Butrimonys

{{Infobox settlement

| name = Butrimonys

| settlement_type= Town

| image_skyline =Butrimonys centrine aikste.jpg

| image_caption = Central square in Butrimonys

| image_shield = Coat of arms of Butrimonys.svg

| image_flag = Flag_of_Butrimonys.png

| pushpin_map = Lithuania

| pushpin_map_caption=Location in Lithuania

| pushpin_label_position =

| subdivision_type =Country

| subdivision_name ={{flag|Lithuania}}

| subdivision_type2=County

| subdivision_name2=17px Alytus County

| subdivision_type3=Municipality

| subdivision_name3=Alytus District Municipality

| subdivision_type4=Eldership

| subdivision_name4=Butrimonys eldership

| subdivision_type5=Capital of

| subdivision_name5=Butrimonys eldership

| established_date =

| established_title=

| population_as_of = 2011

| population_total = 941

| coordinates = {{coord|54|30|10|N|24|15|10|E|region:LT|display=inline,title}}

|

| timezone=EET

| utc_offset=+2

| timezone_DST=EEST

| utc_offset_DST=+3

}}

Butrimonys (Yiddish: בוטרימאַנץ) is a small town in Alytus County in southern Lithuania. In 2011 it had a population of 941.{{cite web|url=http://statistics.bookdesign.lt/table_125_02.htm?lang=en |title=2011 census |publisher=Statistikos Departamentas (Lithuania) |access-date=August 2, 2017}}

Butrimonys massacre

File:Farewell letter Butrimonys.jpg.]]

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.{{cite web |title=The Einsatzgruppen -- Mobile Killing Units |url=http://frank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/einsatz.html |year=1997 |first=Ben |last=Austin |publisher=Middle Tennessee State University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619125427/http://frank.mtsu.edu/~baustin/einsatz.html |archive-date=2010-06-19 }}

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.{{cite journal| journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=357–375 |title=The Destruction of the Jews of Butrimonys as Described in a Farewell Letter from a Local Jew |year=1989 |first=Nathan |last=Cohen |issn=1476-7937 |doi=10.1093/hgs/4.3.357}}

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).{{cite book | last1 = Hult | first1 = Joan S.| last2 = Trekell| first2 = Marianna| title = A Century of women's basketball : from frailty to final four | publisher = National Association for Girls and Women in Sport | location = Reston, Va | year = 1991 | isbn = 9780883144909 |page=33}}
  • Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843–1926), rabbi, commentator on Bible and Talmud

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References

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