Koniuchy massacre

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The koniuchy massacre was an attack Soviet and Jewish partisans in the eastern Polish village Koniuchy (German Konjuchy , lit. today Kaniūkai , near Vilnius in the former Reich Ostland ), which on 29 January 1944 destroyed the village and 130 to 300 residents , including women and children, were murdered.

prehistory

Until 1939 the village of Koniuchy was in the Polish Voivodeship Nowogrodek and was inhabited exclusively by Polish people in an ethnically mixed region (Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian-Jewish). As a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact and the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, the area was occupied by the Red Army and ceded to the independent Republic of Lithuania in October 1939 . Six months later (June 15, 1940) the Soviet troops invaded again and the country was annexed to the USSR as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic . From June 23, 1941 to July 13, 1944, in the course of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, the region was occupied by German troops and declared part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland .

The year-long Soviet rule was marked by very brutal repression - tens of thousands were executed or deported to Siberia, with the "target groups" including the educated and wealthy classes, but also groups that were associated with the Lithuanian or Polish state or as were not considered to be in conformity with the Soviet Union (such as historians, writers and Catholic clergy). Jews were seen as collaborators with the new rulers.

In this context, the invasion of German troops was initially welcomed by large parts of the Lithuanian population and rated as the lesser evil. There were some spontaneous acts of violence against communists and against Jews suspected of being pro-Soviet.

The German occupiers also found support in the Lithuanian population and among the Jews in the immediate internment, deportation and mass shootings of Jews, to which up to 95 percent of the Jewish population and a large part of the Lithuanian communists remained in the country fell victim to the German occupation Auxiliary troops and administrative bodies operating under German control. This cooperation diminished significantly over time and did not reach the extent of other Baltic states, but was also favored by the German preferential treatment of the Balts classified as "quasi-Germanic" (in contrast to the population in occupied Slavic countries). In addition, Lithuania saw itself threatened in its striving for national independence from Poland and the USSR.

At the end of 1943 the Lithuanian resistance formed the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania and even declared itself the provisional government of the Republic of Lithuania on February 16, 1944, but this was mainly limited to political work in the underground. Armed actions against the Germans, on the other hand, were primarily initiated by two other groups: Soviet-controlled partisan groups in the East Lithuanian forests, which were also joined by Jewish refugees from the ghettos of Kaunas , Vilnius and Šiauliai (among whom a key role was played by members of the Fareinigte Partisaner Organatzije (FPO)) played, a Jewish resistance movement founded in the Vilnius ghetto in 1942).

The Polish Home Army (AK), the largest resistance movement in Lithuania, operated in the formerly Polish and mostly Polish-populated area around Vilnius . It carried out actions against the German occupation and its Lithuanian supporters, but was also in conflict with the Soviet partisans. AK protected the Polish population against looting and attacks by these groups and saw themselves as representatives of Polish interests.

The attack on Koniuchy

Koniuchy, a large Polish village on the edge of the Rudnicki Forest, about 30 km southeast of Vilnius, was attacked several times by Soviet and Jewish partisans between 1942 and 1943, with food, cattle and clothing being stolen. In order to protect themselves against these raids, the residents formed a self-protection group and refused to make further deliveries. As a punitive action for disobedience and at the same time as an example for other Polish villages, Koniuchy was attacked on January 29, 1944 as the “seat of a fascist garrison” (as it was called in Soviet parlance).

Chaim Lazar, historian of the Jewish resistance in the Vilnius ghetto and himself a member of the FPO, describes the attack on Koniuchy as follows:

“One evening, 120 of the best partisans from all camps, armed with their best available weapons, advanced against the village. Among them were around 50 Jews, led by Yaakov Prenner. The plan was to even kill the cattle and destroy all property. [...] With specially prepared torches, the partisans burned down the houses, stables and barns, while at the same time they opened heavy fire on the houses. […] The mission was completed in a short time. Sixty households, consisting of around 300 people in total, were destroyed, there were no survivors. "

On the other hand, a situation report by the Polish Home Army from February 1944 shows considerable deviations in the number of attackers and victims:

“At the end of January the village of Koniuchy was surrounded and set on fire by a 2,000-man Jewish-Bolshevik gang. The fleeing residents were shot at. Those captured, adults and children alike, were thrown alive into the fire. Result: 34 dead, 14 injured, the number of people burned alive was not determined. Only four of 50 buildings remained. The reason for the attack was the fact that the village had been partially armed by Lithuanians and had resisted looting until the attack mentioned. "

Henrik Ziman, First Secretary of the Southern Underground Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania and involved in the action in a leading role, sent an encrypted message on January 31, 1944 to Antanas Sniečkus , head of the partisans operating in Lithuania in Moscow:

"On January 29 the joint group of Vilnius partisans, 'Śmierć Okupantowi' and 'Margiris' groups and the special group of General Headquarters burnt down the most ardent and self-defensive village of the Ejszysk region, Koniuchy."

“On January 29th, the united group of Vilnius partisans, consisting of the groups 'Śmierć Okupantowi' ('Death to the Occupiers'), 'Margis' and the special group of the General Headquarters burned down the place of toughest resistance in the district of Eišiškės - Koniuchy. "

Investigation by the IPN

As a result of a complaint from the Canadian Polish Congress (CPC), the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (IPN, Institute for National Remembrance) in Warsaw began an investigation into the process in February 2001 by questioning witnesses and examining the documents received. The public prosecutor's offices of Belarus , Russia , Lithuania and Israel were asked for administrative assistance and involved. As a result of the investigations (as of 2005), 38 victims - men, women and children - could be identified by name. Another investigation should determine the number of other victims.

See also

literature

  • Chaim Lazar: Destruction and Resistance. 2nd Edition. Shengold et al., New York 1985, ISBN 0-88400-113-X , pp. 174f.
  • Isaac Kowalski: A Secret Press in Nazi Europe: the Story of a Jewish United Partisan Organization. Central Guide Publishers, New York 1969, pp. 333f.
  • Kazimierz Krajewski: Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej: "NÓW" - Nowogródzki Okręg Armii Krajowej . Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warsaw 1997, pp. 511f.
  • Bogdan Musial: Introduction. In: Bogdan Musial (Ed.): Soviet Partisans in Belarus: Interior views from the Baranoviči area 1941–1944 (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history. 88). Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-64588-9 , p. 28.
  • Rich Cohen: Night March - A True Story of Love and Retribution. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2002, ISBN 3-596-15240-2 , pp. 203-205.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Uladzimir Michniuk: Zachodniaja Bielarus: hranicy, terytoryja, nasielnictwa (histaryjahraficznyja natatki). In: Bielaruski Histaryczny Czasopis magazine . 11/2004, p. 19.
  2. ^ Rudolf Hilbrecht: Lithuania in the Reichskommissariat Ostland 1941–1943 / 44. Parallels and contrasts to the rest of the Baltic States, especially Estonia. In: Robert Bohn (ed.): The German rule in the "Germanic" countries 1940–1945 (= historical reports. Supplement 26). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, pp. 187-207, p. 188.
  3. ^ Steven F. Lawson: Muddling the Holocaust in Lithuania. In: History News Network. Retrieved April 20, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Rudolf Hilbrecht: Lithuania in the Reichskommissariat Ostland 1941–1943 / 44: Parallels and contrasts to the rest of the Baltic States, primarily Estonia. In: Robert Bohn (ed.): The German rule in the "Germanic" countries 1940–1945 (= historical reports. Supplement 26). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, pp. 187-207.
  5. ^ Piotr Niwiński: The national question in the Wilna area. In: Bernhard Chiari (ed.): The Polish Home Army: History and myth of the Armia Krajowa since the Second World War (= contributions to military history. 57). Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56715-2 , pp. 617-634.
    Kazimierz Krajewski: The Nowogródek District of the Home Army. Nationality conflicts and political conditions 1939–1945. In: Bernhard Chiari (ed.): The Polish Home Army: History and myth of the Armia Krajowa since the Second World War. Pp. 563-584, here p. 579, note 33.
  6. ↑ Cf. Bogdan Musial : Introduction. 2004, p. 28, note 79.
    Abraham Sutzkever : The Vilna Ghetto. In: Ilja Ehrenburg , Wassili Grossman : The Black Book: The Genocide of the Soviet Jews . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1994, pp. 457–547, here pp. 538f: “As exclusively Jewish partisan detachments, only two remained: 'The Avenger' and 'Zum Sieg'. ... After getting the weapons they needed for the first three months, both divisions conducted a series of combat missions. They derailed three transport trains. ... In Valkininkai they blew up a German plant and contributed to the fact that the German garrison in the fortified village of Konjuschi was broken up and worn out. "
  7. ↑ See Chaim Lazar: Destruction and Resistance. 2nd Edition. Shengold et al., New York 1985, ISBN 0-88400-113-X , p. 174f., Quoted in Bogdan Musial: Introduction (2004), p. 28, note 79: “One evening, a hundred and twenty of the best partisans from all the camps, armed with the best weapons they had, set out in the direction of the village. There were about 50 Jews among them, headed by Yaakov Prenner. Even livestock was to be killed and all property was to be destroyed. (...) With toches prepared in advance, the partisans burnt down the houses, stables, and granaries, while opening heavy fire on the houses. (...) The mission was completed within a short while. Sixty households, numbering about 300 people, were destroyed, with no survivors. "
  8. ↑ Quoted from Bogdan Musial: Introduction. 2004, p. 28, note 79.
  9. ^ A b Information on the Investigation in the Case of Crime Committed in Koniuchy. In: ipn.gov.pl . August 21, 2006, accessed April 20, 2020 .