By Ann Rabinowitz
Recently, I decided to create a military time line for my
ancestral shtetl of Kupiskis, Lithuania, regarding what transpired in World War
I. Since many of the Jews were sent to
the east during this time period, it was interesting to see what was happening
in their shtetls whilst they were gone.
WORLD WAR I TIME LINE
Eastern Front –
Kupiskis, Lithuania
July 30-August, 7,
1915 - Battle of Kupiskis – Germans took Kupiskis. Gustav Fritz Julius von Vaerst fought in the
battle. Later, he was a General der
Panzertruppe in World War II.
Spring, 1915 -
Riots in towns of Kupiskis, Kriukai and Vilkija, as Germans were pushed back
and Russians accused Jews of signaling them.
August 3, 1915
– Kupiskis was taken by Russian Reserve Division after a major battle as they
came up both sides of the railway leading to Kupiskis.
December, 1918
- Kupiskis was taken by International Division of Red Army (Bolsheviks).
March, 1919 –
Volunteer Bolsheviks stationed in Kupiskis and Panevezys rebelled and were
brought into line by Red Army Division from Latvia.
May 30-31, 1919
- Kupiskis was abandoned by Bolsheviks.
July 1, 1919 - Kupiskis was taken by Panevezys Group, 2nd Brigade (Kedainiai-Panevezys-Rokiskis), of the Lithuanian Army after departure of Bolsheviks. General Silvestras Zukauskas was head of Lithuanian Army.
July 12, 1920
– Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty signed and Russia recognized independence of
Lithuania.
By happenstance, whilst I was creating the time line, I
found a site one would not ordinarily associate with military information. It was "Lithuanian Philately" http://lithuanianphilately.com/postal-history which listed numerous towns and what transpired there during the
war. In addition to the stamp material
or other post cards shown, the site discusses the creation of the postal system
at that time.
Some of the shtetls discussed on the site are:
Ariogala, Baisogala, Gargzdai, Gruzdziai, Kaltinenai,
Kavarija, Kazlu Ruda, Kelme, Kraziai, Krekenava, Kretinga, Kupiskis, Kybartai,
Laizuva, Linkuva, Luse, Lydavenai, Marijampole, Naumiestis (Sakiai), Naumiestis
(Taurage), Nemunelio (Naujas) Radviliskis, Pagiriai, Pakuonis, Pilviskiai,
Raseiniai, Rietavas, Rokiskis, Sakiai, Seda, Seinai, Skaudvile, Sveksna,
Taujenai, Taurage, Utena, Vainutas, Varniai, Veiveriai, Veliuona, Vieksniai,
Vilkaviskis, Vilnius, Virbalis, Zeimelis.
As an example of what may be found in regard to these
shtetls, I located a post card of Taurage which had been damaged during the
War. This is a rare view of the town for
which we have few photos of this period:
Another interesting photo was from Marijampole of an
envelope addressed to S. Goldstein, Cincinnati, OH. When one looked up the name on Ancestry.com,
a Samuel Goldstein popped up who was born in Lithuania. There are many other envelopes on the site
that have Jewish names or firms that one can trace.
Another interesting item is a post card of Kelme’s main
street. The street is not paved and one
can see the packed dirt which probably turned into a quagmire when it
rained. As can be seen, all of the buildings
are frame structures. The view is
looking towards the Evangelical Church.
In addition, I found another Philately resource, http://prahanoaki.blogspot.com, which had even more towns mentioned for the period of World War
I. It provided a post card of Kupiskis,
Lithuania, in 1917, which was quite nice.
It focuses on the Catholic Church, but includes the windmill and other
surrounding area which were Jewish-owned.
From the other resources I found during the creation of my
time line, I noticed that very often the dates conflicted. When preparing a military chronology, it may
sometimes be difficult to be exact. This is also particularly true as the
battles or conflicts may have stretched over several days or the fighting may
have gone back and forth even over a day's period.
In any event, this particular exercise in information gathering was quite interesting as I learned many things I had not known previously, especially that philately sites are great resources. This also allowed me to understand the situations that faced our ancestors when they returned to their shtetls at the end of the War and what followed not long afterwards when the Germans again invaded Lithuania under different circumstances.
Dear Ann,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for visiting Lithuanian Philately website and posting your feedback here. List of towns mentioned above only includes post offices that used provisional (temporary) postmarks (total number is 135). There were more than 600 towns and localities in Lithuania between 1918 and 1940. Old envelopes and postcards from Lithuanian postal history collections are important source of information about the period.