Viekšniai ( Samogitian: ''Vėikšnē'', ''Vekshne'', ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in the

Mažeikiai district municipality Mažeikiai District Municipality (, ) is located in the north-west of Lithuania, on the River Venta in Telšiai County. The administrative center of Mažeikiai District is the city of Mažeikiai. Its territory of is composed of of towns and ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It is located south-east of

Mažeikiai Mažeikiai (; Samogitian: ''Mažeikē''; ; ) is a city in northwestern Lithuania, on the Venta River. It has a population of around 32,000, making it the eighth largest city in Lithuania and eighteenth largest city in the Baltic States. Th ...

. The

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of the town's name probably comes from a former lake near Viekšniai.

Jewish history

The town had a large

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

population prior to the outbreak of

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 3 synagogues, several Jewish primary schools, and a yeshiva. According to the 1897 Russian Census, of the total population of 2,951, 1,646 were Jews. In the summer of 1941, over 400 Jews from the town were murdered in Mažeikiai, along with other Jews of the district.

Notable people

Mykolas Biržiška Mykolas Biržiška (; 24 August 1882, in Viekšniai – 24 August 1962, in Los Angeles), a Lithuanian editor, historian, professor of literature, diplomat, and politician, was one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuan ...

, historian and politician who was a signatory of the

Act of Independence of Lithuania The Act of Independence of Lithuania () or the Act of February 16th, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence (),The signed document is actually titled simply , meaning 'decision' or 'resolution', and it "proclaims the restoration of the ...

References

External links

* Cities in Lithuania Cities in Telšiai County Mažeikiai District Municipality Shavelsky Uyezd {{TelšiaiCounty-geo-stub