Although the Jewish cultural heritage in our region is limited, it holds significant value and importance. It would be difficult to find a town or city in Lithuania where a Jewish community did not live and work prior to World War II. One only needs to look back to those recent times to find schools, printing houses, shops, banks, hospitals, and synagogues. Sadly, this marked the final phase of the great Litvak culture, whose centuries-long development in the historic lands of Lithuania and its neighbours was tragically halted.
The legacy of Jewish culture continues to live on in the Klaipėda district. Historian Janina Valančiūtė notes that until the 19th century, most Jews in Gargždai resided on what is now J. Basanavičiaus Street. By the late 19th to early 20th century, Jewish plots were located along Rinkos Square and Klaipėdos Street. In 1638, King Władysław IV of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania granted the Jews of Gargždai the right to establish a cemetery. As a result, around the mid-17th century, a Jewish cemetery was founded in the southeastern part of the town, near the right bank of the Minija River. Written sources from the late 19th and early 20th centuries mention the Gargždai Jewish People's Bank, a Jewish school, and a wooden synagogue, which was located on the western edge of Turgaus Square. An entire Jewish residential quarter, including a rabbi's house, formed around this synagogue. In 1923, the authorities of the Republic of Lithuania granted permission for the Jewish community of Gargždai to construct a new brick synagogue, and a new house of worship was built next to the old synagogue between 1927 and 1928. Both synagogues were destroyed during the war.
During World War II, the German occupiers killed the majority of the Jewish population. A monument at the site of the massacre near the Gargždai bus station commemorates this event, with an inscription in both Lithuanian and Yiddish: ‘At this place, in July 1941, the Nazis killed hundreds of Jews from the town of Gargždai and the surrounding area.’
Approximately 300 Jewish women and children were executed in the Vėžaitynė Forest (Vėžaičiai eldership). To honour this tragedy, monuments were erected at the first and second massacre sites, featuring white marble plaques inscribed in both Lithuanian and Yiddish: ‘Passerby, remember the victims of 1941, the innocent children, mothers, and grandparents who were murdered by Hitler's executioners for being Jewish.’
Another tragedy of the shooting of Jews is commemorated by a stone monument erected at the site of the massacre of the Jews by the Veivirža Stream, in the village of Trepkalnis (Veiviržėnai eldership). Veiviržėnai, situated in the beautiful valley of the Veiviržė Stream, is home to an old Jewish cemetery, indicating the presence of Jews in this town as well.
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