Algirdas Klimaitis (1910)
Algirdas Jonas Klimaitis (1910 in Kaunas - August 29,1988 in Hamburg,Germany) Commander of 1941 June rebel platoon, organizer of Vilijampole pogrom.Christoph Dieckmann and Saulius Sužiedėlis, researchers of the Holocaust in Lithuania, claim that little knowledge about Algirdas Klimaitis remains. He was probably an officer of independent Lithuania who later worked as a right-wing journalist. Edited the newspaper Ten Cents. According to his sister, Algirdas Klimaitis became anti-communist and anti-Semitic in the 1940s. It was later said that he became a Voldemarian. Algirdas Martynas Budreckis described him as a young feverish neurotic.
1941 On Sunday, June 22, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Algirdas Klimaitis led a group of rebels fighting the Soviets for Kaunas. The number of battalions is variously indicated as 50, 300, 600 people. [5] [6] [4] Juozas Ambrazevicius wrote after the war, "It is wrong to assign the Klimaitis group to the LAF, which organized the uprising. Klimaitis had just left the Bolshevik prison. He had organized many of the same for the first days of the war." The pogrom of Vilijampolė
More information can be found in Vilijampolė pogrom.
On Wednesday, 25 June, the German army entered Kaunas. Head of Task Force A, SS officer Walter Staleker, spoke to Jonas Dainauskas, the head of the Provisional Lithuanian Security Police, about making pogroms, but he categorically refused. [8] Walter Stalecker later wrote in his report, "It suddenly turned out to be quite difficult to organize a larger Jewish pogrom. Here we used the help of A. Klimaitis, the leader of the aforementioned partisans, who was instructed by our small front line in Kaunas. During the first pogrom, on the night of June 25 to June 26, Lithuanian partisans eliminated more than 1,500 Jews, set fire to or otherwise destroyed several synagogues and burned down a Jewish quarter. , which had about 60 homes. The following nights, 2,300 Jews were made harmless in the same way. " [9]
Stalecker is thought to have exaggerated these numbers. Mr Shauss testified to the Soviet Special Commission that 600 Jews were killed in the pogrome.
Algirdas Klimaitis was not subordinate to the Provisional Government of Lithuania. She tried unsuccessfully to stop him and got away from him. [4] Juozas Brazaitis-Ambrazevičius, acting prime minister, later claimed in his memoirs that the Provisional Government had sent generals Stasys Pundzevičius and Mikas Rėklaitis to dissuade Algirdas Klimaitis from making pogroms and no longer serving Walter Staleker. [3] Algirdas Klimaitis met them with the Lithuanian flag over his chest and tried to excuse himself. The generals managed to reassure him that his work was tarnishing the name of Lithuania and that he was doing obscene work for the Nazis. [4] Juozas Ambrazevičius wrote after the war, "In that conversation, Klimaitis wept and explained that Stahlecker threatened him with liquidation if he did not comply with Stahlecker's orders. He was advised to disappear. He did so soon." [7]
Vytautas Petkevičius has written how he watched the massacre of the Lietūkis garage on Friday, June 27 at the age of eleven. "After a while, the White Ribbon came and announced that 'all members of the Klimaitis squad (who were running the Vilijampolė Pogrom on June 25) should leave because they are needed for another job elsewhere.' Many Lithuanians then left, and the rest went on to work, all headed by Aleksandras Bendinskas, head of the Lithuanian Activist Front Staff (who later became a member of the Seimas after independence). " [10] It is believed that Algirdas Klimaitis was not involved in the massacre.
On the same day, at the hearing of the Provisional Government, Minister of Public Utilities Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis "reported extremely brutal torture of Jews in Kaunas, in the Lietūkis garage. It was decided that despite all It was found that these actions were committed by people who have nothing to do with either the Activist Staff or the Provisional Government of Lithuania, and the German Military Command in Kaunas has been allowed to organize the Security Battalion on a purely military basis. the Battalion was welcomed and decided to support, fund and, if possible, expand this type of protection, especially in the province. "
The next day, Saturday, June 28, Lithuanian rebel troops in Kaunas were disarmed. On Sunday, June 29, the Kaunas Military Command established the National Labor Protection (TDA) Battalion. The Provisional Government of Lithuania hoped that this would be the beginning of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. But soon the battalion began firing on the Jews. July. 4th In 1944 he shot 463 Jews in Kaunas VII fort.
After the war
His son, as well as Algirdas Klimaitis (Kliugeris), was accused and imprisoned in 1992 of an independent Lithuania. on suspicion of working as a KGB agent. [11] 2007. The Vilnius Regional Court overturned the Lustration Commission's ruling and claimed that Algirdas Klimaitis was unaware that he was cooperating with KGB agents and was being exploited as a source of knowledge.