Butrimonys
Town in Lithuania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Butrimonys (Yiddish: בוטרימאַנץ) is a small town in Alytus County in southern Lithuania. In 2011 it had a population of 941.[1]
Butrimonys | |
|---|---|
Town | |
Central square in Butrimonys | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Butrimonys Location in Lithuania | |
| Coordinates: 54°30′10″N 24°15′10″E | |
| Country |  Lithuania |
| County |  Alytus County |
| Municipality | Alytus District Municipality |
| Eldership | Butrimonys eldership |
| Capital of | Butrimonys eldership |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 941 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Butrimonys massacre
On 9 September 1941, shortly after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Jews of Butrimonys were massacred by Einsatzgruppen and Lithuanian collaborators. Rounded up and marched along a road, they were lined up beside a mass grave and machine-gunned. According to the Jäger Report, 740 Jews were murdered in one day: 67 men, 370 women, and 303 children.[2]
What distinguished Butrimonys from hundreds of similar crimes in the Baltic region was the survival of a detailed record left by a local Jew Khone Boyarski. Hiding with his son, Boyarski described the events in a farewell letter to his relatives abroad. Boyarski was later killed by the Nazis; the letter was discovered by accident by a graduate student in the archives of Yad Vashem.[3]
Notable people
- Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), a famous and still influential American art historian
- Senda Berenson (1868–1954), known as the Mother of Women's Basketball. Berenson introduced basketball to women in 1892 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States, a year after being first invented by James Naismith. She also authored the first Basketball Guide for Women (1901–07).[4]
- Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843–1926), rabbi, commentator on Bible and Talmud
