The Shoah (1939–1945)
Massacre of Švenčionys
7-8 oct. 1941·Švenčionys
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
The Jews of the town and of the entire district, assembled under the pretext of a census, are led to the military ground of Švenčionėliai and shot down in two days; the locality Poligonas is one of the largest mass graves in the country.
Švenčionys serves as a gathering point for Jews from across the region, brought in from surrounding towns and held in a makeshift camp. In October, they are marched in columns to the Platumai woods and shot over two days by a mobile detachment and auxiliary forces. Only a handful of craftsmen, kept back on account of their trade, temporarily escape execution.
- Period :
- The Shoah (1939–1945)
- Type :
- Shoah
- Region :
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Country :
- Lituanie
Yitzhak Arad, *The Holocaust in the Soviet Union* ; Dov Levin, *The Litvaks*.