Editing Koniuchy massacre (section)

== Background ==
Soviet<nowiki> </nowiki>partisants starting from 1943 were cut off from supplies from Soviet 
Union and their supply situation drastically worsened. As per directives
<nowiki> </nowiki>from Moscow they were allowed to confiscate material goods from their opponents, and execute them. Some unit had specialized groups engaging 
in looting of precious items such as gold and jewellery from "counter-revolutionaries" and increasingly the partisants engaged in violence and terror against local villagers.<sup>[</sup><nowiki> </nowiki>In some cases the partisans robbed the locals of their last supplies of<nowiki> </nowiki>food, condemning their families to death from starvation.<sup>[4][8]</sup>

Antony Polonsky characterizes the situation in the area as "a bitter three-way conflict between the Soviet Lithuanian partisans... the Polish Home Army...<nowiki> </nowiki>and the Lithuanian local police force supported by their German 
protectors... During this period many encounters between partisans and 
local police from the villages took place, marked by the arbitrary killing on both sides of suspect civilians. No doubt, many of these suspects were innocent."

As raiding intensified in the summer of 1943, men of Koniuchy organized an unarmed night guard.<nowiki> </nowiki>In early fall 1943, the village was visited by four Lithuanian 
policemen and the men agreed to organize an armed self-defence group. According to later testimony by its leaders, the group grew from an 
initial 5 or 6 members to 25–30 men.There is no reliable data on the group's weapons. Soviet sources claimed that the village had three machine guns and automatic rifles.<nowiki> </nowiki>One of the leaders of the self-defence unit Vladislavas Voronis in his post-war trial by NKVD, trying to minimize his anti-Soviet activities, 
claimed that the group had only eight rifles and ten sawed-off shotguns.<nowiki> </nowiki>It is likely that at least some weapons were provided by the Lithuanian
<nowiki> </nowiki>policemen of the 253rd Police Battalion which had an outpost in Naujosios Rakliškės .

There were several incidents between the partisans and the men of<nowiki> </nowiki>Koniuchy. On October 13, 1940, a group of six armed Soviet partisans took three cartloads worth of food, clothes, and other items. The villagers stopped the partisans on a bridge over Salčca and took back the property. In January 1944, a Soviet partisan was killed in Didziosios Selos <nowiki> </nowiki>in an operation that involved a few men from Koniuchy. Soviet sources claimed that the partisan was captured, transported to Koniuchy, tortured, and later executed. Similarly, Soviet sources implicated men from Koniuchy in attacks on Soviet partisans in Visincia  and Kalitonys . In a November 2008 interview, York University professor Sara Ginaite<nowiki> </nowiki>who was part of the partisan unit which attacked Koniuchy, although she<nowiki> </nowiki>herself was not present during the massacre, has said that the village had a record of hostility to the partisans and that, in collaboration with the Nazis and the local Lithuanian police, the town had organized an armed group to fight the partisans.<nowiki> </nowiki>According to Soviet and Jewish sources, the villagers constituted a pro-Nazi threat to the partisans, though collaboration was denied by the<nowiki> </nowiki>villagers who claimed that only a few men in the village were armed with rifles for self-protection.<sup>]</sup>
 
According to historian Kazimierz Krajewski  there were no fortifications in the civilian community and the self-defense force was equipped with some rusty rifles.

According to Lithuanian historian Rimantas Zizas it is doubtful if the village self-defence forces contained more than 20 men.<nowiki> </nowiki>Zizas writes that Soviet records lack any precise facts regarding 
alleged resistance and activities by Koniuchy, and there are no events or combat operations involving the village recorded in the Soviet archives, that would explain the particular ruthlessness of the massacre. In other cases where Soviet forces tried to intimidate or punish local settlements only a limited civilians and self-defence 
members were murdered.<nowiki> </nowiki>According to Zizas, the Soviet command received reports from the Soviet
<nowiki> </nowiki>partisans complaining about particular harshness and cruelty by Jewish units towards policemen and civilians suspected of being involved in 
pogroms and Holocaust, and according to Zizas the desire to enact 
revenge might have clouded the participants judgment and ability to distinguish between real culprits and innocent civilians.<sup>[22]</sup>
<nowiki> </nowiki>According to other Soviet partisans, the "Death to Occupiers" unit was composed 90% of civilians, was poorly trained, lacked discipline, and had no experienced officers leading it.<nowiki> </nowiki>Zizas concludes that Soviet command might have planned to use Jewish 
unit to fight civilian resistance to Soviet rule, exploiting their motivation for revenge.<nowiki> </nowiki>In his analysis of the Soviet arguments and records regarding the 
massacre, Zizas comes to the conclusion that these are mostly demagogic 
and come off as trying to justify a particularly cruel atrocity. According to Zizas, most Soviet partisans involved omitted the action in Koniuchy from their memoirs.