Koniuchy massacre: Difference between revisions

Coordinates: 54°16′50″N 25°14′40″E / 54.28056°N 25.24444°E / 54.28056; 25.24444
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
and again, a strange account which has never before edited this article or topic area (except one previous blind revert on behalf of Icewhiz) shows up out of nowhere
Undid revision 870317145 by Volunteer Marek (talk) It's a cherry pick that takes Polonsky out of context. If you think we should incorporate it, feel free to suggest a quote that gives more context.
Line 1: Line 1:
{{pov|date=March 2018}}
{{undue|to=the point of view of the perpetrators of the massacre and their justifications for the killings|date=November 2018}}
{{undue|to=the point of view of the perpetrators of the massacre and their justifications for the killings|date=November 2018}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2017}}
Line 19: Line 20:
}}
}}


The '''Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) massacre''' was a [[World War II]] [[massacre]] of Polish and Byelorussian<ref name="Suziedelis" /> civilians, including women and children,<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/69,Information-on-the-Investigation-in-the-Case-of-Crime-Committed-in-Koniuchy.html|title=Information on the Investigation in the Case of Crime Committed in Koniuchy|first=Institute of National|last=Remembrance|publisher=}}</ref><ref name="Lukas 2008">{{Cite magazine |last=Lukas |first=Richard |date=May 2001 |title=Jedwabne and the selling of the Holocaust |magazine=Polish American Journal}}</ref><ref name=Zizas2/> carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now [[Kaniūkai]], [[Lithuania]]) on 29 January 1944 by a [[Soviet partisans|Soviet partisan]] unit together with a contingent of [[Jewish partisans]] under Soviet command.<ref name="Suziedelis">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=VkGB1CSfIlEC&pg=PA146&dq=koniuchy+massacre&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3yIz8pO7aAhXi34MKHbHEDosQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=koniuchy%20massacre&f=false|title=Historical Dictionary of Lithuania|last=Suziedelis|first=Saulius A.|date=2011-02-07|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810875364|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Lukas 2008" /> Between 30 and 40 civilians were killed, and dozens were injured.<ref name="Suziedelis"/>
The '''Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) massacre''' was a [[World War II]] [[massacre]] of Polish and Byelorussian<ref name="Suziedelis" /> civilians, including women and children,<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/69,Information-on-the-Investigation-in-the-Case-of-Crime-Committed-in-Koniuchy.html|title=Information on the Investigation in the Case of Crime Committed in Koniuchy|first=Institute of National|last=Remembrance|publisher=}}</ref><ref name=Zizas2/> carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now [[Kaniūkai]], [[Lithuania]]) on 29 January 1944 by a [[Soviet partisans|Soviet partisan]] unit together with a contingent of [[Jewish partisans]] under Soviet command.<ref name="Suziedelis">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=VkGB1CSfIlEC&pg=PA146&dq=koniuchy+massacre&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3yIz8pO7aAhXi34MKHbHEDosQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=koniuchy%20massacre&f=false|title=Historical Dictionary of Lithuania|last=Suziedelis|first=Saulius A.|date=2011-02-07|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810875364|language=en}}</ref> Between 30 and 40 civilians were killed, and dozens were injured.<ref name="Suziedelis"/>


The events, still politically charged, were investigated by authorities in Poland (2001) and Lithuania (2004), the latter in a fashion that was perceived in the West as politically motivated.<ref name="Suziedelis"/>
The events, still politically charged, were investigated by authorities in Poland (2001) and Lithuania (2004), the latter in a fashion that was perceived in the West as politically motivated.<ref name="Suziedelis"/>
Line 48: Line 49:
==Investigation and controversy==
==Investigation and controversy==
The Polish [[Institute of National Remembrance]] initiated a formal investigation into the incident on 3 March 2001, at the request of the [[Canadian Polish Congress]].<ref>Marc Perelman. [http://www.forward.com/articles/7832/ Poles Open Probe Into Jewish Role In Killings. Group Fingers WWII Partisans.] ''The Forward''. 8 August 2003.</ref> 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 IPN investigation was closed in February 2018. The official reason for the closure was that the investigators were not able to establish "beyond a reasonable doubt" that any perpetrators of the massacre were still alive, and as a result concluded that there was no one who could be charged with a crime.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dorzeczy.pl/kraj/56267/IPN-umarza-sledztwo-w-sprawie-masakry-w-Koniuchach.html|title=IPN umarza śledztwo w sprawie masakry w Koniuchach|first=Wojciech|last=Wybranowski|date=February 16, 2018|publisher=}}</ref>
The Polish [[Institute of National Remembrance]] initiated a formal investigation into the incident on 3 March 2001, at the request of the [[Canadian Polish Congress]].<ref>Marc Perelman. [http://www.forward.com/articles/7832/ Poles Open Probe Into Jewish Role In Killings. Group Fingers WWII Partisans.] ''The Forward''. 8 August 2003.</ref> 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 IPN investigation was closed in February 2018. The official reason for the closure was that the investigators were not able to establish "beyond a reasonable doubt" that any perpetrators of the massacre were still alive, and as a result concluded that there was no one who could be charged with a crime.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dorzeczy.pl/kraj/56267/IPN-umarza-sledztwo-w-sprawie-masakry-w-Koniuchach.html|title=IPN umarza śledztwo w sprawie masakry w Koniuchach|first=Wojciech|last=Wybranowski|date=February 16, 2018|publisher=}}</ref>
[[Antony Polonsky]] stated that time has come for Jews to accept that their compatriots also carried out atrocities, and partisans involved in Koniuchy and [[Naliboki massacre]]s committed "very evil things". According to Polonsky the process of de-mythologizing Jewish history during Second World faces resistance from living survivors, but with time perhaps Jews will look critically at their history.<ref>Winni i tak nie przepraszają.Z prof. Anthonym Polonskym rozmawia Piotr Zychowicz Rzeczpospolita Plus Minus 2008.09.20[https://www.rp.pl/artykul/193336-Winni--i-tak-nie-przepraszaja-.html]</ref>


According to [[Antony Polonsky]], ethno-nationalists in both Lithuania and Poland have portrayed Koniuchy as a "Jewish action". While the exact determination of the ethnicity of the Soviet partisans is not possible, it is clear that Jews were a minority in these formations.<ref name="Polonsky1">A Partisan from Vilna (Jews of Poland), Introduction by [[Antony Polonsky]], Academic Studies Press, pages 40-42, {{ISBN|978-1934843956}}</ref><ref name="Polonsky2">The Jews in Poland and Russia: Volume III: 1914 to 2008, Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization, [[Antony Polonsky]], pages 523-526, {{ISBN|978-1904113485}}</ref>
According to [[Antony Polonsky]], ethno-nationalists in both Lithuania and Poland have portrayed Koniuchy as a "Jewish action". While the exact determination of the ethnicity of the Soviet partisans is not possible, it is clear that Jews were a minority in these formations.<ref name="Polonsky1">A Partisan from Vilna (Jews of Poland), Introduction by [[Antony Polonsky]], Academic Studies Press, pages 40-42, {{ISBN|978-1934843956}}</ref><ref name="Polonsky2">The Jews in Poland and Russia: Volume III: 1914 to 2008, Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization, [[Antony Polonsky]], pages 523-526, {{ISBN|978-1904113485}}</ref>

Revision as of 13:00, 24 November 2018

Kaniūkai (Koniuchy) is located in Lithuania
Kaniūkai (Koniuchy)
Kaniūkai (Koniuchy)
class=notpageimage|
Location of Kaniūkai in present-day Lithuania

The Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) massacre was a World War II massacre of Polish and Byelorussian[1] civilians, including women and children,[2][3] carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniūkai, Lithuania) on 29 January 1944 by a Soviet partisan unit together with a contingent of Jewish partisans under Soviet command.[1] Between 30 and 40 civilians were killed, and dozens were injured.[1]

The events, still politically charged, were investigated by authorities in Poland (2001) and Lithuania (2004), the latter in a fashion that was perceived in the West as politically motivated.[1]

Background

Koniuchy, now known as Kaniūkai, is a village located in Lithuania near the Belarus–Lithuania border. Before the Second World War, it belonged to the Second Polish Republic and, after the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, it was transferred to Lithuania according to the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 and by Nazi Germany in June 1941. According to the census, carried out in August 1942 in Generalbezirk Litauen, the village had 374 people – 41 of them declared their nationality as Lithuanians, 17 as Poles, and the rest chose ambiguous "of Lithuania".[4]

Soviet partisans became more active in the area in 1943. Koniuchy is located at the edge of the Rudniki Forest (now Rūdininkai Forest [lt]), where partisan groups, both Soviet and Jewish, set up their bases from which they attacked the German forces.[5] Unlike Polish partisans of Armia Krajowa (Home Army), these partisans did not enjoy widespread local support and could not depend on voluntary food contributions from local farmers.[6] Therefore, Soviet partisans regularly raided nearby villages to rob the locals from food stocks, cattle, and clothing.[7] This raiding led to clashes between the farmers and the partisans. In response, German administration deployed Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions in the area and provided weapons to local self-defence units.[8]

Background

Soviet partisants starting from 1943 were cut off from supplies from Soviet Union and their supply situation drastically worsened.As per directives from Moscow they were allowed to confiscate material goods from their opponents, and execute them.Some unit had specialized groups engaging in looting of precious items such as gold and jewellery from "counter-revolutionaries" and increasingly the partisants engaged in violence and terror against local villagers[9].In some cases the partisans robbed the locals from their last supplies of food, condemning their families to death from starvation[3]

Antony Polonsky characterizes the situation in the area as "a bitter three-way conflict between the Soviet Lithuanian partisans... the Polish Home Army... and the Lithuanian local police force supported by their German protectors... During this period many encounters between partisans and local police from the villages took place, marked by the arbitrary killing on both sides of suspect civilians. No doubt, many of theses suspects were innocent."[10]

As raiding intensified in summer 1943, men of Koniuchy organized an unarmed night guard.[11] In early fall 1943, the village was visited by four Lithuanian policemen and the men agreed to organize an armed self-defence group. According to later testimony by its leaders, the group grew from initial 5 or 6 members to 25–30 men.[12] There is no reliable data on the group's weapons.[13] Soviet sources, attempting to exaggerate the threat posed by Koniuchy, claimed that the village had three machine guns and automatic rifles.[14] One of the leaders of the self-defence unit Vladislavas Voronis in his post-war trial by NKVD, trying to minimize his anti-Soviet activities, claimed that the group had only eight rifles and ten sawed-off shotguns. It is likely that at least some weapons were provided by the Lithuanian policemen of the 253rd Police Battalion which had an outpost in Naujosios Rakliškės [lt].[14]

There were several incidents between the partisans and the men of Koniuchy. On October 13, 1940, a group of six armed Soviet partisans took three cartloads worth of food, clothes, and other items. The villagers stopped the partisans on a bridge over Šalčia and took back the property.[14] In January 1944, a Soviet partisan was killed in Didžiosios Sėlos [lt] in an operation that involved a few men from Koniuchy. Soviet sources claimed that the partisan was captured, transported to Koniuchy, tortured, and later executed. Similarly, Soviet sources implicated men from Koniuchy in attacks on Soviet partisans in Visinčia [lt] and Kalitonys [lt].[15] In a November 2008 interview, York University professor Sara Ginaitė who was part of the partisan unit which attacked Koniuchy, although she herself was not present during the massacre, has said that the village had a record of hostility to the partisans and that, in collaboration with the Nazis and the local Lithuanian police, the town had organized an armed group to fight the partisans.[16] According to Soviet and Jewish sources, the villagers constituted a pro-Nazi threat to the partisans, though collaboration was denied by the villagers who claimed that only a few men in the village were armed with rifles for self-protection.[1] Soviet records lack any precise facts regarding alleged resistance and activities by Koniuchy, and there are no events or combat operations involving the village recorded in the Soviet archives, that would explain the particular ruthlessness of the massacre. In other cases where Soviet forces tried to intimidate or punish local settlements only a limited civilians and self-defence members were murdered.[17] According to historian Kazimierz Krajewski [pl] there were no fortifications in the civilian community and the self-defense force was equipped with some rusty rifles.[18][19]

According to Lithuanian historian Rimantas Zizas it is doubtful if the village self-defence forces contained more than 20 men.[20] The Soviet command received reports from the Soviet partisans complaining about particular harshness and cruelty by Jewish units towards policemen and civilians suspected of being involved in pogroms and Holocaust, and according to Zizas the desire to enact revenge might have clouded the participants judgment and ability to distinguish between real culprits and innocent civilians.[21] According to other Soviet partisans, the "Death to Occupiers" unit was composed 90% of civilians, was poorly trained, lacked discipline, and had no experienced officers leading it.[21]. Zizas concludes that Soviet command might have planned to use Jewish unit to fight civilian resistance to Soviet rule, exploiting their motivation for revenge.[21]. In his analysis of the Soviet arguments and records regarding the massacre, Zizas comes to the conclusion that these are mostly demagogic and come off as trying to justify a particularly cruel atrocity.[17] After the war most Soviet partisans involved omitted the action in Koniuchy from their memoirs. [17]

Massacre

On 29 January 1944, around 6 a.m., the village was attacked by Soviet partisan units under the command of the Central Partisan Command in Moscow.[citation needed] The raid was carried out by 100–120 partisans from various units including 30 Jewish partisans.[citation needed] The units involved were "Death to occupiers", "Death to fascism", "Thunder", "Margirio" and a unit named after Adam Mickiewicz. The units belonged to the partisan Vilnius Brigade, with the exception of "Death to occupiers", which was part of the Kaunas partisan brigade.[2]

Between 30 to 40 villagers were killed and a dozen more were wounded, and many houses were looted and burned.[1] Polish authors compiled a list of 38 names. Among them, there were 11 women and 15 children under the age of 16.[22] Exact names and age of the victims are difficult to establish from the archives.Other accounts speak of 19 women and 7 children murdered. The youngest child murdered had 1,5 years, a 3 year old girl was shot while hiding in her mother arms [23]

According to reports of the Lithuanian Security Police, 36 houses, 40 granaries, 39 barns, and one banya were burned down, 50 cows, 16 horses, about 50 pigs, and 100 sheep were slaughtered.[22] 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[24] as an example to others, and even the livestock was to be killed.[25][26]

Investigation and controversy

The Polish Institute of National Remembrance initiated a formal investigation into the incident on 3 March 2001, at the request of the Canadian Polish Congress.[27] 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 IPN investigation was closed in February 2018. The official reason for the closure was that the investigators were not able to establish "beyond a reasonable doubt" that any perpetrators of the massacre were still alive, and as a result concluded that there was no one who could be charged with a crime.[28]

According to Antony Polonsky, ethno-nationalists in both Lithuania and Poland have portrayed Koniuchy as a "Jewish action". While the exact determination of the ethnicity of the Soviet partisans is not possible, it is clear that Jews were a minority in these formations.[10][29]

The Lithuanian prosecutor general subsequently opened its own investigation into the massacre in 2004.[1] As part of its investigation, Lithuanian prosecutors sought out Jewish veterans of the partisan movement. One of these was Yitzhak Arad, an expert on the Holocaust in Lithuania and former chairman of Yad Vashem. Arad had also served as a member of a commission appointed by Lithuania's president in 2005 to examine past war crimes. In response to the investigation, Yad Vashem issued a protest saying it focused on "victims of Nazi oppression" and suspended Israeli participation in the commission which Arad was part of.[30][31] The failure of the Lithuanian judiciary to investigate pro-Nazi collaborators while choosing to prosecute Jewish partisans led to charges of hypocrisy concerning the Lithuanian motivation. The work of an international commission to investigate war crimes in Lithuanian was derailed by the Lithuanian investigation. Further attempts to investigate elderly Jewish survivors was perceived as an attempt of victim blaming.[32] Following wide international criticism (and some domestic criticism) the Lithuanian investigation was closed in September 2008.[33]

Piotr Gontarczyk said the events of Koniuchy distort the black and white, heroic image of Jewish partistans in East Kresy, whose history is one of founding myths of Israel, and attempts to reconstruct complicated historic events, or interview figures like Arad are seen as antisemitism. Both Polish and Lithuanian perception of Soviet partisans differs from the Jewish one[34][better source needed]

Memorial cross erected in 2004

Commemoration

In May 2004, a memorial cross commemorating the event was erected in Kaniūkai with the names of the known victims.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Suziedelis, Saulius A. (February 7, 2011). Historical Dictionary of Lithuania. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810875364.
  2. ^ a b Remembrance, Institute of National. "Information on the Investigation in the Case of Crime Committed in Koniuchy".
  3. ^ a b Pacyfikacja wsi Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) / Rimantas Zizas. - In: Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza. 2003, nr. 4, page 37
  4. ^ Zizas, Rimantas (2014). Sovietiniai partizanai Lietuvoje 1941–1944 m. (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos institutas. p. 466. ISBN 978-9955-847-88-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  5. ^ Zeleznikow, John (2010). "Life at the end of the world: a Jewish Partisan in Melbourne". Holocaust Studies. 16 (3): 11–32. ISSN 1750-4902.
  6. ^ Zizas 2014, p. 490.
  7. ^ [1] Informacja o śledztwie dotyczącym zbrodni popełnionej w Koniuchach
  8. ^ Zizas 2014, pp. 467–469.
  9. ^ Pacyfikacja wsi Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) / Rimantas Zizas. - In: Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza. 2003, nr. 4, page 36
  10. ^ a b A Partisan from Vilna (Jews of Poland), Introduction by Antony Polonsky, Academic Studies Press, pages 40-42, ISBN 978-1934843956
  11. ^ Zizas 2014, p. 470.
  12. ^ Zizas 2014, pp. 470–471.
  13. ^ Zizas 2014, p. 471.
  14. ^ a b c Zizas 2014, p. 472.
  15. ^ Zizas 2014, p. 473.
  16. ^ Adam Fuerstenberg. Lithuania asks partisans to 'justify' their actions. The Canadian Jewish News. 20 November 2008. (retrieved 1 May , 2017)
  17. ^ a b c Pacyfikacja wsi Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) / Rimantas Zizas. - In: Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza. 2003, nr. 4, page 39
  18. ^ Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (September 8, 2017). Intermarium: The Land Between the Black and Baltic Seas. Routledge. p. 511. ISBN 9781351511957.
  19. ^ Krajewski, Kazimierz (1997). Na ziemi nowogródzkiej: "NÓW"--Nowogródzki Okręg Armii Krajowej. Instytut Wydawniczy Pax. pp. 511–512. ISBN 9788321115009.
  20. ^ Pacyfikacja wsi Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) / Rimantas Zizas. - In: Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza. 2003, nr. 4, page 38
  21. ^ a b c Pacyfikacja wsi Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) / Rimantas Zizas. - In: Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza. 2003, nr. 4, page 50
  22. ^ a b Zizas 2014, p. 491.
  23. ^ Pacyfikacja wsi Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) / Rimantas Zizas. - In: Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza. 2003, nr. 4, page 51
  24. ^ Stachura, Peter (2004). Poland, 1918-1945: An Interpretive and Documentary History of the Second Republic. Routledge. p. 140. ISBN 9781134289493.
  25. ^ Sowjetische Partisanen 1941-1944: Mythos und Wirklichkeit Bogdan Musial Ferdinand Schoeningh, 2009, page 547
  26. ^ Bogdan Musial Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrussland Innenansichten aus dem Gebiet Baranovici 1941-1944 Cover: Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrussland Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2004, page 28
  27. ^ Marc Perelman. Poles Open Probe Into Jewish Role In Killings. Group Fingers WWII Partisans. The Forward. 8 August 2003.
  28. ^ Wybranowski, Wojciech (February 16, 2018). "IPN umarza śledztwo w sprawie masakry w Koniuchach".
  29. ^ The Jews in Poland and Russia: Volume III: 1914 to 2008, Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization, Antony Polonsky, pages 523-526, ISBN 978-1904113485
  30. ^ Lana Gersten and Marc Perelman. Tensions mount over probe into Jewish 'war crimes'. Haaretz. 8 July 2008.
  31. ^ Sara Ginaite. ‘Investigating’ Jewish Partisans in Lithuania. The Protest of a Veteran Jewish Partisan. Jewish Currents. September 2008.
  32. ^ Sužiedėlis, Saulius. "The International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania: successes, challenges, perspectives." Journal of Baltic Studies 49.1 (2018): 103-116.
  33. ^ Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe, John-Paul Himka and Joanna Michlic, pages 339-342.
  34. ^ Nikt nie wymknął się z okrążenia 26 July 2008 Rzeczpospolita Plus Minus Piotr Gontarczyk[2]
  35. ^ Tumavičius, Andrius (February 2014). "Kaniūkų kaimo tragedija" (PDF). Atmintinos datos (in Lithuanian). Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. Retrieved May 1, 2017.

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.
  • 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
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Koniuchy_massacre&oldid=870386844"