page_title: Prienai
section_title: World War II and its aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Prienai / History / World War II and its aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Lietuvių: Prienai, rajono savivaldybė
context_page_description: Prienai is a city in Lithuania situated on the Nemunas River, 29 km south of Kaunas. In 2011 the city had 9,867 inhabitants. The name of the city is a derivative from a surname Prienas. Pociūnai Airport is associated with the city.
context_section_description: During World War II, when it was occupied by German troops, Prienai lost many of its inhabitants. People emigrated or were expelled, while the Nazis killed the Jews. On August 27, 1941, 1,078 Jews from Prienai and surrounding areas were assassinated in Prienai. The massacre was perpetrated by Rollkommando Hamann and local Lithuanians.
  In the aftermath of World War II, Prienai was occupied by Soviet Union and its population suffered additional losses. Throughout 1945–1946, the Soviets murdered 39 inhabitants from Prienai and its surroundings. On 22–23 May 1948, 1,019 Lithuanians from the Prienai area were forced by the Soviets into cattle trains and deported to Siberia. In 1949, 675 more local people were deported to Siberia. Most of the deportees either died there or suffered circumstances that never allowed them to return home.
caption: Prienai district municipality building
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