[10] During World War I the city was captured by German forces and held until 1918, when the place became part of independent Lithuania.

My imagination failed to picture the rudely constructed hut as the same station of former years, which had been entirely destroyed by the invading army.

[11]During the interwar period a rail line was constructed running through nearby Marijampolė which caused that town to become the regional centre, replacing Vilkaviškis in its traditional role.

[13] Shortly after the outbreak of World War II the control of the area fell to the Soviets, between 1940 and 1941, on the basis of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact.

In 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, invaded Lithuania, and occupied the city.

Between June and September 1941, the Germans, along with Lithuanian collaborators, destroyed almost all the houses in the city and murdered more than 3,000 people, most of them Jews.

[9] In March 1942, several Polish priests were imprisoned in the local seminary by the Germans, and then eventually deported to other camps in December 1942 (see Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland).

[4] When Lithuania regained its independence in 1991, the city became the capital of the newly established Vilkaviškis district municipality.

[12] In 2020, Vilkaviškis won the Lithuania Village Flower Show, as voted by the board of Pakruojis Manor.