“Raudone” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Lithuania
(Raudonė, Lithuania)

55° 10' / 23° 32'

Translation of the “Raudone” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Lita

Written by Dov Levin

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1996


 

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Barry Mann

 

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Lita: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Lithuania,
Editor: Prof. Dov Levin, Assistant Editor: Josef Rosin, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.


This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.


JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.


(Page 624)

Raudone

In Yiddish, Raudone

Written by Dov Levin

Translated by Shimon Joffe

A county town in the Raseiniai district in western Lithuania near the German border, 25 km east of Yurbarkas. It began as a village and an estate under the same name belonging to aristocratic families for many generations. This is witnessed by the grand palace still standing in the place. In the census conducted by the independent Lithuanian government in 1923, 80 Jews were counted in the town and county. Some of them made a living of petty trade and farming. In 1939, Raudone had 4 telephones; 2 of these held by Jews, one by the owner of a cheese making plant (V. Linder) and the other by a merchant (Yokel Zilberman).

After the annexation of Lithuania to the Soviet Union, in the autumn of 1940, a mere dozen Jewish families remained in the village. Most of these were murdered about a year later, after the German invasion of Lithuania. It would appear that the victims were buried in one of the mass graves in the Raseiniai or Yurbarkas areas. A handful of Raudone Jews were hidden by Jews of the vicinity and were thus saved. Some of the Raudome Jews escaped and hid in the nearby forests, as an organized group, and held out until autumn 1944, when the region was liberated by the Red Army. While they were in the Eleonorava forests, south of Raseiniai, they were suddenly surrounded and shot by armed forces under German orders. According to Soviet sources 50 persons perished then.

Bibliography:

Masines Zudynes Lietuvoje (Mass Murders in Lithuania), Vol. 2, p. 401.
Naujienos (Chicago), 11.6.1949.

 Yizkor Book Project    JewishGen Home Page  


Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
Emerita Yizkor Book Project Manager, Joyce Field
This web page created by Jason Hallgarten

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 1 Sep 2011 by JH