Murder Story of Varena Jews in the Druckūnai-Eserekiai Grove

The Germans entered Aran [Yiddish for Varėna] on June 23, 1941 at 8 in the morning. On Tuesday August 12 ten men were arrested according to a list that had been prepared and were shot in the town of Alytus near Kovno [Kaunas]. On the following Sunday a larger group was also taken to Alytus and shot. On September 1, a Monday, a third group, of about 25 men, was taken to Alytus and shot. On Friday September 5 a fourth group, consisting of members of 2 families headed by Gershom Miller and Yisrael Kosovsky, and of a third family (whose name I no longer remember), including the women and children, was also taken to Alytus and shot. On September 8 all the Jews from the Aran station were taken into Aran, where the Jews from the town were being held in the synagogue. Two days later, at 6 in the morning, all of them were taken about 1.5 kilometers from the town on the way to the village of Druckūnai, where two pits 25 meters in length had been dug. There the men were shot in one pit and the women in the other. All of these murder operations were carried out by Lithuanians and Germans.