In June and July 1941, detachments of German Einsatzgruppen, together with Lithuanian auxiliaries, began murdering the Jews of Lithuania. The most infamous incident occurred in what was later known as the Lietūkis Garage Massacre. This incident is well documented and well photographed because it was a public event.
During the Lietūkis Garage Massacre, 40-60 people were killed and publicly humiliated in the city center. Lithuanian children and parents watched and cheered as “Death Dealer of Kovno” bludgeoned Jew after Jew after Jew. One German regular army officer later described as the most frightful event he’d witnessed in the course of two world wars.
Laimonas Noreika: Resident of Kovno
“In the middle of the yard, in broad daylight and in full view of the assembled crowd, a group of well-dressed, spruce intelligent-looking people held iron bars which they used to viciously beat another group of similarly well dressed, spruce, intelligent people. . . The assailants yelled the word “norma” (move it) repeatedly as they relentlessly battered the Jews until they fell to the ground . . . [and] kept hitting them until finally they lay inert. . . Bodies began to pile up everywhere. I stood next to the fence and watched it all until finally, my brother Albertas pulled me away.”
Colonel L. Von Bischoffshausen: Nazi
“Women in the crowd . . . clambered onto chairs and crates so that they and their children could get a better view . . . cheering, clapping, and laughter . . . I witnessed a display of brutality that was unparalleled by anything I saw in combat during two world wars. . . [A] fair haired young man of around 25 . . . leaned on a long iron bar . . . and around his feet lay between fifteen to twenty people . . . dying or already dead. . . Every few minutes . . . another person . . . had his skull shattered with one blow from the huge iron bar the killer held in his hand. Each blow he struck drew another round of clapping and cheering from the enthralled crowd.”
Once the mound of the bodies at his feet had reach fifty, the Death Dealer fetched an accordion, climbed to the top of the pile of the corpses, and played the Lithuanian national anthem.