[2] Most likely in early November 1941 (other sources provide spring 1942 after the Passover),[3] an order was given to establish the Jewish ghetto near the train station of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway.

[1] The ghetto covered the area of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) surrounded by barbed wire[4] and housed several dozens of Jews from nearby towns and villages, including Rudnia, Kabeliai, Valkininkai, Butrimonys, Varėna.

Most ghetto inmates were forced to work at the railway station, on the roads, in forestry, or in the mushroom-canning factory, but some managed to retain their pre-war trade.

A squad of 15 Germans, under the command of Gendarmerie Hauptwachmeister Albert Wietzke,[1] ordered the Jews to gather at the entrance at 8am to be "transported for labor.

According to an official complaint written by forester Hans Lehmann, two of the Germans opened fire at the crowded Jews without a reasonable cause.