Known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," Vilna was a regional center of Jewish culture. Prior to German occupation, Jews numbered 60,000, over one-fourth of the city's population.

In the summer of 1941, however, Einsatzkommandos and Lithuanian collaborators rousted Vilna Jews from their homes and marched them toward the prison yard. Held outdoors for several days, men and women were separated, put on board trucks, and told they would work. Instead the Jews were dumped in the hilly Ponary Forest. Divided into small groups, they were led to an execution site. "Suddenly the truth hit us, like an electric shock," remembered a survivor. Women with "piteous pleas" kissed the boots of their executioners, futilely offering rings and watches. Up to 20,000 were slaughtered.

In September the Germans set up two ghettos for the remaining Jews. Ghetto No. 1 housed workers, while the smaller No. 2 imprisoned the "unproductive." In October the Nazis exterminated all 11,000 inmates of Ghetto No 2; in November, thousands more from Ghetto No. 1 were killed. By December 40,000 were dead. The 20,000 still alive became a workforce for the Germans until the ghetto was liquidated in 1943. Those fit for work went to labor camps; those "unfit" were banished to extermination camps. Only 2000 to 3000 survived.
Photo: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive