Recalling those who survived: Images

1: Early 1950s. Standing: Unidentified elderly woman; Chaim Burshtein; Aryeh (Liova) Ginzburg; Tanya Ginzburg (nee David, Liova’s wife); Unidentified woman with her son; two unidentified men. Sitting: Benjamin Kaplan (probably); Yudel Ronder; unidentified man.

2: Early 1950s: Because of the quality, we could identify few of those here. Yet the photo shows the memorial stone had been installed.

3: Probably 1956: Those we were able to identify: Basya Kaplan, 1st from the left; Liuba Burshtein, 2nd from left; Yakov Dinershul, 4th from left; Abrasha Dinershul (his son, in front of Yakov); Chasya Kaplan (on his right); Guta Kaganaitė – 5th; Moshe Shcherbakov (her husband) behind her; Moshe Upnitsky, on his right; Chaim Burshtein, on his right, behind the stone; Yudel Ronder, on his right, behind the stone; Moshe Shneider (with a casquette), last row, third to the right from Yudel; Lazar Blumberg (to the left of Moshe, only his black hat is seen); Tuvye Shneider – in the last row, on the right of Moshe, his brother; Gurvich’s wife (with the black kerchief); Aba-Yankel Grinberg – in the front row, before the iron rod of the fence; Aharon Rozenberg (Fanya Turetskyte’s son, in a casquette; boy, right of the iron fence; Shmuel Girshovich – on the far right, beyond the wooden fence of the grave.

4: Probably 1957. Left lower row: Unidentified man; Guta Kaganaitė; Fanya Turetskytė (in marriage Rozenberg); Pesya (Paulina) Shneider (a daughter of Moshe Shneider, in marriage Yanover); Unidentified man with hat (above Pesya); Unidentified woman (on her right); Abrasha Dinershul (a son of Yakov Dinershul); An unidentified boy (in a school uniform cap), his mother with a kerchief is probably behind him; Chasya Kaplan (a daughter of Benjamin and Basya Kaplan). Middle row: Moshe Shneider (with a casquette); Unidentified woman with a kerchief, probably a mother of the boy in front of her; Basya Dushkes (in marriage Kaplan, a mother of Chasya Kaplan; behind a woman with kerchief, to the right of Moshe Shneider); Two unidentified women on her right; Unidentified woman behind Basya; Above her and a bit to the right – Chaim Ronder (in a hat); Leib Yudel Gurvich; Yudel Ronder; Yakov Dinershul; Unidentified man; Lazar Blumberg; Eliyahu Ginzburg; Two unidentified men; Avigdor Upnitsky (in a hat); Unidentified boy and man in a white hat; Aba-Yankel Grinberg (at the front); Unidentified man (last on the right). Upper row: Chaim Mankovich; Benjamin Kaplan; Moshe Shcherbakov (Guta Kaganaitė’s husband); Chaim Burshtein; Unidentified young woman (probably Chaim’s daughter); Raya Dushkes (in marriage Shapiro, a daughter of Brayna Dushkes); Mulya Kantor; Unidentified man; Tuvya Shneider; Brayna Dushkes.

5: 1958 or 59. Front row: Unidentified man in a black hat (inclined); Unidentified boy on his right; Rosa Burshtein (Chaim Burshtein’s daughter, behind him) ; Unidentified girl on her right; Abrasha Dinershul (Yakov Dinershul’s son); Bella Blumberg (Lazar Blumberg’s daughter); An unidentified sitting man (on a far right) Middle row: Two unidentified women; Unidentified man in a gray hat; Unidentified woman behind him; Unidentified man in a black hat on her left; Guta Kaganaitė (in a kerchief, hardly seen, behind her); Shlomo Kurlianchik on her right (with a casquette); Liuba Burshtein (on Guta’s left); Yudel Ronder (behind Shlomo); Raya Dushkes (in marriage Shapiro, behind Yudel); Two unidentified men. Behind the memorial: Chaim Ronder; Unidentified man and his son behind Chaim; Fanya Turetskytė; Unidentified woman; Yakov Dinershul; Eliyahu Ginzburg (on his right); Avigdor Upnitsky (on Eliyahu’s right); Moshe Upnitsky (on Avigdor’s right); Tanya Turetskytė (in front of Dinershul); Yeta (Yocheved) Blumberg (nee Raykin, Lazar Blumberg’s wife, born in Riga); Lazar Blumberg; Aba-Yankel Grinberg. Upper row, right: Unidentified man (probably Mulya Kantor); Unidentified girl in a kerchief; Unidentified man in a white hat; Kalman Shneider; Tuvya Shneider.

6: Probably 1959: Aba-Yankel Grinberg; An unidentified man behind him; Tuvya Shneider; Benjamin Kaplan; Fanya Turetskytė; Chaim Burshtein; Liuba Burshtein; Yakov Dinershul; Yudel Ronder; Unidentified man behind him; Eliyahu Ginzburg; Avigdor Upnitsky; Guta Kaganaitė; Lazar Blumberg

7: By the memorial at the mass grave (August 28, 1961). Unidentified young man; Unidentified woman (on his right); Unidentified boy and a girl in a white coat; Brayna Dushkes (behind the girl); Probably B.Dushkes’ husband, on her right; Unidentified woman (on Brayna’s left); L.Y.Gurvich with his son in his hands (behind her); Guta Kaganaitė (on his right, behind Brayna’s husband); Leonard (Aryeh) Shcherbakov (her son, behind her); Shlomo Kurlianchik (behind him); Tanya Turetskytė (on his right); Yosef Gadya (behind her); Shraga Secunda (Blumberg wife’s relative, not from Kėdainiai); Unidentified man; Lazar Blumberg; Unidentified man (behind him); Unidentified man (on the right of Blumberg); Moshe Upnitsky (on his right); Feivel Vinitsky (probably); An unidentified man (on his right); Chaim Mankovich (in front of Moshe Upnitsky); Tanya Turetskytė (in front of him); Two unidentified men (on her right); Chaim Ronder; Unidentified man on his right; Unidentified boy in front of him.

8: 1962. Upper far row: Chaim Burshtein; Yakov Dinershul (in a black beret); Tuvya Shneider. Middle row: Leib Goldberg (in white coat); Guta Kaganaitė, on his right; Unidentified man (above Leib, in a black hat); Unidentified man (hidden behind Guta); On his right – Gurvich’s wife; Unidentified man (behind her, in a black beret); Unidentified woman with three big buttons on the coat, to the right of Guta Kaganaitė; Above her – Liuba Burshtein (with kerchief), Chaim Burshtein’s wife; To Liuba’s right – Yeta, Lazar Blumberg’s wife; Behind her – Lazar Blumberg (with a black beret); Behind him – unidentified man (hidden); On his right – Yudel Ronder; On Yudel’s right – Chaim Ronder, he stands in front of Dinershul; Eliyahu Ginzburg; On his right – Kaplan (with a casquette); To the right of Kaplan – Moshe Upnitsky; To the right of Moshe – Avigdor Upnitsky, Moshe’s brother; Above Moshe, inclined – Gurvich; In front of Kaplan and Moshe Upnitsky – two unidentified men; In front of them, two other unidentified men; On their right (and to the left of Avigdor Upnitsky) – Kalman Shneider (with a casquette); To the right of Kalman – Leonard (Aryeh) Shcherbakov (a son of Guta Kaganaitė and Moshe Shcherbakov); In the front row of the right group of people – Simona Upnitsky (in marriage Klein, a daughter of Avigdor Upnitsky); Unidentified man, on her right; far right – Aba-Yankel Grinberg Front row (children): A son of Gurvich; Roza Bursthtein (in marriage Zakroyskaya, a daughter of Chaim and Liuba Burshtein); Lea Ronder (daughter of Yudel Ronder); Bella Blumberg (in marriage Gold, a daughter of Lazar and Yeta Blumberg), stands behind Lea; Paulina Shcherbakov (in marriage Rosenstein, a daughter of Guta Kaganaitė and Moshe Shcherbakov); Unidentified girl; David (Dodik) Goldberg (a son of Leib Goldberg)

9a: 1960s. Because of the nearby military airfield (see next photo), access to the site was complicated, requiring special permits. Soviet authorities did not maintain such sites, and indeed tried to hide them, to make access difficult and whenever possible to eliminate them, as happened to many Jewish cemeteries and mass murder sites across the country.

9b: 1960s. Note the airplanes in the background.

10: 1963. Front row, sitting: Lea Ronder; Unidentified man; Two unidentified girls, elderly woman behind them; L.Y.Gurvich’s son; Abrasha Dinershul; Meir Feinblum and his daughter Yulia. Middle row: Hanna Feinblum (Meir’s wife, born in Gomel); Chaim Ronder; An unidentified woman, a reclining man (probably Feivel Vinitsky) and a boy with glasses, on Chaim’s right; Guta Kaganaitė (in a kerchief, behind them); Unidentified man in a black beret and two unidentified women behind her; Fanya Turetskytė; Unidentified woman (on Fanya’s right); Lazar Blumberg; Eliyahu Ginzburg; Unidentified man; Yosef Gadya; Moshe Upnitsky (on his right); Unidentified man, on his right; Yakov Dinershul (in front of Yosef and Moshe); Brayna Dushkes; Shmuel Girshovich; Two unidentified women on Brayna and Shmuel’s right, also a man with a casquette and a boy in front of him and a young man on his left; Liuba Burshtein (on the far right) Upper row: L.Y.Gurvich; Feivel Vinitsky (probably); Chaim Burshtein; Unidentified man; Chaim Mankovich; Tolik (Anatoly) Feinblum (Meir Feinblum’s son); Mulya Kantor

11: Around 1964: Unidentified elderly woman; Lea Ronder above her; Unidentified man on her right; Gurvich’s wife; Probably Fanya Turetskytė; Liuba (Meybutė) Tamunaitė (Yudel Ronder’s wife); Unidentified woman; Lazar Blumberg; Unidentified man, above Lazar; Yudel Ronder, on Lazar’s right; Unidentified man; Guta Kaganaitė; Unidentified woman, in front of her; Unidentified man with glasses and in a hat; Yosef Gadya; Unidentified man; Gurvich’s son in front of the memorial.

12: August 29, 1965. Unidentified man; Shmuel Girshovich; Unidentified woman, on his right; Unidentified woman, behind her; Guta Kaganaitė (in a kerchief, on her right); Brayna Dushkes (in a kerchief, on Guta’s right); Unidentified woman, on her right; Avigdor Upnitsky, behind Guta, a bit to the left; Unidentified man in a black hat on his right; Moshe Upnitsky; Chaim Burshtein; Two unidentified women and a man; Chaim Mankovich, above them; Lazar Blumberg; Seven unidentified women in front of him and a man in a black hat; Yakov Dinershul (in front of the memorial)

13: Early 1970s: Shlomo Kurlianchik (hardly seen); Chaim Mankovich’s wife; Chaim Burshtein; Two unidentified men; Ben-Tsiyon Birger (in a black beret); Unidentified man; Liuba Burshtein; Gita Kurlianchik (by the tree, the daughter of Shlomo and Lea-Liza Kurlianchik); Lea-Liza Kurlianchik (nee Fridkovsky, Shlomo’s wife, born in Kapčiamiestis); Unidentified woman; Shmuel Girshovich; Yosef Shneider (behind him); Kalman Shneider (on his right); Unidentified woman, far right

14: Mid-1970s. Those who could be clearly identified: Moshe Shneider, 3rd from left; Shmuel Girshovich 7th from left; Kalman Shneider, 10th from left; Yudel Ronder, 15th from the left; Ben-Tsiyon Birger, 16th from left (3rd from right); Liuba Burshtein, 18th from left (1st from right).

15: August 17, 1980. Left: Moshe Shneider’s wife (Raya?), Kalman Shneider. Right: Ben-Tsiyon Birger, Moshe Shneider, Moshe’s son. Note the inscription stating that “2076 people are buried here.” The number was likely taken from the so-called Jaeger report. Chaim Ronder, the main witness to the event, puts the number at 3,700. The inscription dating the memorial to 1957 appeared between 1975 and 1980, after most Jewish Keidaners had left Lithuania.