Liepiškiai: Kazimieraitis’s last headquarters

What happened here

In May 1946 Kazimieraitis and his staff lived and worked at the farmsteads of Antanina Urbanavičienė and Pranas Aleksonis in the village of Liepiškiai. Aleksonis had earlier taken in partisan liaisons and fed them, and his home served as a relay point for messages. In mid-June a hideout-bunker for the headquarters was built in Aleksonis’s barn.

Working with the commander on the staff were Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Antanas Kulikauskas-Daktaras, Sergijus Staniškis-Antanaitis and Juozas Gegužis-Diemedis. The headquarters had a hectograph, stencils and paper. Leaflets and the newspaper “Laisvės varpas” were printed here.

On 30 June 1946 Aleksonis’s home was searched. The hideout was not found, but the owner was arrested. Two days later, on 2 July, at Žaliamiškis Kazimieraitis was mortally wounded. On 11 July NKVD troops came back to Aleksonis’s with the arrested Jonas Kizilaitis-Aušra to look for the bunker.

What you will see

• A monument on the site of the last headquarters, at Pranas Aleksonis’s farmstead (architect V. Petkevičius, 2005).
• The site is entered in the Register of Cultural Property.
• Nearby – 10. Žaliamiškis near Janavas, the place of Kazimieraitis’s death.

Sources (in Lithuanian)

• V. Vitkus. Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis. 2nd ed., Kaunas, 2017, pp. 118, 130, 272
• trip.lt: Southern Lithuania partisan headquarters (Liepiškiai) (LT)
• Wikipedia: Liepiškiai (Druskininkai)
• Virtual exhibition “J. Vitkus-Kazimieraitis” (LGGRTC), photo by R. Trimonienė