Murder Site forest Rašė Area
On August 7, Rollkommando Hamann (a German mobile killing unit), with the assistance of the Lithuanian "white armbanders", killed 570 Jews (483 men and eighty-seven women) in the Rašė Forest, some two kilometers north of Utena, a little to the west of the village of Rašė. The remaining Jews of Vyžuonos, who appear to have numbered 150-200 people, were among the victims of this massacre.
More information: Yad Vashem
Murder Site forest Rašė Area
On August 28, 1941, the remaining 300 Jews of Užpaliai were transferred to Utena. On the next day, August 29, Rollkommando Hamann, reinforced by the German Security Police and assisted by the Lithuanian "white armbanders", killed 3,782 Jews from Utena and the surrounding towns and villages, including Užpaliai, in the Rašė Forest, some two kilometers north of Utena, a little to the west of the village of Rašė.
More information: Yad Vashem
Murder Site forest Rašė Area
On July 31, 1941, Rollkommando Hamann (Joachim Hamann's mobile killing squad), which had come over from Kaunas for this purpose, shot 235 Jewish men and sixteen Jewish women in the Rašė Forest, some two kilometers north of Utena, a little west of the village of Rašė. The squad was assisted by the Lithuanian police and other collaborators. On August 7, Rollkommando Hamann and the Lithuanian baltaraiščiai (white armbanders) killed 483 male Jews and eighty-seven women at the same site. On August 29, 1941, Rollkommando Hamann, which was reinforced by the German Security Police, liquidated the short-lived Utena Ghetto, murdering 3,782 Jews from Utena, Molėtai, and the villages of Dabeikiai, Inturke, Kuktiškės, Tauragnai, and Užpaliai in the Rašė Forest. Most of the victims of this final massacre were women and children. Later, the Lithuanian police used this site to kill individual Jews who had been arrested in the area of Utena.
More information: Yad Vashem