"Death Dealer of Kavnas(Kovno)"

[witness]

What happened with " the death-dealer " of Kovno after this execution where he had beaten to death about 50 people and played the Lithinian national anthem at the end standing near the bodies
of the killed ?
Did he joined Hiwis ? Did he survive the war or was he killed by partisans ? Was he tried ? Executed ?
Any info ?
Thanks.

[Peter]

I can see that several members have tried to establish the ID of this man, can anybody help to ID him ?

[Lit.]

What happened with " the death-dealer " of Kovno after this execution where he had beaten to death about 50 people and played the Lithinian national anthem at the end standing near the bodies
of the killed ?
Did he joined Hiwis ? Did he survive the war or was he killed by partisans ? Was he tried ? Executed ?
Any info ?
Thanks.

"Death-dealer" (as you call him) of Kaunas (not Kovno or Kovnas) served also as Gestapo agent, later as agent and professional killer of NKVD, killing Lithuanian Freedom fighters. Later he became a doctor of medicine in the Soviet Lithuania. And lived his usual happy Soviet life in the biggest terrorist state - USSR.

he had beaten to death about 50 people

- not true
he took part in beating to death not more than 20 people - sadists of NKVD and few Communist party officials (no women or children)

and played the Lithinian national anthem at the end standing near the bodies

- this is a Soviet lie, primitive anti-Baltistic propaganda.

[michael mills]

"Death-dealer" (as you call him) of Kaunas (not Kovno or Kovnas) served also as Gestapo agent, later as agent and professional killer of NKVD, killing Lithuanian Freedom fighters. Later he became a doctor of medicine in the Soviet Lithuania. And lived his usual happy Soviet life in the biggest terrorist state - USSR.

How could he have become an NKVD agent and then a doctor of medicine in Soviet Lithuania, after the war, if he had previously been a Gestapo agent and had participated in the public lynching of other NKVD men?

Unless of course he was able to keep his past as an anti-Soviet collaborator with the Germans hidden from the Soviet Government after the war. But in that case the identity of the person shown in the photographs would have remained unknown.

In any case, do we have a name for the NKVD agent and doctor of medicine in Soviet Lithunania, who is supposed to be the same person who, in photographs taken by German soldiers in late June 1941, is shown participating in the killing of unidentified men, reportedly NKVD agents and collaborators with the Soviet occupation?

[David Thompson]

Michael -- You asked:

In any case, do we have a name for the NKVD agent and doctor of medicine in Soviet Lithunania, who is supposed to be the same person who, in photographs taken by German soldiers in late June 1941, is shown participating in the killing of unidentified men, reportedly NKVD agents and collaborators with the Soviet occupation?

Algirdas Antanas Pavalkis is supposed to be the fellow's name, according to this post:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 753#680753

[michael mills]

So the hard information we have is that there was a person called Algirdas Antanas Pavalkis, who had been engaged in some sort of anti-Soviet activity, and who after the war, in order to purge his "guilt", agreed to serve as an agent for the Soviet occupiers of Lithuania by infiltrating anti-Soviet partisan groups.

The above scenario is not at all unlikely. The same phenomenon occurred in 1941, when Lithuanians who had collaborated with the Soviet occupation purged their "guilt" by agreeing to serve as agents for the new German occupiers, in particular by doing the dirtier jobs such as killing people that the Germans wanted killed.

What is left open is the exact nature of the "guilt" that Pavalkis had to purge by serving the new Soviet masters. Some sort of anti-Soviet activity obviously, but what it is not specified.

The post-war Soviet Union did have a record of hunting down and punishing, often with the death penalty, Soviet citizens who had been involved in anti-Jewish actions as collaborators with the German occupation, eg former guards at extermination camps. Whether it would have spared and used as an agent a person who had been involved in such a public massacre as the one shown in the German photographs is a moot point, and remains to be proved.

[David Thompson]

Here are some articles on Dr. Pavalkis in Lithuanian, if anyone can translate:

http://www.xxiamzius.lt/archyvas/xxiamz ... /mums.html
http://www.xxiamzius.lt/archyvas/xxiamz ... ms_04.html
http://www.xxiamzius.lt/archyvas/xxiamz ... te_01.html

[germangirl]

It is truley horrifying yes, but you have to consider that probably all this man's life that he was probably raised in an anti-semitic house and environment, and when he was released from prison when the Russian's "liberated" Kaunas, the Russians probably also stirred up some anti-semitism.

[Lit.]

It is truly horrifying yes, but you have to consider that probably all this man's life that he was probably raised in an anti-Semitic house and environment, and when he was released from prison when the Russian's "liberated" Kaunas, the Russians probably also stirred up some anti-Semitism.

Dear Germangirl it seems you are trying to invent another myth from the old myth about "Lietukis garage" case. You have to take a closer look at the history of Lithuania and the mentality of Lithuanians before talking about any "anti-Semitic house and environment" in our country before Soviet occupation. You probably thinking about common environment of some other nation more closer to you.

You'll hardly find more tolerant to other religions and cultures nation in Europe around. Even when taking other nations (like Rhutenians-Ukrainians-Russians, Tartars, Karaite etc..) under control (for centuries), Lithuanians never forced to speak their language or even forced change their religion...

Mr. Pavalkis (if you talking about him) has nothing to do with any kind of "anti-anything". He just was common collaborator with any-thing and killer of any-one, as other "heroes", that took part in German Nazi anti-Semitic/anti-Baltic propaganda photosession "Lietukis garage".

When Russian Socialists occupied Lithuania in 1940 06 15, Pavalkis (as other "heroes" from "Lietukis" case) was active collaborator, member of Comsomol etc.

But when German Socialists occupied Lithuania, he (as other "colleagues") was arrested and has 2 choices: or to stay in Nazi prison and later to be executed, or to become active collaborator of German socialists. He was good socialist and also internationalist. So he became good Gestapo agent and willingly took part in this execution of Soviet activists in Lietukis.

When Russian socialists reoccupied Lithuania again, Mr. Pavalkis became good agent of NKVD again, under supervision of famous war criminal Jew Nachman Dushansky (still hiding in Israel).

[michael mills]

Even if all the claims concerning the life and crimes of Pavalkis are accurate, it remains to be proved that he was the young blond man shown in photos taken by German soldiers of a massacre at the Lietukis garage.

The massacre took place on a day when only advance units of the Wehrmacht had reached Kaunas, and there was as yet no German administration in control of the city.

The massacre was perpetrated by members of a Lithuanian nationalist organisation (I think its name was "Gelizinas Vilkas", "Iron Wolf"), who had come out of hiding when the Soviet occupiers began evacuating on 21 June 1941. The victims of the massacre were Soviet officials who had gone to the garage to commandeer transport for their escape, and had been caught there by the Lithuanian nationalists, plus other Soviet officials and colaborators who had been caught elsewhere and were brought to the garage for holding.

The perpetrators of the massacre are wearing white sashes, the symbol of the organisation to which they belong.

Immediately after the Soviet retreat, Kaunas had been taken over by Lithuanian nationalists, aided by mutiny by an ethnic Lithuanian unit of the Red Army. As of the date of the massacre, Kaunas was still under the control of the Lithuanian nationalists, even though advance units of the Wehrmacht had already arrived. Accordingly, the perpetrators of the massacre were not under German control, and were acting on their own initiative, wreaking revenge for their oppression under the Soviet regime.

If Pavalkis was a Soviet agent who was caught by the German authorities and persuaded to work for them, then that process must have occurred after the German administration was firmly established in Lithuania, ie well after the date of the massacre. Accordingly, Pavalkis cannot have taken part in the massacre as a German agent.

However, it is known from documentary evidence that immediately before the German invasion, Lithuanian nationalists who had taken refuge in Germany after the Soviet occupation in June 1940 sent a message to their comrades in the anti-Soviet underground, calling on them to rise up in anticipation of the German invasion, and stating that all ethnic Lithuanians who had collaborated with the Soviet regime should be arrested and made to purge their guilt by killing at least one Jewish Communist. Hence, if Pavalkis had been captured by Lithuanan nationalists immediately after the Soviet retreat, he may well have participated in the massacre in accordance with the instructions in the message described.

[Grellber]

Interesting. Sad that we do not know the identity for sure. Here is another suggestion of his identity (Which I hovewer believe is wrong)

On the following site:
http://lithuanianjews.org.il/HTMLs/arti ... BSS6=13971
i found a totally different connection to the picture.
Would be really interesting to see if someone can straight this out.

Luksa Juozas; A cruel sadist. At the right: The murderer as "Hero" of the Massacre of 68 innocent people at the garage of "Lietukis" in Kaunas on June 27, 1941. At the left: Eight years later, after participating in the slaughter of thousands of Jews in Kaunas and elsewhere. Was killed in 1951.

The picture from 1951 I´ve seen in a Swedish book, or rather a book published also in Swedish re. "The forrest brothers" post 1945.

[Grellber]

Continued, as above...
According to limk:
http://lithuanianjews.org.il/media/uplo ... 20ACTS.doc
The following text is there:
"The pogroms which started in Slabodka spread to the "wealth" sections of Kaunas. On Vitiates Prospectus, groups of L.A.F. "partisans" broke onto the nearby Jewish homes, dragged the residents. Among them several Rabbis, out into the streets and pulled them into the nearby "Lietukis" garage. There were about 60 people brought in. after a significant number of Lithuanian spectators gathered, including mothers with their children, and surrounded the scene, the "partisans" began their bloody orgy. Several Rabbis were pushed and pulled by their beards along the garage floor the hair torn out together with the flesh from their blood-stained faces.

The decisive moment of the "show" approached. All the victims had to take off their shoes and were led barefooted to a light-haired, blue-eyed man standing nearby (Juozas Loksas). He held a big iron crow-bar in his hands. One by one, the victims had to approach his iron bar down on the victim's head who fell bleeding. After each blow the crowd applauded and shouted "valio" (hurray!). If a victim was not finished by the blow, the other "partisans" rushed to put a rubber hose in his mouth and sprayed water until his intestines burst. Then, another cheer from the crowd followed Limbs, severed fingers, and torn out tongues floated in pools of blood. After the massacre, the young man put aside the crow-bar, took up an accordion, stood on the bodies of the murdered people, and from his vantage point on a pile of corpses began to play the Lithuanian national anthem joined by the cheerful crowd".

I note that here the name is spelled Loksas, as opposite to the "forrest brother freedom fighter" Luksa, mentioned above.

[David Thompson]

See also the accounts given in this thread:

What really happened at the Lietukis garage, 25 June 1941?
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=75091

[Dan Oville]

I just found a website for The Lithuanian Jews of Israel and the name Juozas Luksa or Juozas Daumantas is mentioned as likely "The Death-Dealer of Kaunas (Kovno)". I hoped its him but the article about him left me even more disturbed. He is described as a Lithuanian nationalist who was highly regarded in Lituania. What disturbs me is that if it was him and that he was never arrested as a criminal, serious questions will follow. Was such gruesome event willfully shoved under the rug by Lithuanians?

[David Thompson]

An anti-semitic post by Michael Mills, and a now unnecessary reply post from Ranke were deleted by the moderator - DT.

Michael -- We don't permit insulting ethnic or religious insinuations here. If you do not have the self-control to curb your crude and bigoted sentiments, you will be banned.