The Holocaust by Bullets: Bearing Witness to Lithuania’s Ponary and Fort IX Massacres

by Michel Gourary

Today, in the quiet woods of Ponary near Vilnius, Lithuania, the landscape carries an eerie stillness. Beneath the forest floor lies a grim history that is essential to recall, particularly as Lithuania marks its National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews. This annual march from the former Vilnius ghetto to the mass grave in Ponary is a poignant reminder of the horrors inflicted on Lithuania’s Jewish population during the Holocaust, a massacre that claimed the lives of 70,000 Jews between 1941 and 1944.

The Ponary massacre is a testament not only to the efficiency of Nazi brutality but also to the collaboration and complicity of local populations. The active role of Lithuanian militias, without direct oversight from German occupiers, illustrates the depth of entrenched antisemitism that fueled these mass killings. The annual commemoration, now supported by March of the Living, is a crucial act of bearing witness, as is their broader mission to engage young people in Holocaust education and remembrance.

The history of Ponary, now recognized as one of the most brutal sites of the Holocaust, is a chilling example of how mass murder was carried out in the open, long before gas chambers and industrialized death camps became synonymous with Nazi atrocities. Known as the “Holocaust by Bullets,” these early massacres were methodical executions by German forces and local collaborators, resulting in mass graves filled with thousands of innocent lives.

Yet, despite the scale of the tragedy, for decades, the memory of both the Ponary and Kaunas Fort IX massacres, and the role of Lithuanian collaborators, remained obscured, distorted, or, in many cases, forgotten. This distortion was not only a product of post-war politics but also of active efforts by the Nazis and their collaborators to erase all evidence of their crimes. In a horrifying twist, a group of Jewish prisoners was forced to exhume and burn the corpses of their fellow victims to cover the tracks of the perpetrators. These prisoners, chained underground in barracks, secretly dug a tunnel in one of Ponary’s pits in a desperate bid for freedom. In April 1944, forty of them escaped through that tunnel, but only eleven survived. Their escape and testimonies should have served as irrefutable evidence of the atrocities that took place, yet their stories were often marginalized or ignored.

At Fort IX in Kaunas (Kovno), on December 25, 1943, 64 prisoners, who were forced to cover up the traces of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their local collaborators, also managed to escape and bear testimony.

Part of the reason the memory of Ponary and Kaunas faded into obscurity lies in post-war Soviet narratives, which sought to erase the particularity of Jewish suffering. When Soviet authorities took control of Lithuania, they replaced Jewish memorials with generic monuments to “Victims of Fascism,” erasing the ethnic and religious identity of those who were killed. It wasn’t until 1991, after Lithuania gained independence, that a monument specifically dedicated to the Jewish victims of Ponary was erected.

Remembering the “Holocaust by Bullets” in Lithuania isn’t just about acknowledging the past; it’s about fighting the same dangerous ideologies that continue to haunt Europe today. As antisemitism rises once again across the continent, it becomes ever more urgent to educate younger generations about the horrors of the Holocaust and the dangers of hatred. Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, who led the Joint March from Vilnius to Ponary for two consecutive years, co-organized by the European March of the Living and the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, delivered a strong message to the high school students attending the march. The presence of these young people is a testament to Lithuania’s ongoing commitment to remembrance.

This year, the International March of the Living, together with local partners led by the Secretariat of the International Commission, organized two Remembrance Marches: one at the Kaunas Fort IX Museum on Monday, September 23, and the other the following day from Vilnius to Ponary forest. These marches serve as a reminder that memorialization must be an active process. The horrors of Ponary and Kaunas were nearly erased from history, but these stories are now being brought back into the light.

March of the Living’s presence at these sites has played a critical role in reclaiming these lost stories and remembering lost communities. By encouraging students, Holocaust survivors, and witnesses to join these and other remembrance commemorations, they bring to life the stories that were almost erased, while emphasizing the vital need for Holocaust education in our own time.

International March of the Living’s efforts in Lithuania mirror its global mission of memorializing and educating about the Holocaust. Each year, they bring thousands of people to walk the path from Auschwitz to Birkenau, keeping the memory of the six million Jews murdered alive. In addition, throughout the year, on national Holocaust memorial days, marches are held where Jews once lived and perished during the Holocaust—in places like Hungary, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Germany, Austria, and others. This year’s Kaunas and Vilnius marches mark a significant moment in this ongoing mission, ensuring that sites like Ponary, often overshadowed by larger camps, remain central to the story of the Holocaust.

The walls of Fort IX in Kaunas are silent about the horrific mass murders of thousands of prisoners, mainly Jews from the Kovno Ghetto, but also of Jews from France, Austria, and Germany.

The forest at Ponary may seem quiet today, but its silence is deafening. It is the silence of 70,000 souls who deserve to be remembered. It is the silence of a world that nearly forgot them. And it is the silence that we, through our collective memory and education, have a responsibility to break. Through the continued work of initiatives like the March of the Living, we can ensure that these stories are told, retold, and never forgotten.

Michel Gourary is the Director of the European March of the Living, dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and promoting education on its lessons across Europe. Born to a Warsaw-born mother who was rescued during the Holocaust by one of the Righteous Among the Nations in Brussels, his work reflects his deep personal connection to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and combating antisemitism.

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