6/29/04:
Balbieriskis
After a breakfast of small salami sandwiches and yogurt, we started off for Balbieriskis, back in Lithuania. Along the way, we tried to stop for gas in a major city, but had to wait for an hour and a half until the workers finished their lunch - the most obvious remnant of the communist past, I think.
We reached Balbierkis by mid-afternoon. There was not much evidence of a Jewish past left, but there was an existing Jewish cemetary just outside of the town. According to directions I found on the web:
In spite of the great directions, we couldn't find the cemetary. We drove through the town, and found an old man who knew were it was. It was about 1/4 mi (or km?) south of the town, not very visible from the road. The above account was written in 1997; in 2004 there was some overgrowth, and the archway had lost its plaque.
I took as many photographs as I could, but unfortunately the sun was very bright and the sunlight hit the tombstones directly, so that some of Hebrew text is very difficult to see. In addition, there was a lot of moss covering the tombstones, I tried to brush off as much as I could, but some text remains obscured. I felt a little uneasy stepping on the graves of my forefathers, for some reason I kept muttering "forgive me grandfather".
Some of the gravestones are legible, if any one can provide any translations, please let me know.
The old gentleman who led us to the site said that this was actually the old Jewish graveyard, the new Jewish graveyard no longer existed. There was also a Shul that had been torn down by the Soviets and replaced by a "modern" building, I took photos of both locations:
We took one final photo before we left:
We drove off to Kaunas, where I was to rejoin the tour group; I thanked Neringa and Genadius and we parted ways.
Balbieriskis
After a breakfast of small salami sandwiches and yogurt, we started off for Balbieriskis, back in Lithuania. Along the way, we tried to stop for gas in a major city, but had to wait for an hour and a half until the workers finished their lunch - the most obvious remnant of the communist past, I think.
We reached Balbierkis by mid-afternoon. There was not much evidence of a Jewish past left, but there was an existing Jewish cemetary just outside of the town. According to directions I found on the web:
"The Jewish cemetery is in a
pasture just off the Alytus-Balbieriskis road, to the right
before one reaches the town heading north. No road or path exists
to the cemetery, so one must walk through a cow pasture to reach
it. A wooden fence encloses the cemetery. The entrance is through
a concrete archway marked with a plaque in Hebrew, Yiddish and
Lithuanian reading "Old Jewish Cemetery." About 50 gravestones
date from the 19th and 20th centuries, many with last names."
In spite of the great directions, we couldn't find the cemetary. We drove through the town, and found an old man who knew were it was. It was about 1/4 mi (or km?) south of the town, not very visible from the road. The above account was written in 1997; in 2004 there was some overgrowth, and the archway had lost its plaque.
 |
 |
I took as many photographs as I could, but unfortunately the sun was very bright and the sunlight hit the tombstones directly, so that some of Hebrew text is very difficult to see. In addition, there was a lot of moss covering the tombstones, I tried to brush off as much as I could, but some text remains obscured. I felt a little uneasy stepping on the graves of my forefathers, for some reason I kept muttering "forgive me grandfather".
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Sarah Miriam bat Moshe |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Devora ??tel bat Dov |
 Eta Miriam Tsharny |
 Nechama bat Aryit Cohen |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Esther bat Shlomo |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Menchem Mendel ben Zeev Finkelshtein |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Miriam Fink bat Yakov |
 |
 Feiga Horowitz |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Some of the gravestones are legible, if any one can provide any translations, please let me know.
The old gentleman who led us to the site said that this was actually the old Jewish graveyard, the new Jewish graveyard no longer existed. There was also a Shul that had been torn down by the Soviets and replaced by a "modern" building, I took photos of both locations:
 |
 |
We took one final photo before we left:
We drove off to Kaunas, where I was to rejoin the tour group; I thanked Neringa and Genadius and we parted ways.