Alternate names: Kupiškis [Lith], Kupishki [Rus], Kupishok [Yid], Kupiszki [Pol], Kupiškio, Russian: Купишки. קופּישאָק-Yiddish. 55°50' N, 24°58' E, 41 miles NNE of Ukmergė (Vilkomir), 25 miles ENE of Panevėžys (Ponevezh) . 1900 Jewish population: 2,661. ShtetLink. Yizkors: Kupishok: The Memory Stronger (unpublished, 1980); Zo Kupishok she-hayeta: idilyot me-haye avotenu be-lita (Tel Aviv, 1946); Kupiskis Holocaust victims (, ); Lite (vol. 1) (New York, 1951)/ ShtetLink: JOWBR: Kupishok Civil Death Records. 1,444 Jews lived here before WWII. The Great Synagogue in Kupiškis was built of stone while the red brick portion was a Misnagdim synagogue. The Great Synagogue was used as the Culture House during the Soviet period with the Misnagdim portion now used as a boiler room for heating the main building that now contains the Public Library and Wall of Memory Holocaust Memorial erected on July 13, 2004. [March 2009]
CEMETERY: Remains of Kupishok Cemetery destroyed during Soviet occupation. After liberation, townspeople replaced the thirteen stones that were still intact on the location of the old cemetery, as a memorial to the Jews of Kupishok. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. transcribed and photographed these stones on her visit to Kupishok in July 1995." Source: Litvak SIG Digest. Cemetery link [28 Aug 2001].
JOWBR burial list: Kupiskis Cemetery [March 2009]
MASS GRAVES: US Department of Justice revokes citizenship of John Bernes/Petras Bernotavièius. "Bernes worked as deputy to Werner Loew, the Nazi-appointed mayor and police commander in Kupiškis, Lithuania. Bernes and other men participated directly where ultimately more than 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children and at least 300 other civilians were taken from the jail and shot to death at pits near Kupiškis...The complaint alleged that prisoners were taken from the Kupiškis jail and shot to death nearly every evening during July and August 1941, and that the resulting gunfire was heard throughout Kupiškis." During the Nazi occupation, the entire Jewish population of Kupiskis, about 815 Jews comprising about one quarter of the town's entire population, were murdered. In order to complete the legal proceedings, witnesses must be located, difficult since all the Jews in the town were murdered. Holocaust survivors from the Kupishok area willing to speak to government attorneys should contact Stephen Paskey or Susan Adams at (202) 616-2501. These calls may be placed collect if necessary. Criminal Division of the OSI at 1301 New York Ave., Washington, D.C. 20530. [March 2009]
Photos of memorials. Unveiling of memorial.