Petrašiunai, Kaunas Petrasiunas, Nizhniy Petrashuny, Petrašūnų Miestelis, Petrošiūnai. 54°53' N 23°59' E, 54.9 miles WNW of Vilnius. [March 2009]
Petrašiūnai is a neighborhood in the eastern part of the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. In 2006 it occupied about 28.46 hectares with a population of about 18,000. A part of the elderate belongs to the Kaunas Reservoir Regional Park. Established in the 18th century, it was the center of a volost. In 1946 it was incorporated into the city. After the Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant was built in 1960, it grew rapidly and became one of the city's industrial centers.
MASS GRAVE: Although a suburb of Kaunas, Petrašiūnai was a separate massacre. During the first days of the war, former rifleman Vladimiras Nefiodovas organised a squad of rebels that had several fights in Petrašiūnai environs with the withdrawing Red Army. His squad operated on June 25-29, 1941 shooting ten and capturing thirty Red Army officers, capturing about 50 retreating carriages of Jews and returning them to the Kaunas Commander's office. These Petrašiūnai Jews were likely executed on August 30. On the day of the mass murder, about 40 soldiers left for Petrašiūnai in two lorries at a wooded valley near Petrašiūnai. Two trenches over a dozen meters long were dug. Jewish men, women, and children were driven to the place and guarded by local armed men dressed as civilians. They were forced to the edge of the trenches in groups and shot in the back simultaneously at both the trenches. When the execution was over, the soldiers returned to Kaunas by buses. No German Gestapo officer participated in the killing of 125 Petrašiūnai Jews (30 men, 72 women and 23 children) [March 2009]