Alternate names: Krakiai [Lith], Krok [Yid], Kroki [Rus, Pol], Krakių, Krake, Krakias, Krakies, Russian: Кроки. קראָק-Yiddish. 55°24' N, 23°44' E, 35 miles N of Kaunas (Kovno), 12 miles NW of Kėdainiai (Keidan), 62 km NNW of Kaunas in Keidan District and 14 miles from Keidan to Datnuva train station. 1900 Jewish population: 1,090.
Yizkor: Yahadut Lita (vol. 3) (Tel Aviv, 1967); Yahadut Lita (vol. 4) (Tel Aviv, 1984); Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Lithuania (Jerusalem, 1996); Yidishe Shtet, shtethlekh un dorfishe yishuvim in Lite: biz 1918: historish-biografishe skitses (New York, 1991). ShtetLink. [March 2009]
CEMETERY: see Dotnuva. Cemetery is in bad condition. Most tombstones have been pilfered by the local populace and used as either building material or reused as tombstones in their own Gentile cemetery. I transcribed as many of the tombstones from the Krakes Jewish cemetery as I could, including all those with surnames.[1997]
JOWBR burial list: Jewish Cemetery.[March 2009]
Cemetery photos and information and inscriptions. Cemetery information. [September 2010]
MASS GRAVE: Friday, September 5, 1941 was the massacre of 1,125. Monument and grave located in a wheat field near Krakiai (Kedainiai area). see Dotnuva for details. At the beginning of July, all Zagare Jews were relocated to one neighborhood in Zagare, which was declared a ghetto and cordoned off by an unguarded barbed wire fence. Surviving Jews were brought to Zagare from Kursenai, Papile, Tryskiai, Joniskis, Zeimelis, Kriukai, Radviliskis, Saukenai, Kelme, Tirksliai, Krakes, Joniskelis, Linkuva, Pakruojis, Laukuvas, Lygumai and other places. A total of seven thousand Jews were gathered in the ghetto during this period. [March 2009]