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11 of 18 · · Druskininkai municipality, Leipalingis eldership
Leipalingis: the “stribynas” yard where he lay for 76 years
His body was desecrated and buried in the yard of the “stribynas”. His remains were found only in 2022. The Kazimieraitis Museum is being created in this building.
What happened here
The soldiers took the body to Leipalingis and dumped it in the market square by the church. The medical assistant Čaplinskas, a childhood friend from Tirkšliai, recognised him but did not give himself away. The body was buried by the “stribai” yard at Dzūkų g. 15 – from 1944 this was the seat of an NKVD-MVD-MGB sub-department and the “stribai” headquarters. On 6 July he was dug up, photographed, an identification report was drawn up, and he was buried again.
In 1991–1992 his grave was sought but not found; in 2019 the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania resumed the search. On 20 October 2022 archaeologists found the remains in the yard of the “stribynas”, and in November DNA tests, for which his children Rimgaudas, Liudas and Jūratė provided samples, confirmed his identity. Remains of a rosary, a bone comb with the initials JV and a small plate engraved with the Vytis were found with the remains.
What you will see
- The former “stribynas” building and the yard where the remains were found. The Kazimieraitis Museum is being created here.
- A memorial stone in Leipalingis.
The place of his death, a wayside shrine at the forest edge.
09 · January 1946RicieliaiAgreement to create the Southern Lithuania partisan region.
08 · 1946 01–03KasčiūnaiVanagas’s hideout at Tigras’s farmstead, “Laisvės varpas”.
Sources (in Lithuanian): V. Vitkus, “Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis”, 2nd ed., Kaunas, 2017, pp. 123, 126–127; fact base (2019–2022 searches, DNA). Virtual exhibition “J. Vitkus-Kazimieraitis” (virtualios-parodos.lt). The map is schematic; we will confirm exact coordinates and routes with the museum.