What happened here
In May 1946 the staff moved to Žaliamiškis. In mid-June the hideout was in Pranas Aleksonis’s barn in Liepiškiai, and after a search it moved to a small bunker on the southern edge of the forest. Kazimieraitis, Antanaitis, Daktaras and Diemedis hid there.
On 2 July the air in the bunker ran short, so Kazimieraitis and Diemedis crawled out to a small pool, about 0.8 km from the forest edge at Janavas, to dry their foot cloths. Returning soldiers heard voices. Diemedis escaped, while Kazimieraitis fired his pistol until he was severely wounded by a grenade.
The soldiers forced Jonas Bogušis to drag him on branches to the forest edge at Janavas, and then took him to Kostas Bulavas’s farmstead in Guobiniai. There, according to Mrs Bulavienė, he asked for a drink, said he believed Lithuania would be free and, looking at the cross standing in the yard, died at about 8 p.m.
“He said he believed Lithuania would be free and, looking at the cross standing in the yard, died.”
Testimony of Mrs Bulavienė (as retold in the book)
What you will see
- At the place of his death on the edge of the Žaliamiškis forest there is a wayside shrine and a memorial sign, erected in 1990. His family gathers here every year in early July; in 2026 the 80th anniversary of his death was marked.
- On the site of his last headquarters, at Pranas Aleksonis’s farmstead in the village of Liepiškiai (Druskininkai municipality), there is a monument (architect V. Petkevičius, 2005). See 18. Liepiškiai.
The yard of the “stribynas”, where his remains were found in 2022.
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. 118–123, 161; fact base (MGB report, testimonies). Virtual exhibition “J. Vitkus-Kazimieraitis” (virtualios-parodos.lt). The map is schematic; we will confirm exact coordinates and routes with the museum.