Before the Second World War, Jews in Šiauliai lived active political, professional and cultural life. They built synagogues, Jeshivas (spiritual study institutions) and other educational institutions, established trade unions, banks, hospitals, charitable organizations, and support institutions. Right before the war, there were about 6500-8000 Jews in Šiauliai.

The German Army, which arrived in Lithuania on June 26, 1941, first of all arranged to expel Soviet units from the state and quickly restore local administration and police. These bodies later began to systematically implement the aims of the new government. The city’s administration issued discriminatory statements against Jews one after another, and the police was begun to be consistently reformed into a paramilitary service. Initially, it was the secret military field police and later, the units of the German security police (the Gestapo) and of the security board of city departments, which became direct agents of the genocide policy. In the summer of 1941, on June 29, the first massacre of Šiauliai Jews took place in Kužiai forest, killing several thousand Jews and persons of other nationalities associated with communist activities. Later, in the autumn of the same year, another massacre was organized near Bubiai village and in Gubernija forest (Normančiai forest district), where the massacres were carried out by paramilitary police battalions under the supervision of German soldiers. In August, 1941, the transfer of Jews to both ghettos established in the city was completed. Ghetto inhabitants were forced to do compulsory work at Zokniai airport, in peatlands, plants, factories, etc. The emerging problems due to overcrowding in the ghetto were usually solved by German authorities by arranging a new arrest, which would end in massacres out of town. After the murderous period in 1941, the period till liquidation of ghettos was rather calm and its residents could slightly take breath. Self-governance with its administration and Jewish institutions taking care of order began to be formed in Šiauliai ghettos. In 1943, schools for children were established. However, at the end of 1943, one of the ghettos, named Kaukazas, all inhabitants of which were transferred to concentration camps, was liquidated, and in the middle of July of 1944, the same happened to another – Šiauliai – ghetto; its inhabitants were also transferred to German concentration camps. Only 350 to 500 Šiauliai Jews survived in these atrocities. It was a big blow to Šiauliai city, as the influence of the representatives of this nation on the city’s earlier development was undoubtedly significant (one of their representatives, Samuelis Petuchauskas, even worked as a deputy burgomaster of the city for many years); their traces in the flow of history are still reflected today in the memorial monuments capturing the past of Šiauliai city.

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Pergalės prieš Vokietiją minėjimas, centrinėje Šiaulių aikštėje.

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Šiaulių Didžiosios Choralinės sinagogos, vadintos Baltaja gulbe, griuvėsiai.

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The catastrophe brought by the Red Army began from the first days of occupation. Although at first glance, everything seemed to be going on ordinarily, since initially, most of the city institutions were left to work and remained almost non-reformed, but law-based violence began. The city authorities formed by the Soviets began issuing statutory ordinances and resolutions, which stipulated that the inhabitants of Šiauliai city and its vicinities had to build roads, bridges, military objects, bring fire wood from forests for the needs of the Red Army, etc. Four thousand soldiers of the Lithuanian Army were forced to build Gruzdžiai Airport. Farmers were required to transport building materials: stones, gravel, sand, forest products. In addition, it was obligatory to provide the Red Army units with food, and payment for food was much less than the market price. In the city, soldiers of the Army used to take apartments, houses, in some places, entire blocks for their own needs. In addition, local residents and organizations were required to give the weapons to the occupants. Even local police officers were no longer allowed to carry weapons outside office hours.

The overall nationalization wave organised by the occupants in Šiauliai did not miss anything: private flats, all larger residential houses, buses and trucks, hotels (including the main ‘Berlynas’ hotel), trade enterprises were massively nationalized.

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Komunistų ir jiems prijaučiančių eitynės

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