What happened here
At the end of August 1944 J. Vitkus came to Kabeliai and took a job as bookkeeper of the forestry office. That autumn he got to know the local men and chose the code name Kazimieraitis. At a fighters’ gathering on 4 April 1945 Bijūnas invited him to take command; on 6 May it was decided to unite the partisans of Dzūkija into the Dzūkai Group, and on 7 May its staff was established.
The first headquarters was in the Astravas bogs near Grūda. On 1 May he tuned a radio receiver himself, using a battery made of zinc, copper wire and copper sulphate. In June the NKVD detained him in Kabeliai – his head was bandaged because of a boil, and he saved himself by pretending to be ill.
On 17 June 1945 the NKVD attacked Bijūnas’s camp, and Bijūnas was killed. The next day Kazimieraitis left legal life for good.
“That same day Kazimieraitis finally decided to withdraw from public life and work only with the ‘greens’ [partisans].”
Dzūkai Group staff diary, 18 June 1945
What you will see
- The village of Kabeliai, home to the children and grandchildren of people who remember him.
- Memorial signs in Kabeliai and the Astravas bogs – [to be confirmed].
The Merkys camp and letters “from the quiet forests of Dzūkija”.
07 · 1945 09 27 – 1946 01 12Skroblus, RudnelėThe winter headquarters, attacked on 12 January 1946.
06 · 1945 08 02NedzingėMeeting with A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas.
Sources (in Lithuanian): V. Vitkus, “Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis”, 2nd ed., Kaunas, 2017, pp. 54–58, 155–157, 209–214. The map is schematic; we will confirm exact coordinates and routes with the museum.