Editing Koniuchy massacre

The '''Koniuchy (Kaniukai) massacre''' was a World War II massacre of Polish and Byelorussian civilians,^[1] mostly women and children,carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniukai, Lithuania) on 29 January 1944 by a Soviet partisan unit together with a contingent of Jewish partisans under Soviet command.^[1][3] At least 38 civilians who have been identified by name were killed, and more than a dozen were injured.^[1]

<nowiki> </nowiki>to defend from Partisan raids; according to partisan sources the force's operations hindered their activity in the vicinity of the  

The events, still politically charged, were investigated by authorities in Poland (2001) and Lithuania (2004), the latter in a fashion that was perceived in the West as politically motivated.^[1]

<nowiki> </nowiki>Some coverage of this event has been criticized for exaggerating the role of Jewish partisans in this raid; others for trying to deny or  

Koniuchy, now known as Kaniukai, is a village located in Lithuania near the Belarus–Lithuania border. Before the Second World War, it belonged to the Second Polish Republic and, after the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, it was transferred to Lithuania according to the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 and by Nazi Germany in June 1941. According to the census, carried out in August 1942 in ''Generalbezirk Litauen'',<nowiki> </nowiki>the village had 374 people – 41 of them declared their nationality as Lithuanians, 17 as Poles, and the rest chose ambiguous "of Lithuania".   

Soviet partisans became more active in the area in 1943. Koniuchy is located at the edge of the Rudniki Forest (now Rūdininkai Forest [lt]), where partisan groups, both Soviet and Jewish, set up their bases from which they attacked the German forces. Unlike Polish partisans of Armia Krajowa<nowiki> </nowiki>(Home Army), these partisans did not enjoy widespread local support and could not depend on voluntary food contributions from local farmers. Therefore, Soviet partisans regularly raided nearby villages to rob the locals from food stocks, cattle, and clothing.This raiding led to clashes between the farmers and the partisans. In response, German administration deployed Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions in the area and provided weapons to local self-defence units.^[13]

Soviet<nowiki> </nowiki>partisants starting from 1943 were cut off from supplies from Soviet  

<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.^[<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.^[4][8]

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  

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.^]

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  

revenge might have clouded the participants judgment and ability to distinguish between real culprits and innocent civilians.^[22]

<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  

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.

partisan units under the command of the Central Partisan Command in Moscow. The raid was carried out by 100–120 partisans from various units including 30 Jewish partisans. The units involved were ''"Death to occupiers"'', ''"Death to fascism"'', ''"Thunder"'', ''"Margirio"'' and a unit named after Adam Mickiewicz. The units belonged to the partisan Vilnius Brigade, with the exception of ''"Death to occupiers"'', which was part of the Kaunas partisan brigade.^[2]

Butrimonys, Jononiai, Klepociai, Pasalis, and Sauliai. In the village of<nowiki> </nowiki>Kiemeliskes was attacked and the partisans took provisions.^[5]

<nowiki> </nowiki>According to Lithuanian auxiliary police battalion reports, 52 auxiliary armed with machine guns arrived went to Koniuchy at 7 AM, but  

to intercept the Soviets. Additional Lithuanian attempts to  

<nowiki> </nowiki>the investigation, Yad Vashem issued a protest saying it focused on "victims of Nazi oppression" and suspended Israeli participation in the  

commission which Arad was part of. The failure of the Lithuanian judiciary to investigate pro-Nazi collaborators

victim blaming. Following wide international criticism (and some domestic criticism) the Lithuanian investigation was closed in September 2008.^[35]

According to Katz, this is an abuse of the tragedy in the village in order to create an "equivalence" with the Nazi-led Holocaust in Lithuania<nowiki> </nowiki>in which 200,000 Jews were murdered, which was carried out "with great  

fervor" by local Lithuanian volunteers, resulting in the highest percentage (95%) of murder in any nation during the Holocaust.<nowiki> </nowiki>According to Katz, outside of Lithuania Kaniukai has come to represent