Jewish sites in Palanga
There is no town or village in Lithuania without traces of Jewish culture, most often in the form of old cemeteries and synagogues. In 1487, the Jewish burial society Hevra Kadiša operated in Palanga, which suggests that Jews lived in Palanga as early as the 15th century. By the 17th century, Jews already made up a significant part of the village community and worked hard to turn the small village into a thriving town.
In 1693, when Jews in Palanga were granted town privileges and allowed to purchase land, build houses, and engage in trade, there were 10 Jews living there. At that time, Palanga had a population of only 43 people. A hundred years later, in 1794, 17 of the 69 townspeople were Jewish.
According to data from 1817, there were 80 farms in Palanga, 30 of which belonged to Jews. At that time, 688 people lived in Old and New Palanga. Of these, 439 (219 men and 220 women) were Jews who did not belong to the jurisdiction of the Palanga manor and paid taxes to the manor for their plots of land. The Jewish community owned a school, a bathhouse, and a cemetery.
In 1869, 979 Jews lived in Palanga (476 men and 503 women). Jews engaged in traditional trades: they traded, practiced crafts, and owned taverns. In the second half of the 19th century, the Jewish population grew (in 1881, 1,121 of the 1,618 residents were Jewish) because amber processing companies (owned by Jews) were established in Palanga, which mainly employed Jewish workers. In 1902, a red brick synagogue was built. Another smaller synagogue was built about 50 meters from the main synagogue (neither synagogue survives today). In 1936, Eta Gutmanienė built the first power plant on J. Basanavičiaus Street. In 1938, a large fire broke out in Palanga, destroying the entire Jewish quarter.
In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, mass killings of Jews began in Palanga. On June 27 and October 12, more than 400 members of the Palanga Jewish community fell victim to the Holocaust. This marked the end of more than 500 years of history of an integral part of the Palanga community.
1. Old Jewish Cemetery in Palanga (I)
The old Jewish cemetery in Palanga was located on the edge of the Tiškevičiai Park, next to the entrance. This place is now called Jaunimo kalnelis (Youth Hill). The cemetery has not been used for burials since 1892 (before the creation of the Tiškevičiai Park). Layers dating back more than 200 years have been found there. Based on analogies, it is believed that the gravestones were decorated with images of the city of Jerusalem and temples, the Ten Commandments, signs of the zodiac, and hands extended in blessing.
2. The Old Jewish Cemetery in Palanga (II)
After Palanga was ravaged by fire in 1830, the old burial records were destroyed (the oldest burial brotherhood books date back to 1487). In 1831, burial records began to be kept at the new Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of the town (about 300 m east of Naglio Hill). Ten granite and concrete gravestones of various sizes with inscriptions in Hebrew remain in the cemetery. On September 4, 2008, the cemetery was registered in the Register of Cultural Values of the Republic of Lithuania (unique object code – 32235).
3. Memorial to the Jews
On June 27, 1941, in the southern part of Palanga’s Birutė Park, in the dunes behind Birutė Hill, 111 Jews and people of other nationalities accused of supporting the Soviet regime were shot. According to historical research conducted by the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Center, among those killed were 95 members of the Palanga Jewish community (93 men and 2 women) and 16 people of non-Jewish nationality, most of whom were Lithuanians. In 1989, a monument – a huge granite stone – was erected at the symbolic site to commemorate the victims of the massacre. According to long-time residents of Palanga, the actual site of the massacre is located a few hundred meters away, on the grounds of the Auska villa.
4. Jewish burial site in the civil cemetery of Palanga
In 1958, the remains of 111 Jews and people of other nationalities who were shot on June 27, 1941, in the southern part of Birutė Park in Palanga were reburied in the civil cemetery of Palanga.
This decision was made by the Executive Committee of the Palanga City Council of Working People’s Deputies of the Lithuanian SSR, in accordance with Resolution No. 610 of the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR. The burial site is located in the western part of the cemetery, near the main entrance to the cemetery from Vytauto Street.
5. Site of the Palanga Jewish massacre and grave
On October 12, 1941, approximately 200-300 women and children from the Palanga Jewish community were murdered in the Kunigiškiai Forest. They had been imprisoned in a small ghetto in the village of Valteriškės since June 26, 1941. The site of the massacre and the grave are located 1.1 km east of Liepojos plentas (A13 – main road). On June 18, 2015, the site of the massacre and the grave were registered in the Register of Cultural Values of the Republic of Lithuania (unique object code – 10992).
The brochure “Jewish Memorial Sites in Palanga” can be found here.
For more information, please contact Jolanta Mažrimė, Senior Specialist of the Culture Department of the Palanga City Municipality Administration, e-mail: jolanta.mazrime@palanga.lt, tel. +370 460 34156.
