The Ponary massacre (or Panerai massacre) was the sequence of events that took place between July 1941 and August 1944 in the town of Paneriai (Polish: Ponary), now a suburb of Vilnius (Wilno), which became the mass murder site of approximately 100,000 victims, the vast majority of them Jews and Poles many from nearby metropolis of Vilnius.^[1][2][3] The executions were carried out by German units of SD and SS with help from local Lithuanians Special SD and Security Police Squad Ypatingasis būrys^[3][4][5]. The victims were usually brought to the edges of huge pits and shot to death with machine gun fire. There are many famous Holocaust survivors who survived the Nazi genocides in Europe and went on to achievements of great fame and notability. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This is a list of people who helped Jewish people and others to escape from the Nazi Holocaust during World War II, often called rescuers. The list is not exhaustive, concentrating on famous cases, or people who saved the lives of many potential victims. ... Holocaust resources for main article The Holocaust. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Functionalism versus intentionalism is a historiographical debate about the origins of the Holocaust as well as most aspects of the Third Reich, such as foreign policy. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Paneriai (Polish: , German: ) is a suburb of Vilnius, situated about 10 kilometres away from the city centre. ... Location Ethnographic region AukÅ¡taitija County Vilnius County Municipality Vilnius city municipality Coordinates Number of elderates 20 General Information Capital of Lithuania Vilnius County Vilnius city municipality Vilnius district municipality Population 540,318 in 2005 (1st) First mentioned 1323 Granted city rights 1387 Not to be confused with Vilnius city... This article deals with mass killings which are not considered genocide. ... Sicherheitsdienst (SD) sleeve insignia. ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... Special SD and German Security Police Squad (Lithuanian: ) (1941-1944) was the notorious Vilnius killing squad, the Lithuanian equivalent of Sonderkommando, responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. ...

Monument of Polish victims in Paneriai

During the interwar period the town of Ponary was part of the Second Polish Republic, Wilno Voivodship (Kresy region). In September 1939 the region was taken over by the Soviets. After the annexation of Lithuania the Soviet the following year, the Soviet authorities started to build a huge oil warehouse for a nearby military airfield. The construction was never finished as in 1941 the area was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Nazis decided to take advantage of the large pits dug for the oil warehouses to dispose of bodies of unwanted locals. The massacres began in July, 1941, when Einsatzkommando 9 rounded up 5,000 Jewish men of Wilno and took them to Paneriai where they were shot. Further mass killings, often aided by Lithuanian police Ypatingasis burys, took place throughout the summer and fall^[5]. By the end of the year, more than 40,000 Jews had been killed at Paneriai. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1920x2560, 3976 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Paneriai Polish-Lithuanian relations during the World War II Ponary massacre Metadata This file contains additional information, probably... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1920x2560, 3976 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Paneriai Polish-Lithuanian relations during the World War II Ponary massacre Metadata This file contains additional information, probably... Europe between 1929 and 1938 The Interwar period (also interbellum) is understood within Western culture to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, specifically 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939. ... Anthem: Mazurek DÄ…browskiego Capital Warsaw Language(s) Polish Government Republic President List Prime minister List Legislature Sejm Historical era Interwar period  - World War I November 11, 1918  - Invasion November 2, 1939 Area  - 1939 388,600 km2 150,039 sq mi Population  - 1939 est. ... Wilno Voivodship The Wilno Voivodship (Polish: , Lithuanian: ) (or Vilnius Voivodship) was the the capital Voivodship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the capital Voidvodship of Lithuania’s part in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. ... The name Kresy (Polish for borderlands, or more correctly Kresy Wschodnie, Eastern Borderlands) is used by Poles, mostly in historical context, to refer to the eastern part of Poland before the II World War. ... Red Army invades Poland: 17th September 1939. ... Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) Translation: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem: The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital Moscow Language(s) Russian Government Socialist republic Leaders  - 1922-1924 Vladimir Lenin  - 1924-1953 Joseph Stalin  - 1953-1964 Nikita Khrushchev  - 1964-1981 Leonid Brezhnev  - 1985... For other uses, see Airport (disambiguation). ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler General (later MareÅŸal) Ion Antonescu Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Joseph Stalin Strength ~ 3. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Einsatzgruppen (a German military term meaning mission groups, loosely translated as Task Force) were semi-military groups formed in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. These death squads belonged to the SS and followed the Wehrmacht in their attacks first on Poland and then the Soviet Union. ... Special SD and German Security Police Squad (Lithuanian: ) (1941-1944) was the Vilnius killing squad, formed by Nazi Germany and composed primarily of Lithuanians. ...

The total number of victims by the end of 1944 was between 70,000 and 100,000. According to post-war exhumation by the forces of 2nd Belorussian Front majority (50,000–70,000) of the victims were Polish and Lithuanian Jews from nearby Polish and Lithuanian cities, while the rest were primarily Poles (about 20,000) and Russians (about 8,000)^[4][3]. The Polish victims were mostly members of Polish intelligentsia (teachers, professors of the Stefan Batory University like Kazimierz Pelczar, priests like Romuald Świrkowski) and members of Armia Krajowa resistance movement.^[4][2] Among the first victims were approximatly 7,500 Soviet POWs shot in 1941 soon after Operation Barbarossa begun.^[6] At later stages there were also smaller numbers of victims of other nationalities, including local Russians, Roma and Lithuanians, particularly communists sympathisers and members of general Povilas Plechavičius Local Lithuanian Detachment who refused to follow German orders^[4]. By other animals Humans are not the only species to bury their dead. ... The 2nd Belorussian Front (alternative spellings are 2nd Byelorussian Front and 2nd Belarusian Front) was one of the Soviet Army fronts during World War II. The term front was used by the Soviets army in World War II to describe a grouping of two or more armies in the same... Lithuanian Jews (in Yiddish known as Litvish or Litvaks) are Ashkenazi Jews who were historically associated with Lithuania. ... The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. ... Vilnius University (Lithuanian Vilniaus Universitetas, Polish Uniwersytet Wileński, formerly Stefan Batory University) is the oldest and biggest university in Lithuania. ... Kazimierz Pelczar Kazimierz Pelczar (1894-1943) was a Polish academic and physician. ... The Armia Krajowa (Home Army) or AK functioned as the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II in German-occupied Poland, which was active in all areas of the country from September 1939 until its disbanding in January 1945. ... A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. ... Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler General (later MareÅŸal) Ion Antonescu Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Joseph Stalin Strength ~ 3. ... The Roma people (pronounced rahma, singular Rom, sometimes Rroma, and Rrom) along with the closely related Sinti people are commonly known as Gypsies in English, and as Tsigany in most of Europe. ... Povilas Plechavičius was General of the army of Lithuania in the interwar period. ... Local Lithuanian Detachment (Lietuvos vietinÄ— rinktinÄ—) - short lived anti-Soviet resistence movement created and disbanded in 1944 in Lithuania. ...

As Soviet troops advanced in 1943, the German-led units tried to cover up the crime. A unit of eighty workers was formed from nearby Stutthof concentration camp prisoners and was forced to dig up the bodies, pile them on wood and burn them. The ashes were then mixed with sand and buried.^[4] After six months of this gruesome work, the brigade managed to escape on April 19, 1944. Eleven of them managed to survive the ordeal, and their testimony contributed to revealing the massacre. The information about it begun to spread as early as 1943, due to the activities and works of Helena Pasierbska, Jozef Mackiewicz, Kazimierz Sakowicz and others. Nonetheless the Soviet regime, which supported the resettlement of Poles from the Kresy, also found it convinient to deny that Poles were massacred in Panerai; the official line was that Panerai was a site of massacre of Soviet citizens only. It was only a decade after the fall of communism that the new government of independent Lithuania allowed a monument (a cross) to fallen Polish citizens to be build there.^[6] Stutthof (Sztutowo) was the first concentration camp built by the German Nazi regime outside of Germany, on September 2, 1939. ... April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Helena Pasierbska-Wojtowicz is a Polish writer. ... Józef Mackiewicz (April 1, 1902 - January 31, 1985) was a prominent Polish language writer and publicist. ... Kazimierz Sakowicz was a Polish journalist. ... The name Kresy (Polish for borderlands, or more correctly Kresy Wschodnie, Eastern Borderlands) is used by Poles, mostly in historical context, to refer to the eastern part of Poland before the II World War. ... The rise of Gorbachev Although reform stalled between 1964–1982, the generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ...

The site of the massacre is commemorated by a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, a memorial to the Polish victims and a small museum (currently closed). The executions at Paneriai, sometimes compared to the Katyn massacre by Polish press (since it happened in 'the East' and was mostly ignored by the communist government of People's Republic of Poland), are currently a matter of an investigation by the Gdańsk branch of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance.^[3] Mass graves at Katyn war cemetery The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: , literally KatyÅ„ felony), was a mass execution of Polish citizens ordered by Soviet authorities in 1940. ... The Peoples Republic of Poland or Polish Peoples Republic (Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1989, during its period of rule by the Communist party, officially called the Polish United Workers Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, or PZPR). ... GdaÅ„sk (IPA: ; German: , Kashubian: , Late Latin: ; older English Dantzig; also other languages) is Polands sixth-largest city, and also her principal seaport and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. ... Institute of National Remembrance (Polish: ; IPN) is a Polish institution created by the IPN Act in 18 December 1998. ...

See also

• Babi Yar

Babi Yar (Ukrainian: Бабин яр, Babyn yar; Russian: Бабий яр, Babiy yar) is a ravine in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, located between Frunze and Melnyk Streets between the Kyryliv church and Olena Teliha Street. ...

Notes

Kazimierz Sakowicz was a Polish journalist. ... Yitzhak Arad is a renowned Israeli historian. ... Tadeusz Piotrowski can refer to: Tadeusz Piotrowski (mountaineer). ... Institute of National Remembrance (Polish: ; IPN) is a Polish institution created by the IPN Act in 18 December 1998. ... Arūnas Bubnys (born November 7, 1961) is a Lithuanian historian and archivist. ... -1... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ...

External links

• article US Holocaust Museum article on Vilna with Ponary timeline (search under Vilna)
• Ponary at deathcamps.org
• (Polish) Konferencja „Zbrodnie na Polakach w podwileńskich Ponarach 1941–1944” – Gdańsk, 9 maja 2003 r. (Conference "Poles as victims in Ponary near Wilno 1941-1944) - on the pages of IPN
• (Polish) Zbrodnia w Ponarach (Crime of Ponary) - reprints of articles from Nasz Dziennik, Nr 109 (1605) z 12 maja 2003