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The Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) massacre was a massacre of Polish and Byelorussian civilians, including women and children, carried out by a Soviet partisan unit along with a contingent of Jewish partisans under their command during the Second World War in the Polish village of Koniuchy (now Kaniūkai, Lithuania) on January 29, 1944. According to the findings of the Institute of National Remembrance, at least 38 Polish civilians were killed and about a dozen injured. The massacre of Koniuchy and murder of its inhabitants was documented by one of the attacking partisans, Chaim Lazar. According to Lazar the village was to be destroyed completely as an example to others, and even the livestock was to be killed. Historian Kazimierz Krajewski established that there were no fortifications in the civilian community and the self-defense force was equipped with some rusty rifles.

The Lithuanian authorities launched an investigation into the massacre in 2004, in which they sought to interview individuals who served with the partisans.

Background

Before the Second World War the village belonged to Second Polish Republic, after Soviet invasion of Poland it was briefly transferred to Lithuania which was then taken over by Soviets on 3rd of August 1940. With Operation Barbarossa the areas were taken over by Nazi Germany and remaining Soviet forces hid in local forests, forming partisan groups. Koniuchy is located at the edge of the Rudniki Forest. In this forest partisan groups, both Soviet and Jewish, set up their bases from which they attacked the German forces. The partisants regularly raided nearby villages to rob them of food stocks, cattle and clothing. This raiding led to Koniuchy citizens forming a self-defence militia.

Massacre

A small local self-defence unit was created in autumn 1943 to defend the village against repeated Soviet partisans' raids. It was located on the edge of the Rūdininkai Forest, a known hideout of the partisans. The village of about 60 households and 300 inhabitants was not fortified but the villagers were armed with a few rifles. On January 29, 1944, the village was attacked by Soviet partisan units under the command of the Central Partisan Command in Moscow. The raid was carried out by 100–120 partisans from various units including 30 Jewish partisans from the "Avengers" and "To Victory" units under the command of Jacob (Yaakov) Prenner. Between 30 to 40 villagers were killed and dozen more were wounded, and in addition many houses were looted and burned.

Some Jewish partisans groups noted presence of their fighters in the massacre, Diary of a Jewish Partisan Unit (1943-1944) notes participation of 30 fighters under command of Jacob Prener from units "Avangers" and "To Victory" in operation against Koniuchy. The events at Koniuchy have also been described by one of the participants, Chaim Lazar, in Destruction and Resistance (1985) in which he claimed that 300 people had been murdered.

Investigation and controversy

The Lithuanian authorities launched an investigation into the massacre in 2004, in which they sought to interview elderly Jewish holocaust survivor who served with the partisans. The investigation was seen in the West and among Jewish groups as an attack on the heroic Soviet antifascist resistance.

The Institute of National Remembrance initiated a formal investigation into the incident on March 3, 2001, at the request of the Canadian Polish Congress. The institute examined a number of archival documents including police reports, encoded messages, military records and personnel files of the Soviet partisans. Requests for legal assistance were then sent to state prosecutors in Belarus, Lithuania, the Russian Federation and Israel.

The Lithuanian prosecutor general subsequently opened its own investigation into the massacre. As part of its investigation, Lithuanian prosecutors have sought out Jewish veterans of the partisan movement, including Sara Ginaitė, former director of Toronto’s Holocaust Centre, York University professor and veteran partisan, and Yitzhak Arad, a former Israel Defense Forces brigadier general, Jewish resistance movement veteran, and former chairman of Yad Vashem, who served as a member of a commission appointed by Lithuania's president in 2005 to examine past war crimes. Arad became the subject of criticism by Lithuanian right wing groups after his public recommendation for an examination of Lithuania's role in the Holocaust. An investigation into Arad's wartime activities in Koniuchy was opened by Lithuania's chief prosecutor in the wake of the criticisms of Arad's proposal.

In a November 2008 interview with Adam Fuerstenberg, Ginaitė claimed that Koniuchy had a record of hostility to the partisans and that, in collaboration with the Nazis and the local police, the town had organized an armed group to fight the partisans. The hostility against Soviet partisans specifically was widespread as they were weakening and fighting all partisan groups not aligned to Moscow, most notably Armia Krajowa.

Commemoration

In May 2004, a memorial cross commemorating the event was erected in Kaniūkai with the names of the victims.

See also

• List of massacres in Lithuania
• Naliboki massacre
• Skidel revolt

References

1. ^ Suziedelis, Saulius A. (February 7, 2011). Historical Dictionary of Lithuania. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810875364.
2. ^ Polonsky, Antony; Michlic, Joanna B. (April 11, 2009). The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland. Princeton University Press. ISBN 1400825814.
3. Narodowej, Instytut Pamięci. "Informacja o śledztwie dotyczącym zbrodni popełnionej w Koniuchach". Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). Retrieved May 6, 2018.
4. Stachura, Peter (June 17, 2004). Poland, 1918-1945: An Interpretive and Documentary History of the Second Republic. Routledge. ISBN 9781134289493.
5. Sowjetische Partisanen 1941-1944: Mythos und Wirklichkeit Bogdan Musial Ferdinand Schoeningh, 2009, page 547
6. Bogdan Musial Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrussland Innenansichten aus dem Gebiet Baranovici 1941-1944 Cover: Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrussland Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2004, page 28
7. "Nowa Nauka Polska". nauka-polska.pl (in Polish). Retrieved May 5, 2018.
8. Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (September 8, 2017). Intermarium: The Land Between the Black and Baltic Seas. Routledge. ISBN 9781351511957.
9. ^ Historical Dictionary of Lithuania, Saulius A. Suziedelis, page 146-147, "The Koniuchy incident gained international notoriety when Lithuanian prosecutors opened an investigation into the massacre in 2004... In the West and among Jewish groups, the Koniuchy affair was seen as an attack on the heroic Soviet antifascist resistance"
10. Informacja o śledztwie dotyczącym zbrodni popełnionej w Koniuchach
11. ^ Tumavičius, Andrius (February 2014). "Kaniūkų kaimo tragedija" (PDF). Atmintinos datos (in Lithuanian). Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
12. "Operations Diary of a Jewish Partisan Unit in Rudniki Forest 1943–1944". Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
14. Marc Perelman. Poles Open Probe Into Jewish Role In Killings. Group Fingers WWII Partisans. The Forward. August 8, 2003.
15. Lana Gersten and Marc Perelman. Tensions mount over probe into Jewish 'war crimes'. Haaretz. July 8, 2008.
16. Yossi Melman. Nazi hunter: Lithuania hunts ex-partisans, lets war criminals roam free. Haaretz. August 26, 2008.
17. Sara Ginaite. ‘Investigating’ Jewish Partisans in Lithuania. The Protest of a Veteran Jewish Partisan. Jewish Currents. September 2008.
18. Adam Fuerstenberg. Lithuania asks partisans to 'justify' their actions. The Canadian Jewish News. November 20, 2008. (retrieved May 1 , 2017)
19. "Masakra wsi Koniuchy (29 stycznia 1944 r.)". histmag.org. Retrieved January 30, 2016.

Further reading

• Lazar, Chaim (1985). Destruction and Resistance: A History of the Partisan Movement in Vilna. Translated by Galia Eden Barshop. New York: Shengold Publishers. ISBN 978-0884001133.
• Kowalski, Isaac (1969). A Secret Press in Nazi Europe: The Story of a Jewish United Organization. New York: Central Guide Publishers. OCLC 925932918.
• Collection of various letters and reports
• Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Intermarium: The Land between the Baltic and Black Seas (New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Transaction, 2012), 500–519 ("Koniuchy: A Case Study")
• Mark Paul, Tangled Web: Polish-Jewish Relations in Wartime Northeastern Poland and the Aftermath, Part 3 (Toronto: PEFINA Press, 2017) ("Civilian Massacres—The Case of Koniuchy") posted at: http://www.kpk-toronto.org/obrona-dobrego-imienia/
• Report from IPN on Poland

54°16′50″N 25°14′40″E / 54.28056°N 25.24444°E / 54.28056; 25.24444

• 1944 in Lithuania
• 1944 in Poland
• Mass murder in 1944
• Lithuania in World War II
• Jewish Polish history
• Massacres in Lithuania
• Massacres in Poland
• Poland–Soviet Union relations
• Soviet partisans
• Soviet World War II crimes in Poland
• Soviet World War II crimes
• Reichskommissariat Ostland
• January 1944 events