In Ablinga, a village in northwestern Lithuania, 30 oak sculptures commemorate since 1972 the 42 villagers who were shot by German units on June 23, 1941 as part of a »retaliatory action«.
On June 22, 1941 the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union, which had annexed independent Lithuania the year before. During the hasty retreat units of the Red Army met a German motorcycle brigade and fired at them. In search of the perpetrators the Germans searched homes in the villages of Ablinga and Žvaginiai near the border, allegedly finding weapons there and suspecting that the locals had helped the Soviet soldiers. They then rounded up 20 men and 13 women from Ablinga and six people from Žvaginiai and shot them.
On June 23, 1941 German inhabitants rounded up 20 men and 13 women from Ablinga and six persons from Žvaginiai and shot them in »retaliation« of shots fired by the Red Army.
On July 27, 1972 an ensemble of 30 five to eight metre high oak sculptures was inaugurated, which had previously been created in a month-long creative process by 25 folk artists from all over Lithuania. A small memorial museum, opened in 1984, closed in 1993. Instead, a plaque and a stone pyramid were erected in memory of the anti-Soviet partisan struggle. In 1985 a Blessed Virgin Mary grotto was built, whose predecessor had already stood here since 1930. According to tradition, some villagers ran towards the grotto in the German hail of bullets, praying to the Virgin Mary and shouted: »We had been waiting for the Germans - now the Germans are shooting!«. They ascribed their salvation to the Virgin Mary. On August 6, 1988 a public Catholic funeral mass for all Ablinga victims took place here for the first time. Since then the commemoration in Ablinga has been dedicated to the victims of German violence as well as to the Soviet occupation. In the 2010s the wooden sculptures were extensively restored.
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- Ablingos memorialinis ansamblis
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GPS: 55°43'56.0"N 21°42'02.0"E
Ablinga - Open
- The memorial ensemble is accessible at all times.