Free Masters of Death by Richard Rhodes

sergeant “saw civilians, some in shirtsleeves . . . beating other civilians to death with iron bars.” He heard someone say that “these were Jews who had swindled the Lithuanians before the Germans had arrived.” The bystanders were mostly German soldiers. The sergeant questioned those nearest him, who told him that “the victims were being beaten to satisfy a personal desire for vengeance.” His account continues:
    When I reached the square there were about fifteen to twenty bodies lying there. These were then cleared away by the Lithuanians and the pools of blood were washed away with water from a hose. . . . I saw the Lithuanians take hold of the bodies by their hands and legs and drag them away. Afterwards another group of offenders was herded and pushed onto the square and without further ado simply beaten to death by the civilians armed with iron bars. I watched as a group of offenders were beaten to death and then had to look away because I could not watch any longer. These actions seemed extremely cruel and brutal. . . . The Lithuanian civilians could be heard shouting out their approval and goading the men on.
    A bakers’ company grenadier remembered asking a medical-corps sergeant beside him “why these people were being beaten to death in such a cruel manner.” The sergeant told him that they “were all Jews who had been apprehended by Lithuanians in the city and had been brought to this square. The killings were carried out by recently released Lithuanian convicts.” The SS had released violent criminals from prison, that is, and put them to work murdering Jewish victims to make the “pogrom” look spontaneous. The corporal counted five men wielding crowbars and “about fifteen dead or seriously injured people” collapsed on the cobblestones. Another enlisted man noticed that there were men guarding the square “wearing armbands and [carrying] carbines,” and the grenadier identified them as “some members of the Lithuanian ‘Freikorps’ ”—that is, irregulars. The irregulars were feeding victims to the killers, moving in and out of the square “with more Jews who were likewise beaten to death by the convicts.” In the ten minutes the grenadier could bear to watch he “witnessed the beating to death of some ten to fifteen Jews.” All the victims were men.

    A similar scene confronted a colonel who was adjutant to the staff of Army Group North on his arrival in Kaunas on the morning of 27 June 1941. He passed a filling station surrounded by a dense crowd and noticed women in the crowd who had “lifted up their children or stood them on chairs or boxes so that they could see better.” He thought he must be witnessing “a victory celebration or some type of sporting event because of the cheering, clapping and laughter that kept breaking out.” But when he asked what was happening, he was told that “the ‘Deathdealer of Kovno’ was at work and that this was where collaborators and traitors were finally meted out their rightful punishment!” He moved closer and witnessed “probably the most frightful event that I had seen during the course of two world wars”:
    On the concrete forecourt of the petrol station a blond man of medium height, aged about twenty-five, stood leaning on a wooden club, resting. The club was as thick as his arm and came up to his chest. At his feet lay about fifteen to twenty dead or dying people. Water flowed continuously from a hose washing blood away into the drainage gully. Just a few steps behind this man some twenty men, guarded by armed civilians, stood waiting for their cruel execution in silent submission. In response to a cursory wave the next man stepped forward silently and was then beaten to death with the wooden club in the most bestial manner, each blow accompanied by enthusiastic shouts from the audience.
    A military photographer who photographed the scene (and who identified the murder weapon as an iron crowbar) nearly had his camera