Koniuchy Massacre - Evaluations and Controversy

Evaluations and Controversy

There are controversies surrounding the significance of the Koniuchy incident. The events at Koniuchy have been described by Chaim Lazar in Destruction and Resistance (1985) in which he claimed 300 people had been murdered. This number has not been supported by other sources. In Rich Cohen's account of a Jewish partisan unit, which describes the massacre of civilians, Koniuchy is described as a "pro-Nazi" town that was used as a staging ground for German attacks against partisans. In a November 2008 interview with Adam Fuerstenberg, former director of Toronto’s Holocaust Centre, York University professor Sara Ginaitė, a veteran Jewish partisan fighter, described Koniuchy as having a record of hostility to the partisans and that, in collaboration with the Nazis and the local police, the town had organized an armed group to fight the partisans.

In Poland and Lithuania, the Koniuchy massacre is treated as one of the many war crimes. The Institute of National Remembrance initiated a formal investigation into the incident on March 3, 2001, at the request of the Canadian Polish Congress. The institute examined a number of archival documents including police reports, encoded messages, military records and personnel files of the Soviet partisans. Requests for legal assistance were then sent to state prosecutors in Belarus, Lithuania, the Russian Federation and Israel.

The Lithuanian prosecutor general subsequently opened its own investigation into the massacre. As part of its investigation, Lithuanian prosecutors have sought out Jewish veterans of the partisan movement, including Ginaitė, for questioning. Also under investigation is Yitzhak Arad, a former IDF brigadier general, Jewish resistance movement veteran, and former chairman of Yad Vashem, who served as a member of a commission appointed by Lithuania's president in 2005 to examine past war crimes. Arad became the subject of criticism by Lithuanian right wing groups after his public recommendation for an examination of Lithuania's role in the Holocaust. An investigation into Arad's wartime activities in Koniuchy was opened by Lithuania's chief prosecutor in the wake of the criticisms of Arad's proposal.

In May 2004, a monument commemorating the event was erected in Kaniūkai with the names of the 34 victims.