Even before the arrival of German troops in Kavarskas, the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans (the so-called "white armbanders", baltaraiščiai) arrested some 35-40 people, mostly Jews, as suspected Soviet collaborators. The arrestees were held in the Kavarskas prison. Several days later, they were told that they would be transferred to the prison in Ukmergė, a town twenty-five kilometers south. Some of the arrestees, an estimated twenty people, were taken to the village of Pumpučiai, on the southern edge of Kavarskas, and shot there, on the bank of the Šventoji River.

More information: Yad Vashem