06 of 18 · · Varėna district
Nedzingė: the first meeting with Vanagas
In Nedzingė in summer 1945 Kazimieraitis met Daktaras, and on the evening of 1 August, Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas. This meeting shaped the further path of the Dzūkija partisans, and the Nedzingė presbytery became the communications hub of the Dainava partisans.
What happened here
On 26 July 1945 Kazimieraitis returned to the Merkys camp via Alytus and Domatonys. On the way, in Nedzingė, he happened to meet Vanagas’s deputy Antanas Kulikauskas-Daktaras. They agreed to meet Vanagas on 1 August and hold a commanders’ meeting.
On the evening of 1 August Kazimieraitis, with Šernas, Juozaitis, Siaubas and Seklys, met Vanagas, Daktaras, Viršaitis and Butageidis. In the stories of Kazimieraitis’s family and local people, the commanders met by the Nedzingė church. The Dzūkai Group staff diary (LT) describes the place as “at a farmer’s near Nedzingė”. Kazimieraitis announced that Vanagas’s partisans were joining the Dzūkai Group. Vanagas was appointed commander of the Merkinė battalion, and the battalion was incorporated into the Merkys Brigade led by Viršaitis.
The Nedzingė presbytery, home of the parish priest Fr Zigmas Neciunskas, became the communications hub of the Dainava partisans. Kazimieraitis, Vanagas, Daktaras and Albertas Perminas-Jūrininkas often came here. Information the district needed flowed into the presbytery, and with the priest’s help the commanders kept up contacts between the staffs of districts, brigades and units.
On the night of 7 October 1945 Vanagas and the partisan Birutė Mažeikaitė-Vanda were secretly married in the Holy Trinity Church in Nedzingė. In May 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of the marriage, a bas-relief memorial plaque was unveiled in the church.
In February 1946 Kazimieraitis was ill at the Zurlis farmstead in Burokaraistis. Here, with Fr Neciunskas, he composed the hymn “Dieve geriausias, Karaliau ramybės” (Most gracious God, King of peace), which was later sung in churches. When he recovered, he gave Kęstutis Zurlis a ring with the letters “AK” – “Atmintis Kęstučiui” (In memory, to Kęstutis). Kęstutis’s mother kept the ring safe in exile, and it was later returned to the Vitkus children.
“I learned a great deal from Kazimieraitis, and he became my guide in my later partisan work.”
Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas
What you will see
- The Holy Trinity Church of Nedzingė (1845) and the presbytery (Mokyklos g. 18) are listed cultural heritage sites.
- In the church, a memorial plaque to the marriage of Vanagas and Vanda (2025).
- Nearby is Burokaraistis, where Kazimieraitis was ill at the Zurlis farmstead in winter 1946.
- At the nearby Merkinė Hill of Crosses – a wayside shrine in memory of Kazimieraitis.
Sources (in Lithuanian)
- Dzūkai Group staff action diary (LT), entries of 26 July and 1–2 August 1945
- Register of Cultural Property: Nedzingė presbytery (code 2416), cited by LGGRTC 2012 (LT)
- Alkas.lt, 5 May 2025: the marriage of Vanagas and Vanda to be commemorated in Nedzingė (LT)
- Varėna District Municipality: the marriage of Vanagas and Vanda commemorated in Nedzingė church (LT)
- V. Vitkus. Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis, 2017, pp. 142, 221–222
Vanagas’s hideout at Tigras’s farmstead, “Laisvės varpas”.
07 · 1945 09 27 – 1946 01 12Skroblus, RudnelėThe winter headquarters, attacked on 12 January 1946.
05 · 1945 07 13Lake LavysasThe Merkys camp and letters “from the quiet forests of Dzūkija”.
Sources (in Lithuanian): V. Vitkus, “Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis”, 2nd ed., Kaunas, 2017, pp. 132, 141–143, 221–222. Virtual exhibition “J. Vitkus-Kazimieraitis” (virtualios-parodos.lt). The map is schematic; we will confirm exact coordinates and routes with the museum.