KULIAI: Kuliai

Alternate names: Kuliai [Lith], Kool [Yid], Kuli [Rus], Kulyay, Kulių, Kuley, Kule, Russian: Кули.  55°48' N, 21°39' E, 22 miles ENE of Klaipėda (Memel), 26 miles WSW of Telšiai (Telz). Yizkor: Lite (vol. 1) (New York, 1951) 1900 Jewish population: 181. [March 2009]

MASS GRAVES: During the first days of WWII, a Lithuanian nationalist group was formed in Kuliai. By June 26, 1941, these local "partisans" (white-bands) started mass arrests of Jews living in the town and murdering the arrested Jews near Vieštovenai village. A nominal list of the Jews executed in Vieštovenai was drawn up after the war with 85 names. The last on the list, Ete Odesaite, was killed in July 1944, not in 1941. The Jews from Endriejavas (about 50 women, children and elderly) were taken by local white-bands to Kretinga and handed over to the police in July 1941 where they were killed soon after in Kretinga. [March 2009]