Ashley Blog #6: Arye Penkinsky and the Slaughter of Naumiestis

So, I realized on Thursday of last week that I forgot to do a post! Don’t worry, though, I’m planning on making up for it this week with another gut-wrenching and nauseating account from my primary sources, as a bit of a teaser for what’s to come next class period. The analysis and citation are below; this testimony comes from Arye Penkinsky, describing the massacre in Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania.

Bankier, David, ed. Holocaust Testimonials from Provincial Lithuania. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2012.

Penkinsky’s testimony begins with a description of the installation of a new town council in Naumiestis, headed by a medical doctor, a town priest, and a handful of other members of the Lithuanian partisans. These partisans also made up the police force, several members of which Penkinsky could recall by name.  He also noted that the partisans had a spiritual leader who had been arrested during the period of Soviet rule, and that the creation of the new council “happened with the permission and agreement of the German commandants in town.” 

At this point, however, Penkinsky’s testimony turned toward the killings within Naumiestis. One story he relayed is of Chaya Prensky who begged a co-worker to spare her and her small child. He stated, “The murderer struck her on the head with a hard object and she fell dead on the spot.” Penkinsky went on to state that this man, and others that he could remember, “did not shoot small children because, as they put it, ‘the little ones weren’t worth a bullet.’” Instead, the Lithuanian volunteers “would grab the children by their feet, smash their heads against a tree and throw them right into the pit.” This brutality shows a clear detachment in the Lithuanian partisans’ psyche between Jews and themselves; they had no regard for the life of a child if that child was Jewish, and could even overlook bonds of friendship for the sake of carrying out their tasks. 

Penkinsky also described the looting that occurred after the murders. According to his testimony, “The bandits distributed the clothing [of the murdered Jews] among themselves. They cursed the town’s mayor, Pranaitis, for taking the best things for himself, even though he hadn’t come to help shoot and bury the Jews.” These men, who had been voted in as town council members to represent the citizens of Naumiestis, not only murdered neighbors and co-workers, but then fought over the scraps left behind. 

Perhaps the most telling detail follows Penkinsky’s testimony. When transcribing the testimony, Leyb Koniuchovsky asked Penkinsky if he could remember any of those involved in the massacre at Naumiestis. Penkinsky could recall and list nearly twenty names, including the murderers’ occupations, suggesting that he was close enough with these men to know them personally. These were not faceless German soldiers, but friends and neighbors that turned on their fellow townspeople. In fact, Penkinsky stated that, “if the Lithuanian murderers hadn’t taken an active part in the slaughter of Jews, the complete annihilation would have been impossible and a number of Jews would have survived.” While this is merely speculation, it is nevertheless founded upon the terrible actions Penkinsky witnessed carried out by the Lithuanian partisans in Naumiestis.