Soft Charcoal on canvas. |
The Lithuanian Twelfth Schutzmannschaft (auxiliary police) Battalion's 1st Company, led by Lieutenant Z. Kemzura, massacred between 1,000 and 1,900 Jews from the city on October 21, 1941, shooting them and throwing them into a pit; many were buried alive. As it is reported in "The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry," "For three hours the earth covering the mass grave would move; people still alive were trying to crawl out of their grave."
In July 1942, the Einsatzgruppen killed several thousand Jews in Koidanovo. The city was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on July 6, 1944.