Both mass murders of Bystrzyca Jews, that of 1941 and that of October 1942, took place at the site of the former sand quarry east of the village. In 1941 (the exact date is uncertain), about 100 people were shot by the Germans at the sand quarry 200 meters east of the village, near the bank of the Wilia River. The victims were forced to dig their own graves before the murder. It is unclear whether all the victims were Jewish; at least, 21 names of Jewish victims of this murder have been ascertained. On October 24, 1942 the Germans liquidated the ghetto of Bystrzyca by shooting 143 Jews. The most probable perpetrators were the German Security Police from Vilna, assisted by local policemen. Some sources maintain that the last murder of Bystrzyca Jews took place in 1944, several months before the liberation of the village. However, in his speech of October 27, 1942 before the Vilna Jewish council, the Jewish head of the Vilna Ghetto Jacob Gens mentioned the mass murder of Jews in Bystrzyca as a fait accompli. The witnesses interrogated by the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (ChGK) in 1945, also dated the murder to 1942.

More information: Yad Vashem