The Holocaust in Lithuanian province still remains one of the least researched aspects of Jewish
genocide both in Lithuanian and foreign historiography. So far, research has mostly focused on general
history of the Holocaust, extermination of Jewish communities in Vilnius and Kaunas, criminal activity
of the German Security Police and SD action squads as well as special squads in the Baltic States, and
collaboration of Lithuanian local authorities with the Nazis during the Holocaust (particularly in
reference to Lithuanian Soviet and Israeli historiography). The purpose of this work is to analyse the
process of extermination of the Jews in the province and reveal one of the key stages, features and
results of this process.
Efforts were made to use all the archival sources and literature available to the author. The
document collections of the Lithuanian Central State Archives (hereinafter LCSA) and Lithuanian
Special Archives (hereinafter LSA) served as the main reference. The document collections of some of
the county governors (e.g. those of the governor of Trakai County, doc. col. R-500; governor of Kaunas
City and County, doc. col. R-1534, etc.) were particularly important for the topic in question. These
document collections contain the surviving documents from the Nazi occupation on legal discrimination
of the Jews, seizure and use of Jewish property, statistics on the Jews living in counties and rural
districts, etc. There are very few documents on physical extermination of the Jews left. The document
collections of German and Lithuanian police authorities kept by the LCSA are very important for the
topic in question. Among the document collections of the aforesaid category mentioned here should be
those of Kaunas Commander’s Office (doc. col. R-1444) and those of liaison officer of Pavien÷ Police
Service under the chief of Public Order Police in Lithuania (doc. col. R-683). The said document
collections contain orders to Lithuanian Police Battalion (including Kaunas TDA Battalion which was
“notorious” for Jewish extermination) and correspondence between the Director of Police Department,
V. Reivytis, with the police chiefs of the County on the operations for detention and gathering of the
Jews in August 1941.