: Globoki Ghetto becomes a focal point for the rest of the Jewish communities in the vicinity.
3rd August: Liquidation of Volozin.
17th August: Liquidation of Mir.
October: Liquidation of Budslav.
22nd Nov: Liquidation of Dunilovich: 900 Jews.
25th Nov: Liquidation of Postov: 2,500 Jews.
1943
February: Liquidation of Oshmiany, Svencionys, Mikaliskis and Soly.
17th Feb: Lisa Magon, a partisan, shot at the Gestapo.
5th April: Kovno Aktion: 5,000 Jews from Vilna and the vicinity are shot to death in Ponar.
9th July: Vilna Jews in the Kena labor camp (200) and in Zidane labor camp (350) were murdered.
16-17th July: Itzik Wittenburg, commander of the FPO (Special Partisan Organization), surrenders to the Gestapo, is tortured and subsequently commits suicide.
27th July: The Brigadier Aktion.
6th August: The first deportation of 1,000 Vilna Jews to the Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia.
19-24th August: The second deportation to Estonia.
20th August: Liquidation of the Globoki Ghetto: the surviving Jews from villages which had already been liquidated: 6,000 Jews from Globoki, Vilna, Bildugi, Braslaw, Germanovich, Dolhinov, Disna, Drysk, Druya, Haydútsetshik, Zahatia, Ziaki, Luzhki, Svintsyán, Shkuntikim, Podbródzh, Parafianava, Plissa, Prozoriki, Shifa and other settlements. On the same day, settlements in Kazan (300 Jews) and New Fahust were liquidated.
1st Sept: FPO uprising at 12 Strashun Street. The death of the commander of the Yehiel Sheinbaum group; mass deportation to Estonia.
14th Sept: Mass deportation to Estonia.
16th Sept: In addition to the Kailis camp which had previously been established, the HKP labor camp was set up with about 1,000 Jews.
18th Sept: The Ukranians and the Lithuanians surround the Vilna Ghetto. The Aktion is cancelled.
23rd Sept: Liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto: about 7,000 young, able-bodied Jews are sent to labor camps in Estonia; the women and children to Sobibor; the elderly and sick to Ponar. Four Jews are hanged in Russia Square: Assia Beig, Yankele Kaplan, Abrasha Kvinik and Levine
1944
27th March: Children’s Aktion in the two labor camps remaining in Vilna, Kailis and HKP.
Jan-April: The front is drawing near; a group of Jews burn the bodies of 70,000 who had been murdered at Ponar.
15th April: Last day of Passover: a large number of those who had burned the bodies escape from Ponar through a tunnel they had dug. Most were caught and shot to death.
May: 200 Jews from HKP were murdered at the Kozlova Ruda camp.
1st-3rd July: Liquidation of two labor camps in Vilna, HKP and Kailis. Over 2,000 Jews were murdered; a group of workers engaged in maintaining the Gestapo gardens were transferred to the Ninth Fort in Kovno where they were shot to death on 3rd July.
13th July: Red Army soldiers enter a Jew-free Vilna. Jewish fighters from the partisan bases join them.
19th Sept: Rosh HaShana: 1,800 Jews are shot to death and burned in Klooga, Estonia.
Sept.-Dec: 800 Jews gather in liberated Vilna.
1945
29th Jan: 2,000 Vilna Jews are shot to death and drowned in the Baltic Sea near Fischausen, Kaliningrad.
1945 - 1946: The remaining refugees from Vilna and the vicinity leave. After 500 years of glorious Jewish life, only the Ponar city of tombs is what is left of the ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania’.
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