VYZUONOS: Utena county, Utena district

Alternate names: Vyžuonos [Lith], Vizhun [Yid], Vizhuny [Rus], Wiżuny [Pol], Vyžuonų, Vizhuonos, וויזשון -Yiddish. 55°36' N, 25°30' E, 8 miles NNW of Utena (Utiyan), 26 miles SE of Kupiškis (Kupishuk), 38 miles NE of Ukmergė (Vilkomir). 1900 Jewish population: 445. The Jews lived Vyžuonos as early as the mid-17th century. Before WWI, 130 Jewish families lived here and in 1923 about 50 families, most earning their living by crafts and trade. Trade fairs were held twice annually. The Jewish Volksbank in Vyžuonos had 114 members. [March 2009]

MASS GRAVE: At the beginning of WWII, a forty man squad of Lithuanian "partisans" (white-bands) was set up. They shot at withdrawing Red Army groups and communists. In summer 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established and  guarded by local white-bands. Even before the local Jews were taken to Utena in Summer 1941, the white-bands executed about 18-20 Jews in a forest adjacent to Lukniai village. In August 1941, the Vyžuonos Jews were taken to Utena and shot with other Jews from Utena District in the forest of Raše on August 29. [March 2009]

Forest of Rase, 2 km from Utena; 179-181; pic. # 320-326. Near the village of Janonys, Debeikiai county; 83; pic. # 65 US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad