Plateliai

The Choiseul de Gouffier palace was destroyed at the end of World War II but the 40 hectare park remained.

Having settled in Plateliai at the end of the 18th century, Jews were employed in small commerce, craftsmanship and fishing in the lake bordering the town.

From the end of the 19th century, the Jews of Plateliai started gradually emigrating to America and South Africa, and the flow continued into the interwar period, propelled by a huge fire that devastated half of the town in 1923.

The first shooting took place in the Laumalenka forest, 4 km south of the town, in the beginning of July 1941, when up to ten Jewish men were shot.

The rest of the Jewish men were executed in mid-July at the foot of Mount Bokštikalnis, 0,5 km west of the town.