Święciany massacre

The Święciany massacre or the Švenčionys massacre (Polish: Zbrodnia w Święcianach) was a series of mass murders committed against Poles in Święciany (now Švenčionys, Lithuania) and its surroundings on May 19-21 May, 1942 by Lithuanian collaborators mainly Lithuanian Security Police on the German orders. As a result between 400[1] and 1,200[2] people were killed.

The massacre was a reprisal action for the assassination of German officiels carried out by Soviet partisans under the command of Colonel Fedor Markov on the road between Święciany and Łyntupy, on May 19, 1942.[3] Killed were Oberleautnant Joseph Beck, who was a land administrator in the district of Święciany, his deputy Walter Gruhl and commendant of the POW camp Schneider.[3][4][5] Partisans spared Elżbieta Rakowska, who worked for Germans as an interpreter and was also a member of the Home Army.[3] They did that most likely because of her acquaintance with Markov, whom she had known from before the war, and who had established contacts with the Polish underground.[3] The Germans arrested Rakowska, accused her of complicity in the assassination and sent her to a concentration camp.[3]

On the same day, the head of the Vilnius military commander Col. Adolf Zehnpfening ordered the execution of 400 Poles from Święciany and villages within a 50 km radius of the assassination site.[3] The operation began the following day, was commanded by Jonas Maciulevičius and involved Lithuanian policemen, the German SiPo and members of the Lithuanian killing squad Ypatingasis būrys.[3] Although the German order said 400 were executed, certainly many more were killed, with various sources claiming 450, 600 and even 1,200 victims.[6] The proscription lists were prepared by the Lithuanian administration and included representatives of the Polish intelligentsia, only some of the victims are known by name.[7] According to studies carried out after 2000, the number of victims is around 450 people.[5]

In Stare Święciany, between 30 and 57 people were shot in the Jewish cemetery.[5] At least 26 people were killed in Święciany.[7] Further executions were carried out by the road connecting Święciany and Łyntupy, and dozens in the Łyntupy.[7] In Hoduciszki between 30 and 40 men were shot.[5] In the villages of Wygoda and Kapturany almost all the men were shot.[5] 40 people were killed in Sobolki, 50 in Szudowce, 20 in Kaznadzieiszki.[7]

In 1945, five Lithuanian police officers involved in the operation (Jonas Kurpis, Edwardas Werikas, Bronus Czeczura, Jonas Ankienas and Kazis Garła) stood trial before the Military Tribunal of the NKVD of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. They were sentenced to between 10 and 20 years' imprisonment. Granickas was also convicted of the Ponary murders.[5] One of the Lithuanian Security Police officers Antanas Granickas was sentenced to death by the Military Tribunal of the 43rd Soviet Army, which was executed on 21 February 1946.[5]

Maciulevičius was sentenced to death and executed in Poland in 1950. In early 2000s Polish Institute of National Remembrance reinvestigated the crime, and concluded that no other living perpetrators of this crime remain identified and alive, closing the investigation in 2005.[1]