01 of 18 · · Skuodas district, near Tirkšliai
Ketūnai: the farmstead of his book-smuggler grandfather by the Šerkšnė
Here, by the Šerkšnė river, Juozas Vitkus was born. These fields gave him both the example of his book-smuggler grandfather and his first work for his own district.
What happened here
Juozas Vitkus was born on 10 December 1901 at his grandfather Mykolas’s farmstead by the Šerkšnė river, in the village of Skuodas-Kėtūnai (Pašerkšnė), about 7 km from Tirkšliai. Even before the abolition of serfdom his grandfather received 12 desyatins of land from the Pašerkšnė manor, and during the press ban he was a book smuggler: he carried prayer books, calendars and “Aušra”, and kept a stall by the Tirkšliai churchyard.
Around 1907 the family settled in Tirkšliai. In 1909–1913 Juozas attended the Tirkšliai primary school; during the war he taught farmers’ children to read and write, and made himself a violin from a spruce board. At the end of 1918 he became the first clerk of the Tirkšliai rural district. He last visited his home on Easter 1940.
What you will see
- A memorial stone stands by the old Vitkus home in Ketūnai.
- In Tirkšliai there is a memorial plaque by his parents’ house, and the Tirkšliai basic school bears his name.
The War School, the engineering battalion and the family home in Panemunė.
03 · 1940–1944VilniusThe underground: “Kęstutis”, the LLA underground war school.
12 · 2023 10 21Antakalnis CemeteryBuried with state honours, near Vanagas.
Sources (in Lithuanian): V. Vitkus, “Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis”, 2nd ed., Kaunas, 2017, pp. 12–17; list of memorial sites – project fact base. Virtual exhibition “J. Vitkus-Kazimieraitis” (virtualios-parodos.lt). The map is schematic; we will confirm exact coordinates and routes with the museum.