Too brutal for the Germans.

In general I am always careful tp put all the blame on the German when it comes to the Holocaust. There is no denying that the bulk of the responsibility lies with them, but there were many other who enabled them and actively and willingly participated in the mass murder.

I also try not to post pictures that are too graphic because it often has an opposite effect, people are too disturbed to look at them and therefor don’t read the story behind them. I know the picture at the start of the blog is quite graphic, but it comes from a compilation of pictures which has even much more graphic photographs, this one is the least graphic.

The picture are from the The Kovno Garage Massacre, the clubbing to death of Jewish Lithuanians on June 27 1941,by Lithuanian nationalists.

Lithuanian paramilitary fascists murdered sixty-nine Jews by clubbing them with iron bars in an open-air garage before scores of onlookers in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania on this date in 1941.

During the Lietūkis Garage Massacre, carried out before the invading Germans had actually set up their administration, 69 people were killed and publicly humiliated in the process. Jews were forced to gather on the afternoon in the courtyard of a garage at 43 Vitautas Avenue, in the center of the city.

Some of them were killed with shovels, iron bars, or by other barbaric methods. Lithuanian children were lifted onto the shoulder of their parents to catch a glimpse of the “Death Dealer of Kovno”,

Colonel Lothar Von Bischoffshausen gave a testimony of the massacre.

“I arrived in Kovno on the afternoon of June 27, 1941. Whilst patrolling the city I came across a crowd of people that had gathered alongside a gas station to watch what was happening in the adjacent yard.

There were women in the crowd and many of them clambered onto chairs and crates so that they and their children could get a better view of the “spectacle” taking place in the yard below. At first, I thought this must be a victory celebration or some type of sporting event because of the cheering, clapping, and laughter that kept breaking out.

However, when I asked what was happening I was told the ‘death dealer of Kovno’ is at work and he would make sure that all ‘traitors and collaborators’ received a fitting punishment for their ‘treachery.’ When I drew closer I witnessed a display of brutality that was unparalleled by anything I saw in combat during two world wars.

Standing on the tarmac in the yard was a fair haired young man of around 25. He leaned on a long iron bar as thick as human arm and around his feet lay between fifteen to twenty people who were either dying or already dead. A few feet away from him stood another group of individuals who were guarded by armed men.

Every few minutes he signaled with his hand and another person quietly stepped forward and had his skull shattered with one blow from the huge iron bar the killer held in his hand. Each blow he struck drew another round of clapping and cheering from the enthralled crowd.”

sources

https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/28459/Bischoffshausen-von-Lothar.htm

https://jewishcurrents.org/june-26-killing-lithuanian-jews