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In the footsteps of Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis: places from his native Ketūnai to Leipalingis that you can visit today.
In the footsteps of Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis
His birthplace in Samogitia, an officer’s career in Kaunas, the underground in Vilnius and his last fifteen months in the forests of Dzūkija. Places you can still visit today.
The map is schematic: places are marked approximately. Click a place to open its page. We will confirm exact coordinates and routes with the museum.
March to the winter headquarters by the Skroblus
Every year, on the first Saturday around 12 January, Kazimieraitis’s family, friends, soldiers, scouts and students walk from Marcinkonys to his winter headquarters by the Skroblus stream near Rudnelė. On 12 January 1946 the NKVD discovered this headquarters: the partisan Jonas Kraulelis-Ėglis was killed, and the Dzūkai Group staff diary fell into the occupiers’ hands. The march also commemorates 13 January 1991.
March 2024
A snowy march that began at Marcinkonys church with tricolours and the partisan flag.
March 2023
Almost a hundred marchers. The first march after it was officially confirmed in November 2022 that Kazimieraitis’s remains had been found.
March 2022
Gathering at the headquarters site on a high bluff above the Skroblus.
March 2020
Marchers crossing the Skroblus stream on the way to the headquarters in the Marcinkonys pine forests.
March 2019
A family and friends’ march across the stream and back. The youngest participant was three, the oldest 75. The evening ended by the campfire.
Walking route · Kabeliai, Varėna district · 1944–1945
Where Juozas Vitkus became Kazimieraitis
- 8 kmdistance
- 6stops
- On footor by bike
- Easyasphalt, gravel roads, paths
The route leads through the places of Kazimieraitis’s first period of resistance in Dzūkija: from autumn 1944, when he worked at the Kabeliai forestry office, to June 1945, when he went underground for good. About 8 km on foot or by bike, on asphalt, gravel roads and paths. The route is easy. On 18 May 2025 a march marking the 80th anniversary of the Dzūkai Group staff also followed it.
- 01
Kabeliai forestry office
In autumn 1944 J. Vitkus took a job here as bookkeeper. Local partisans soon visited him. With their commander Andrius Valentukevičius-Bijūnas and the liaison Jonas Grigas-Karvelis he formed the Dzūkai Group. The building now houses the parish centre. A memorial sign hangs on the wall, and next to it stands an information board put up in 2014 by relatives and parishioners. You can leave your car in the car park.
- 02
Kabeliai church
J. Vitkus was a man of deep faith. Villagers remember him praying at the back of the church, by a column. During the Polish occupation the parish preserved its Lithuanian identity, and the St Casimir Society was active here. Inspired by its young members, known as “kazimieriokai”, Vitkus chose the code name Kazimieraitis.
- 03
Destroyed partisan farmsteads of Užuraistė
Six men from this part of Kabeliai went into the forest, among them three Kibirkštis brothers. Their families were deported and their farmsteads destroyed. Four farmstead sites are marked: those of Adolfas Kibirkštis-Dobilas, Pranas Kibirkštis-Lizdeika, Vincas Kibirkštis-Ramūnas and Motiejus Kraunelis-Balandis.
Farmstead site 1 53.95942, 24.302866 ↗Farmstead site 2 53.96118, 24.302895 ↗Farmstead site 3 53.961246, 24.30475 ↗Farmstead site 4 53.962833, 24.309731 ↗
- 04
Bijūnas’s bunker and the place of his death
This was one of the first partisan bunkers in Kabeliai. For a time it served as an auxiliary headquarters for Kazimieraitis. Andrius Valentukevičius-Bijūnas was killed on 17 June 1945 (16 June in J. Grigas’s memoirs). After his death Kazimieraitis went underground for good. The memorial sign was erected by his son Kostas Valentukevičius.
Bunker pit 53.963884, 24.323689 ↗Monument 53.963417, 24.324209 ↗
- 05
Kazimieraitis’s first headquarterspresumed location
It lay on the Astravas upland among the bogs, to the right of today’s Kabeliai border post. In spring 1945 the Dzūkai Group staff documents were prepared and printed here. It is believed that in June the headquarters was betrayed and burned. After land drainage it is no longer possible to establish the exact site.
- 06
The house of Juozas and Mikalina Karlonas
Vitkus lived here while working at the forestry office. The windows of his room looked out onto the street. The owners built a hideout in the workshop. When the village was quiet, they hung a white towel behind the barn – a sign that it was safe to come home.
Source: Partizanų Lietuva, “Žygio maršrutas Kazimieraitis” (LT). The project was funded by the Ministry of National Defence and the Department of Cultural Heritage (2023). On-site photos by D. Čaplikaitė. The descriptions are based on the memoirs of J. Grigas-Karvelis and A. Suraučius-Tauras and on the Dzūkai Group staff diary. The date of Bijūnas’s death is corrected according to V. Vitkus’s book “Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis” (2017), pp. 57, 157. Photo: A. Zalanskaitė archive.
Paths of remembrance: commemoration routes
- Visiting partisan bunkers
An expedition to the places of the Dainava partisans: The bunker of Žaibas and Dzūkas in the Kalesninkai forest, Merkinė Hill of Crosses.
- 71st anniversary of his death in Kaunas
Mass at the Garrison Church, premiere of the film “The Ultimate Sacrifice” at the Kaunas National Drama Theatre.
- Birthday commemoration in Tirkšliai
Mass at Tirkšliai church, blessing of the flag of the J. Vitkus-Kazimieraitis School, film premiere.
- Tribute to Kazimieraitis, Vanagas and other freedom fighters in Merkinė
Mass, the lecture “Colonel Kazimieraitis in the Resistance”, a gun salute at the Merkinė Hill of Crosses, Merkinė museum, and the sites of Kazimieraitis’s and Dzūkas’s fight and death in Žaliamiškis.
- State Day in Kabeliai
Mass at Kabeliai church, restored letters shown for the first time, the bunker of the partisan Bijūnas, the border post, Žaliamiškis, Leipalingis and the Merkinė memorial.
- Anniversary of his death in Leipalingis
Mass, the site where his remains were found at Dzūkų g. 15, the place of his death in Janavas, a march to a possible bunker site, the site of Dzūkas’s bunker, a meeting at Leipalingis manor.
- Gathering of freedom lovers in Kasčiūnai
Five days at the Jakavonis farmstead by the Merkys: partisan trails, testimonies, a march to the Hill of the Oath.
Source: event descriptions on the Facebook page “Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis” and news on this website (in Lithuanian). Photos: A. Zalanskaitė archive.