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From the Israel Kaplan collection:
An essay by Kaplan on the fate of Radviliskis Lithuania, based on the testimonies of Yehudit Goldstik - Barkol and Chaja Lazarov - Junik. Undated; six pages, in Hebrew ) two copies: a handwritten draft of six pages and typewritten, five pages).

On June 26, 1941, the Germans entered Radviliskis. The next day they were already harassing the Jews. Lejbel Tevelovicz was ordered to dig himself a pit and was shot in it. Several days later, Jacob Veczerabin was similarly shot. Each day groups were sent out to forced labor. Those in charge were “Siauliu” Lithuanian nationalists.* Two of them were named Rameks and Sidlauskas.

On Sunday, June 29, 1941, a large group of Jewish men was apprehended. Directed by a German soldier and to the entertainment of the Lithuanian crowd, Lithuanians tormented the Jewish men and robbed them. Rabbi Begun, the town’s head rabbi, had his beard cut off and stuffed into the pocket of his coat as a kerchief. On another occasion, a local barber was tortured to death. Abuses of this sort occurred daily, and women too were victimized.

On July 8, 1941, all the Jews were ordered out of their homes and brought to abandoned Lithuanian army barracks. Contact with the Lithuanian population was prohibited. On that same day, a representative body of five men was chosen, the main purpose of which was to form working groups. The following morning groups of men and women went out to work at forced labor, escorted by armed guards. Those who remained were ordered to set up a barbed wire fence around the camp. The camp commandant authorized their going out, under armed guard, to bring foodstuffs from the town.

On Saturday, July 12, 1941, all Jewish males age 16 and over, a total of 123 men and youths, were ordered to the camp’s yard. They were taken outside the camp and did not return. The Lithuanian guards got their hands on the belongings of the men who were taken away. From time to time, men who had fled to the USSR or were caught in hiding places were brought to the camp. Two of them, both named Jaska (surnames unknown), became collaborators with the Germans and Lithuanians and were partners in sharing the Jews looted goods.

One day the Jews were transferred to other barracks, farther away. Food was brought to them in quantity from the villages and cooked in a communal kitchen. Whoever could pay, did; others received for free.

On Aug. 26, 1941, the Jews were told that they were being transferred to Zagare, but those who were interested had the option of going to Siauliai after obtaining permission from the municipal authorities. Only a few families went to Siauliai, and the remainder -- some 400 people -- were sent to Zagare. On Oct. 2, 1941, the day after Yom Kippur, they were murdered together with Jews who were brought there from other towns. The majority of those who went to Siauliai were, in the days following their arrival, taken to the Kuziai Forest and slaughtered there along with the Jews of Siauliai. Others remained in the Siauliai ghetto until its liquidation and were then sent to camps in Germany. Only a few survived. There were those who survived by having fled to the USSR.

* Lietuvos Siauliu Sajunga (Lithuanian Riflemen's Union), an armed nationalist organization founded in 1919 that took on an increasingly fascist character. With the German occupation following Operation Barbarossa of late June 1941. "Siaulists" carried out pogroms against the Jews and were recruited by the Germans as "special squads" to carry out their slaughter in Lithuania. Close