Introduction
A report dated November 7, 1943, written by a employee attached to the Commander of the Security Police in Kaunas states that the local criminal police had determined that “nighttime fires at Fort IX”were caused by the burning of “Jewish bones”. This activity correspomds with the operations of Sonderkommando 1005 at Kaunas, a program led by Paul Blobel, which was tasked with exhuming mass graves and destroying evidence of Nazi atrocities across Eastern Europe.
Document
Kauen, den 7.11.43
Meldung (Nr. 2)
Geheim!
Am 6.11.1943 habe ich erfahren, daß der Leiter der lit. Kriminalpolizei, Pamataitis, durch seine Beamten Feststellungen getroffen hat, worum es sich bei den nächtlichen Feuern am Fort 9 handelt. Seine Beamten haben ihm mitgeteilt, daß dort oben ‘Judenknochen’ verbrannt würden.
In der Stadt Kauen ist z.Zt. das Gerücht verbreitet, daß Litauen an Russland abgegeben werden soll, zu diesem Zweck würden jetzt die Judenreste verbrannt werden.
[Unterschrift]
Dolmetscher u. Kriminalangestellter
Kaunas, 7 November 1943
Report (No. 2)
Secret!
On 6 November 1943, I learned that the head of the Lithuanian criminal police, Pamataitis, through his officers, had established what the nighttime fires at Fort 9 were about. His officers informed him that “Jewish bones” are being burned there.
In the city of Kaunas, a rumor is currently circulating that Lithuania is to be handed over to Russia; for this purpose, the remains of Jews are now being burned.
[Signature]
Interpreter and criminal police employee
Archivial reference:
Lithuanian Central State Archives (LCVA), R-1399-1/64