Prior
to the outbreak of World War II, Lithuanian Jewry numbered
approximately 160,000 Jews with the largest communities being
in Kaunas, Siauliai, and Panevezys. Shortly after the Soviet
invasion of Eastern Poland in September 1939, the city and
district of Vilna (Vilnius in Lithuanian; Wilno in Polish)
were turned over to Lithuania, thereby adding an additional
66,000 Jews to the community which also absorbed approximately
14,000 Polish Jewish refugees during the fall and winter of
1939. In June 1940 the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania and two
months later annexed the country, which became a Soviet republic.
In June 1941, the Soviet authorities carried out large-scale
deportations of elements considered dangerous to the regime,
in the course of which approximately 7,000 Jews were sent to the Soviet interior. If we add the approximately 15,000 Jews
who escaped into the Soviet Union or were evacuated by the
Communist authorities, we can estimate that approximately 220,000
Jews were living in Lithuania during the initial stages of
the Nazi invasion. more...
________________________________________________________________________
| 
