Lithuania region (Generalkommissariat Litauen)

ENThe German and local Lithuanian authorities established around 115 ghettos in Generalkommissariat Litauen. Of these, 38 were established in what became under the German civil administration, Gebiet Schaulen- Land; 25 in Gebiet Kauen- Land; and 22 in the area of Gebiet Ponewesch- Land, which was not formally split off from Gebiet Schaulen- Land until November 1941. In Gebiet Wilna- Land, as it existed initially in August 1941, there were 15 ghettos; another 15 ghettos, holding around 7,000 Jews, were added, however, when a strip of territory was included from Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien in April 1942. [...] From the end of 1941 until late 1943, most of the remaining Jews in Lithuania (ca. 43,000 people) were confi ned within the three main ghettos of Wilno, Kaunas, and Šiauliai. The only other ghetto that continued to exist until 1943 was the Swieciany ghetto. However, some of the 15 ghettos added from Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien in April 1942, including those of Oszmiana, Michaliszki, and Soly, survived for another year. These ghettos were subordinated administratively to the Wilno ghetto and gradually consolidated in the fall of 1942. The Germans liquidated them in March and April of 1943, with some of the inmates being transferred to the Wilno ghetto or to labor camps in Lithuania, while several thousand were murdered at Ponary. [p. 1032].