The Execution Forest Where 100,000 People Were Shot D

during World War II the SS and the einat scriper carried out horrific executions of thousands of people in concealed places hidden away from the view of the public they relied on the element of Deceit at times to lure people to their deaths and executions but there were some who did oppose the executions but not in the way that you would probably believe recently during a visit at the Imperial War Museum in London I read a letter sent from a woman who lived close to a concentration camp and she was complaining about the slaughter happening there and she wrote to the commant of miden stating that she wanted the killing to be done in a quiet way away from the eyes and ears of her and her family she did not want the killing to stop but just be hidden away from her own view inside of a forest in Lithuania there was during World War II a number of horrific massacres carried out upon many civilians and it’s estimated that in a matter of years the iret scripper

and collaborators executed around 100,000 people the panari massacres occurred inside the dense forest and still today the land is shaped by the horrors that occurred 80 years ago and victims still lie in pits and their stories have not yet been on earthed today we look at the panari forest executions to support please make sure to subscribe when the German Army rampaged into different lands the Nazis and the SS placed the Nations under occupation and and they imposed their brutal and barbaric policies including the extermination of large sves of the population Lithuania became one of the first Nations after Poland during World War II in which the Nazis slaughtered people as part of the final solution the region of the panari forest had during World War II been annexed by the Soviets and it was hand given to Lithuania from the Polish under the Soviet Lithuanian treaty there was then an oil storage facility constructed nearby for a future

Soviet military Airfield which would be Base air but this would never be finished when the German Army launched operation Barbarosa the verat rampaged into the region and lands and it was almost immediate that the forest became a sight of execution and extermination the nais selected the panari forest as a suitable place to execute thousands as it was a dense and heavily concealed area from the outside world and there were six large pits already excavated by the Soviets to store oil tanks in however the Nazis then utilized these as a place to conceal the remains of those who they slaughtered specifically it was einat’s Commando 9 of the SS who arrived in VNA nearby on the 2nd of July 1941 the majority of the executions were actually carried out by Lithuanian collaborators specifically around 80 men who made up the firing squads and then a later einat’s Commando came in to oversee the executions the vill neetto was established but then following this many

thousands of people began to disappear they were rounded up inside of the city and were then taken to the panari forest where they were slaughtered by the firing squad most of the victims had their clothes taken before they were executed and by the end of 1941 there had been around 60,000 Jews executed including many women and children over 20,000 of these had been executed inside of the panari forest the forest was chosen as an execution site as it was relatively close to the train tracks and the pits already dug there were large in their size they were around 8 m deep already meaning that the executioners could ruthlessly carry out their work and they would not even need to wait for the victims to dig their own Graves the embankments were also very high where the executioners would stand on and fire from what is harrowing is that the panari forest was a place of great happiness for many people in the years before the war it was a place where people went to relax and some people

holidayed there with their families residents of VNA would go and pick berries and mushrooms in the forest and it was a peaceful place but the war would shatter that one eyewitness to the slaughter inside of the forest claimed that the 11th of July lovely weather it’s hot out there are white clouds and a gentle breeze shooting can be heard from the forest presumably from training the shooting started at 4 p.m.

then I was informed that many Jews were transported to the forest by the road to grodno and they were then shot this was the first day of executions a depressing feeling the shooting stopped at about 8 in the evening the victims will walk to the execution site on foot those who were too weak to walk would be driven there or be sent by train they then entered one of the six pits and many of those who were executed were hooded and forced to take off their shirts which were then tied around their heads and eyes so they could not see the executioners or what was happening then the people would in ow be walked into the execution pit and they held on to the person in front of them the executioners then either fired from the edge of the pit or from directly behind the victims they were protected from ricochets by the Earth and embankment behind them after the victims were shot and killed the next set of victims were brought in and were then shot in the

same manner on top of them if someone wasn’t killed instantly the first time then a cdar gunshot would be given to the Head the panari forest massacres took took place at a time before the construction of the extermination camps such as trinka bich and soor and there were some of the deadliest executions with the largest death tolls across occupied lands a witness who lived nearby to the forest claimed by the second day July the 12th a Saturday we already knew what was going on because at about 3 p.m. a large group of Jews were taken to the forest about 300 people mainly intelligencia with suitcases beautifully dressed know for their good economic situation an hour later the volleys began 10 people were shot at a time they took off their overcoats caps and shoes but not their trousers my wife began to shut the windows each time that the echo came down in the summer we could not eat on The Veranda if the shooting was

beginning at panari not because of respect for someone’s death but because potatoes with clotted milk would stick in the throat it seemed that the entire neighborhood was sticky with blood in 1942 the speed of the killing slowed slightly as some who were being persecuted were sent to Germany for slave labor but then in 1943 following the Battle of Stalingrad and with the push back of the verm act the Nazis launched a unit to conceal the crimes of the panari forest there were 80 prisoners who were sent from stov concentration camp in Gans and were part of a lyen Commando or a corpse unit the job of these workers was to dig up the bodies of those who had been executed place on a huge fire which was burning and cremate The Remains reducing the body to Ashes to then hide the crimes and then mix them in sand and mud in the dirt as if nothing had happened the workers dug up thousands of bodies and then concealed some of the crimes but they also dug a tunnel with spoons in

the forest from one of the pits and they actually on the 19th of April 1944 managed to escape the work and their captives and 11 even managed to survive the wall and then then told the world world of the horrors of the forest it’s estimated that between 70,000 and 100,000 people were executed in the panari forest by the SS einat scriper executioners and the Lithuanian collaborators who carried out the executions upon the orders of the Nazi leaders in the region the figure of the executed includes prisoners of war from the Soviet Army and most of the victims from Poland were academics and members of the intelligen most of the people who were executed here were Ordinary People from the nearby town of vilner and who had been subjected to terrifying treatment inside the ghettos overseen by the SS they were some of the earliest victims of the death squads especially as the killings took place before the completion of some of the extermination

sites across German occupied lands today the forest is Tainted by the horrors of the past the land was forever changed by what happened there during World War II and the ground has many pits where thousands were buried before their remain were then dug up there are most probably many victims of the executions who were still buried inside of the forest and their remains are yet to be found today the wind whistles through the leaves in the trees and the birds make their nests high up but 80 years ago the sounds of gunshots and screams were constant and heard inside of the forest thanks for watching to support our Channel please make sure to subscribe and once again thank you so so much for watching