Šiauliai Ghetto

During the first weeks of the Nazi occupation, about 8000 people were shot in the nearby Lieponiai forest near Kužiai after being forced to dig their own graves.

[4] From 7–15 September 1941, about 1000 Jewish men, women and children from Šiauliai were killed in the Gubernija forest, about 6 km (3.7 mi) northwest of the city.

The Šiauliai city military commandant gave instructions to the new deputy mayor, Antanas Stankus, who had been put in charge of "Jewish affairs".

The Germans conducted frequent Aktionen – massive killing sprees – to eliminate "useless" Jews.

Approximately 600 Jews were employed in a nearby shoe factory, and another 600 in construction projects at the Zokniai airport.

[7] Others were employed in workshops in the city tanning and processing leather, producing items such as gloves and brushes.

[7] On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer remaining Jews to concentration camps.

[7] Territorial Commissioner (Gebietskommissar) Hans Gewecke was replaced by SS-Oberscharführer Hermann Schlöf on 1 October 1943 as commander of the ghetto.

[6] On November 5, 1943, SS troops and a company from the Russian Liberation Army seized and transported 574 children under the age of 13, 191 elderly, 26 disabled, and 4 women to Auschwitz concentration camp.

[9] Later, as Germany was losing the war, the Nazis started closing down work camps and transferring the Jews into the ghetto.

In July 1944, the Germans, retreating from the advancing Russian army, transferred remaining ghetto residents to the concentration camps of Stutthof and Dachau in Germany.

[6] A diary kept by Eliezer Yerushalmi, a teacher and a member of the ghetto's Judenrat, was published in Hebrew in 1950 by Yad Vashem.