PLACES TO VISIT

Old Jewish Cemetery of Kretinga, sites of massacre and graves of Jews

The cemetery was in use from the 18th century until 1941. Jews from the towns of Kretinga, Kartena, and Jokūbavas, who belonged to the Kretinga Jewish community, were buried there. Between July and September 1941, officers of the state security police and auxiliary police of Kretinga District killed about 220 women and children from the Kretinga Jewish community, as well as 125 members of the Mosėdis Jewish community. Jews, communists, members of the Komsomol, and activists of the Soviet authorities were buried in the southern part of the cemetery in Kretinga District. The cemetery was originally enclosed by a concrete wall, but today only fragments remain. In 1994, a symbolic openwork gate was installed at the site of the former entrance. The cemetery contains numerous stone and concrete tombstones with epitaphs in Hebrew letters. There are also two monuments in the southern part of the cemetery commemorating the victims of the massacre.