Vidzgiris Forest Memorial

The Vidzgiris Forest, just west of Alytus city centre, is the site of one of Lithuania's most significant Holocaust mass graves. Thousands of Jewish residents of Alytus were killed here during the German occupation in 1941. A memorial marks the site, and the Alytus local museum addresses this history directly.

This is not a place to visit lightly, but it is a place worth visiting. Understanding what happened in these forests — repeated across hundreds of Lithuanian towns and villages — is essential context for understanding the 20th-century history of the Baltic states. The forest itself is peaceful; the contrast between the setting and its history is part of what makes the memorial so affecting.

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A story
During the summer and autumn of 1941, the German occupation authorities and their Lithuanian collaborators murdered the Jewish population of Alytus — several thousand people — in the Vidzgiris forest on the edge of the city. The site was largely forgotten during the Soviet period. The memorial established here is part of Lithuania's ongoing, difficult reckoning with what happened in these forests.