Pranas Koncius (underground pseudonym “Adomas” ; lit. Pranas "Adomas" Končius ; November 18, 1911 , Bargalis - July 15, 1965 , Dideia-Jalimai ) - Lithuanian "forest brother" and collaborator, participant of the Holocaust in Lithuania .
| Pranas Koncius | |
|---|---|
| lit. Pranas koncius | |
 | |
| Nickname | Adomas ( lit. Adomas ) |
| Date of Birth | November 18, 1911 |
| Place of Birth | Bargalis , Salantovskaya volost , Telševsk uezd , Kovno gubernia , Russian empire |
| Date of death | July 15, 1965 (53 years) |
| Place of death | Dideya-Zhalimai , Darbenai Old Sovereign , Kretinga District , Lithuanian SSR , USSR |
| Affiliation |  Lithuania /  Germany |
| Type of army | infantry police |
| Years of service | 1934-1941, 1944-1965 |
| Rank | non-commissioned officer |
| Part | 7th regiment of prince Butigeidisa ( Lithuanian Army ) Union of Riflemen of Lithuania Lithuanian auxiliary police squad "Kardas" ( Samogitia District ) |
| Battles / Wars |
|
| Awards and prizes | Officer of the Order of the Cross Vitis (2000), in 2015, was deprived of the award |
Biography
Born November 18, 1911. Son of Pranciskus Koncius. From May 1934 to October 1935 he served in the Lithuanian army , non-commissioned officer in the 7th regiment named after Prince Samogit Butigeidis [1] . After the invasion of the Germans into the territory of the USSR, he joined the invaders, supporting the June uprising , and later became an officer of the Lithuanian auxiliary police in Salantai [1] . According to the Lithuanian KGB, in July 1941 he participated in the shooting of about 100 Jewish men in Salantai and 11 Jews in the Shalinas estate, as well as in two executions in the Shateykyu forest (70 Jewish women from Salantai whom he accompanied to the place of execution, and 150 Jewish women and children). Case No. 47462/3 was filed on December 17, 1963 and is stored in the Special Archives of Lithuania [1] [2] .
In the fall of 1944, Pranas Konchius joined the “Forest Brothers”, who then called themselves the Lithuanian Army of Freedom , and received the underground pseudonym “Adomas”. Member of the headquarters of the squad "Kardas" ( lit. Kardas ) of the Samogitia District of the Union of Fighters for the Liberation of Lithuania . On October 30, 1952, in the village of Smelte of the Salantsky region, he was ambushed along with the squad leader Kazis Kontrimas : Kontrimas was killed, and Konchius broke through and disappeared. After the death of the commander of the headquarters, he was hiding in the vicinity of Salantai and Kretinga , as well as in the area of Prekule ( Latvia ), laboring at the logging enterprise. From 1956, he secretly lived with Pranas Drungilas in the village of Dideyi-Zhalimai [1] .
According to official data, on July 15, 1965, Conchius entered into a shootout with state security officers and Kretinga police officers who surrounded the estate. The details of the death contradict different sources: according to some data, he was shot by the police, according to others - he shot himself [1] . After the collapse of the USSR, monuments were erected in Kretinga (1992) and Grushlauka (1999), and in 2003, a memorial cross was erected in the estate of Bronislavas Drungilaitis-учиučienes [3] . In 2014, a monument was erected on the initiative of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Lithuania Arvydas Pocius [4] [5] .
On February 11, 2000, by the decree of the President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus, Pranas Koncius was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross Vitis with the rank of officer (IV degree) as a volunteer participant in armed resistance [1] . In 2001, the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office found out that Konchius not only did not have the status of a volunteer - a participant in the anti-Soviet resistance necessary for awarding, but also participated in the genocide of the Jews [6] . Only in September 2015, by decree of the President of Lithuania, Dali Grybauskaite Konchus, was deprived of the award for documented participation in the Holocaust, and the director of the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Lithuanian Population Teresa-Birute Burauskaite stated that Konchius was a man who did not deserve this award at all [7] . After that, the Lithuanian Jewish community demanded to check the names of “forest brothers”, marked by state awards, in the list of potential criminals of the Holocaust, compiled by the Center for the Study of Genocide and Resistance of the Lithuanian population, but was refused on the grounds that it was impossible to start a criminal case against the deceased [8] .
Gallery
The cross in the village of Dideia-Zhalimai at the place of the death of Konchius
Monument at the cemetery in the village of Kretinga
Memorial stone in Grushlauk with the names of the dead "forest brothers"
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Daniel Spector. "Hero of Lithuania" - a member of the massacres of Jews . MoH (September 27, 2015). The appeal date is August 9, 2018.
- ↑ Lietuvos ypatingasis archyvas - Baudžiamoji byla Nr. 47462/3
- ↑ Irena Beniušienė. Kūlupėniškiai pagerbs “Adomą” - paskutinį žuvusį Kretingos apskrities partizaną. - Pajūrio naujienos - 2003 m. birželio 13 d. - P. 4
- ↑ Giedrė Peseckytė. Įamžino paskutinį Lietuvos partizaną. - Vakarų Lietuva - 2014 m. liepos 23 d.
- ↑ Inesa Rinkevičiūtė. Didžiųjų alimų kaime pagerbtas paskutinis Lietuvos partizanas Pranas Končius. - 15min .lt - 2014 m. liepos 22 d.
- ↑ Scandal: “the hero of Lithuania” turned out to be a mass murderer of Jews . Eurasia Daily (September 23, 2015). The appeal date is August 9, 2018.
- ↑ Partizanas P. Končius-Adomas neteko valstybinio apdovanojimo (lit.) . DELFI.LT (September 21, 2015). The appeal date is August 9, 2018.
- ↑ The Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office refused to disclose the names of the participants of the Holocaust . Eurasia Daily (June 10, 2016). The appeal date is August 9, 2018.