Alternate names: Seda [Lith], Shad [Yid], Siady [Rus, Pol], Sedos, Russian: Сяды. 56°10' N, 22°06' E, 14 miles NNW of Telšiai (Telz), 14 miles SW of Mažeikiai (Mazheik), in NW Lithuania, 25 km from the regional capital, Mazeikiai. 1900 Jewish population: 1,384.. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego. At the time of the German invasion about 200 Jewish families lived there (1880-1902), X, p. 472: "Siady". [March 2009]
Pictures of the remains of the Jewish cemetery and synagogue in Seda, Lithuania can be found by going to Google Earth and "flying" to Seda. There are several photo icons on the satellite view of Seda. When you put your cursor on each icon it identifies the associated photograph. One says "Jewish cemetery 27/8/2011," and the other "Synagogue Ruins at Seda.". Source:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [Oct 2013]
CEMETERY: Seda Jewish cemetery; 123; pic. # 164 US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
The cemetery of this village is behind a lane of houses, bounded by pastures and a creek. A little gate marks the entrance. A Holocaust memorial indicates a mass gravesite where 150 Jews were murdered. On the left side of the cemetery are two neat rows consisting of about ten gravestones, most likely recovered from other areas of the cemetery. Of these, six were legible; and we recorded their inscriptions. There was also a small pile of additional tombstones, face down, and too heavy too lift by hand. [Source?]
MASS GRAVE: German forces were observed around Seda on the second day of the invasion, but even before they arrived, Lithuanian activists (white-bands) were organised and rounding up young Jews whom took them to the Jewish cemetery and murdered. The rabbi was shot and wounded, left overnight to suffer until they returned in the morning to kill him. The market square in the center of the town had two long parallel walls two meters apart. On both sides were stores belonging to the Jews. At the end of June or early July, the activists forced the Jews into this narrow passage and held them there for many days without food or water amid refuse and garbage. The Jews then were moved to a 250-acre Jewish agricultural settlement called Zhidu-Dvaras (Jews' village) with dairies, stables, granaries, and sheds belonging to ten or twelve Jewish farming families. The younger men were separated from the women, children and elderly, and murdered nearby on July 3. The women, children and elderly were force-marched to Mazeikiai, with the old and sick transported on farmers' wagons to the old Mazeikiai Jewish cemetery on the banks of the River Venta (500 meters from the village) where large pits had been dug by the stronger among them who were told that the pits were to store lime. The Jews dug two long ditches, some naked and some in underclothes. Armed Lithuanians were waiting . All the Jews were murdered in group after group together with the Jews of Mazeikiai and surrounding villages on August 9. Each volley of fire required two shooters, one aiming at the heads of the victims and the second at their chests. The children may have been shot at another location. The shooters were paid 300 rubles and more vodka for murdering 550 people. [March 2009]
MASS GRAVES IN MAZEIKIA: The Germans entered Mažeikia (Mazheik) on Wednesday, June 25, 1941. Mass killings of the men occurred on August 3, 1941 and the women on Saturday, August 9th--a total of possibly 1,000 people. On the outskirts of the town is a road-sign on the edge of thick woods is a sign marking the mass grave. A footpath inside the woods teads to the Jewish cemetery. A large rock with a memorial plaque on grassy areas with a low iron fence to mark the site where hundreds of Mazheik residents lie. Subsequently, none remained. Next to the cemetery, a series of narrow black granite pillars a few feet apart hold up a third cross-piece inscribed in Yiddish to commemorate the slaughter and mass burial site of 4,000 Jewish men, women and children, who perished at that spot with the Jews of Mazeikiai: Sede (Siad), Viekshniai (Veckshna), Tirksliai (Tirkshla), Zidikai (Shidik), Pikeliai (Pikeln), Klykoliai (Klilul) and other towns. a little further away are several non-Jewish graves (communists also killed there.) A few feet behind the tall granite Holocaust memorial is another shorter pair inscribed in Lithuanian on the top cross-column. [March 2009]
