In the morning of July 11, thirty-four Jews, mainly women, whom the Lithuanian police had failed to hang at the Antakalnis II farmstead, were shot in the Pivonija Forest, some 3-4 kilometers south-southwest of Ukmergė. No pits had been dug at the site, and the bodies lay unburied for some time. In subsequent months, the Nazis and their local collaborators used the Pivonija Forest for large-scale massacres of Jews from Ukmergė and the nearby towns and villages (Kavarskas, Alunta, Musninkai, Giedraičiai, Gelvonai, Kurkliai, Širvintos, etc.). Four major murder operations, which took place in August-September 1941, claimed the lives of most of the Jews of Ukmergė. All four of them (on August 1, 8-9, and 19, and on September 4-5) followed a similar script: The victims would be taken to the Ukmergė prison; on the day of the execution, the inmates would be lined up in the prison courtyard, where the Lithuanian police would carry out a selection; they would pick out the Jews (and sometimes the Communists, as well), load them onto trucks, and take them into the Pivonija Forest; the rest of the inmates would be returned to their cells. In some cases, the victims would be ordered to strip to their underwear; more often, they would take off their clothes at the murder site. The policemen would then take Jews from Ukmergė and the nearby towns and villages to the Vaitkuškis manor (Vaitkuškio Dvaras in Lithuanian), half a mile south of the murder site. This manor thus became the main selection point before the mass murders. After the selection, the victims would be escorted on foot from Vaitkuškio Dvaras into the forest, where pits would have been dug in advance, either by prison inmates or by local peasants. On August 1, 296 Jews and four non-Jewish Communists were killed in the Pivonija Forest; on August 8-9, 702 Jews were killed there; on August 19, 641 Jews, including eighty-eight children, and two Communists were shot at the site. On September 5, 1941, the Ukmergė Ghetto was liquidated, and the last Jews of Ukmergė and of the nearby town of Kavarskas – a total of 4,708 people, including 1,737 children – were murdered on that day. The primary perpetrators of this massacre were the men of a special Lithuanian squad from Kavarskas, who had been recruited for this purpose from among the former "white armbanders" and brought to the Pivonija Forest. On the day of the massacre, the Jews were escorted in groups from the Vaitkuškis manor to the murder site; the Lithuanian guards at the manor would be ordered to take a new batch into the forest as soon as the sounds of gunfire from there ceased.

More information: Yad Vashem

On September 5, 1941, the remaining Jews of Kavarskas, those who had survived the mass killings in the village of Pumpučiai and at the Jewish cemetery, were killed in the Pivonija Forest, near Ukmergė, together with the Jews of Ukmergė and the surrounding villages. The massacre in the Pivonija Forest was carried out by a special Lithuanian squad from Kavarskas, whose members had been recruited from among former "white armbanders".

More information: Yad Vashem