The Nazi Death Camp of Paneriai (Ponar), Lithuania
While in Lithuania this past summer, I felt an urge to pay my respects to Holocaust Memorial outside of Vilnius in Paneriai. Paneriai holds the site of the grounds where Nazi’s murdered 100,000 people, in which 70,000 of them were Jews. The site is outside the metropolitan area of Vilnius, and appeared to surrounded by woods. I entered the memorial site on a Monday afternoon, and it became very apparent that there was no one working there and no one visiting there. The signs were mostly in Lithuanian, however I was able to read signs in English and from the Hebrew that I know. The descriptions gave a rough and brief outline of the horrific acts that occurred in Paneriai during this time.
The Nazi’s took over Vilnius on June 24th, 1941. Outside of the city, there were pits left over from an unfinished fuel tank base next to the railway that crosses through Paneriai. The Nazis decided that 7 pits that were already dug were to be used for the plans of mass murder. In 1941 mass arrests of Jewish residents began. These residents originally were sent to the Lukiškės prison and were later transferred to this camp to be killed. The camp was only pits that were spaces away from each other. In these pits, people were lined up to be shot, then covered with a thin layer of sand, only for more people to be lined up and shot into the pits. If people were seen moving or making noises, they would be shot once again.
After the victims were shot to death with various kinds of semi-automatic and automatic weapons, they were cremated and burned so that were would be no evidence left. In Vilnius Jewish residents of the Ghettos would over the course of three years be forced into these camps to be murdered. Synagogues were being destroyed all over Vilnius and only one remained.
It is important to remember these acts of history and to never forget the tragedies of the Holocaust. As a new era approaches it is a duty to remember the victims of genocide, trends in fascism, and to make sure something like this is never to happen again.
