Alternate names: Butrimonys [Lith], Butrimantz [Yid], Butrimantsy [Rus], Butrimantsi, Butrimonis, Butrimance, Butrymańce, Butrimonių, Butrėmuonīs, Russian: Бутрыманцы. בוטרימאַנץ-Yiddish. 54°30' N, 24°15' E, 11 miles NE of Alytus (Olita), 29 miles WSW of Trakai (Troki). 1900 Jewish population: 1,919. yizkor: If I forget thee . . . The destruction of the shtetl Butrimantz (Washington DC, 1998).
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Butrimonys is a small town in Alytus County in southern Lithuania with a 2001 population of 1126. Czarist Russian Butrimonys was part of Trakai uzed and Alytus uezd during the Lithuanian Republic and Nazi occupation. Several hundred Tatars also lived in Butrimonys area. 1930 Jewish population: 887. The Jewish community had a brick synagogue, Hebrew school, charity organisations, 52 shops (out of 54), inns, bakeries and other businesses. The Jewish Volksbank of Butrimonys had had 230 members before WWII. Trakai Research Group records. A photo of this village can be found at Boris Feldblyum's Collection. Avotaynu article. [March 2009]
CEMETERY:
Restoration. 550 tombstones were cleaned and recorded.They documented about 365 tombstones in 1997 and returned in 1999 to finish. In May 2003, Olga and Sid Zabludoff and Lisabeth Kaplan went to Butrimonys to restore the cemetery and two massacre sites with the help of some locals. All fences were scrubbed, primed, and painted, the cemetery cleaned revealing more tombstones sunken into the ground. The missing back gate was replaced. The 1937 Jewish census of Jewish residents compiled by the local Catholic Church that had been hidden in the church for 66 years was given to them See article in March 2005 Avotaynu. photos [March 2009]
On Sept. 5 and 7, 1997, we spent over seven hours photographing and videotaping the tombstones in the Butrimonys Jewish cemetery. The cemetery had been cleaned up. The grass and bushes had been cut before we arrived. Also, some of the tombstones along the eastern side had been righted. (I noticed this after I returned home and compared our tape to one that Harold Rhode had sent me before our trip.) This concerns me as a few of the stones do not look like they belong on the bases that they are now on. The cemetery has a good metal fence around it except on the western back. Someone has removed three or four sections and so it is easy to enter there. Along the north side of the cemetery is a sign and a gate. All of the tombstones face the western side of the cemetery. In the southeastern corner are many "modern" tall tombstones all in rows. As we walked to the north and the west, we could see many large rocks sticking out of the ground or just feel the hard rocks under our feet. Upon more investigation, we found more rock tombstones. We spent many hours digging away the dirt in front of these stones and cleaning them. I took over 350 photos; and my husband Mike videotaped each stone while Regina Kopelovich read off names and dates. There are approximately 150 more "rock" tombstones still in the ground that we did not have time to work on. We catalogued each tombstone by row and number. So far, the earliest date we have recorded is 1855 and the latest is 1945. The person in charge of this cemetery is Josef Levinson in Vilnius. Submitted by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Dayton, Ohio
Butrimonys Jewish cemetery. [September 2010]
MASS GRAVES: German troops captured Butrimonys on June 22, 1941. A 40 man Lithuanian collaborator squad was set up during the first days of the German occupation and started with arresting communists. Over 2,000 Jews lived in the town. The first mass arrests of Butrimonys Jews occurred from August 10 through 12, 1941-- Jewish men ages 18-40. Their valuables and clothing were seized. Police Chief Kaspariūnas-Kasperskis made the head of Butrimonys' Jews select young Jews to be brought to the market square for manual labor. Local policemen and "partisans" arrested 120-150 Jews and isolated them in Butrimonys and later in Alytus, deprived of valuables. Shooting of the Jews from Alytus, Butrimonys, and neighboring district towns started on August 13, 1941. The second wave of arrests of Butrimonys Jews was on August 15-17 or 22 when Kaspariūnas-Kasperskis ordered the Jews into the market square where policemen selected approximately 400 people including women, children, and the elderly to isolation and then (on the same day) to Alytus where they were emprisoned and later shot. At the end of August, a ghetto on Totorių Street guarded by the police was set up for the remaining (600-1000) Jews of the town and Jews from Staklišks and Punia and operated for about two weeks. The liquidation of the ghetto began when all the Jews were driven to the primary school. The next day (September 9, 1941), a bus with 20 soldiers came from Alytus. After lunch, local policemen and white-bands forced the Jews out of the school and into lines. Ordered to undress to their underwear, they were driven to Klydžionys village about 2 km away where pits had been dug. They were forced into tighter groups and gunned down by soldiers while local policemen and "partisans" guarded those awaiting death. The murder of the 740 Butrimonys, Stakliškes and Punia Jews (67 men, 370 women, and 303 children), photographed by the Germans, ended in the evening when the executioners returned to Butrimonys to guzzle vodka and beer. The Chief of the Police transferred from Butrimonys to Birštonas to continue his murdering. He left Butrimonys with the seized property transported in 14 or 15 big carriages. Holocaust research in the district.[March 2009]
Photo from Yahad-in-Unum [August 2015]
