Alsėdžiai ( Samogitian: ''Alsiedē'', pl, Olsiady) is a small town in the

Plungė district municipality Plungė District Municipality ( lt, Plungės rajono savivaldybė, Samogitian: ''Plongės rajuona savivaldībė'') is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. Tourism and pilgrimage Major tourist attraction is Lake Plateliai and nearby town Platel ...

. It is near the Sruoja River, from

Plungė Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė'') is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plungė is known for Plungė Manor and its park, Samogitian Art Museum. In the Oginskiai manor park stands the Perkūnas oak a natural monument. The Lourdes o ...

. Alsėdžiai is an administrative center of the Alsėdžiai eldership.

Stanisław Narutowicz Stanisław Narutowicz ( lt, Stanislovas Narutavičius ) (2 September 1862, Brewiki, Kovno Governorate – 31 December 1932, Kaunas, Lithuania) was a lawyer and politician, one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania and ...

, one of the signers of

Act of Independence of Lithuania The Act of Independence of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Aktas) or the Act of February 16, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Nutarimas), The signed document is actually titled simply '' ...

and brother to the first

president of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Polan ...

Gabriel Narutowicz Gabriel Józef Narutowicz (; 29 March 1865 – 16 December 1922) was a Polish professor of hydroelectric engineering and politician who served as the first President of Poland from 11 December 1922 until his assassination on 16 December, five da ...

is buried in the village cemetery. As of 2011, there were 896 inhabitants living in this town.

History

A settlement of

Baltic tribes The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number ...

in the territory of the present-day city is said to have existed in the region as early as

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

times. In June 1941, Jews from the town were kept prisoners in a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

, some were killed and some were used as labor slaves. On December 24, 1941, 24-27 Jewish women and one boy were killed in a mass execution perpetrated by an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

. The murderers selected a place by the foot of the hill by the cemetery so the victims couldn’t escape.

References

External links

Short info about Alsėdžiai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsedziai Towns in Lithuania Towns in Telšiai County Plungė District Municipality Telshevsky Uyezd Holocaust locations in Lithuania