Dubingiai massacre The Dubingiai massacre was the mass murder of between 20 and 27 Lithuanian civilians in the town of Dubingiai ( Dubinki ) on 23 June 1944 , by a unit of the Armia Krajowa , a Polish resistance group , in a reprisal action for the Glinciszki ( Glitiškės ) massacre of 20 June . Background . Polish - Lithuanian relations during the interbellum period were strained since both sides had laid claim to the Vilnius region . During the Second World War these tensions were exacerbated due to conflicts between the Lithuanian pro - German administration and military units , and the anti - Nazi Polish resistance , as well as the discrimination against Poles by the independent Lithuanian state between 1939 and 1940 . On 20 June 1944 members of the Polish resistance killed four members of the Lithuanian police , and wounded several others in the village of Glitiškės ( Glinciszki ) ; in retaliation the Lithuanian police killed thirty - six Polish villagers ( the Glinciszki massacre ) . After hearing of this , as well as other information about intensified pacification actions by the Lithuanian forces , the Armia Krajowa ( " AK " ) command for the Vilnius region ( under Aleksander Krzyżanowski " Wilk " ) assumed that it represented a beginning of a new , large anti - Polish operation and only a demonstration of the strength of Polish forces in the region could stop the killings and protect the Polish civilians . Leaflets were distributed through the region that AK was planning to execute members of the Lithuanian units guilty of the Glinciszki massacre , and a raid on the pre - war Lithuanian Republic territory was planned . The AK command did not plan , and actually strictly forbade , any reprisals against innocent civilians . In the meantime , elements of the 5th AK Brigade under command of Zygmunt Szendzielarz aka " Łupaszko " learned that some of the responsible individuals and their families were stationed in the police station in Dubingai . An AK unit - a company of the 5th Brigade under Jan Wiktor Wiącek " Rakoczy " - decided to destroy the police station in the village as well as to execute several Nazi - Lithuanian informants in the village . There are different versions as to who led the raid on Dubingiai ; most sources attribute it to the commander of the 5th Brigade , Szendzielarz - although Henryk Piskunowicz , Polish historian and author of several publications about Armia Krajowa operations in Vilnius region , specifically pointed to Wiącek . The AK headquarters having learned of that initiative , and afraid that the soldiers of the 5th Brigade who have freshly witnessed the aftermath of Glinciszki may not follow the orders forbidding actions against civilians , sent a courier from AK headquarters in Vilnius ordering the 5th Brigade to stay put , the courier , however , did not reach the local commanders in time . Events in Dubingai . The village was warned that the Polish attack was imminent , and many individuals — including the policemen who participated in the Glinciszki massacre — escaped before the Poles began the killings . The AK targeted Dubingiai ' s Lithuanian populace , using Lithuanian prayer books as a means of identifying Lithuanians , but sparing those inter - married with Poles . While collaborators were supposedly the AK ' s prime targets , the killings included the elderly , children , and even infants . A Polish woman and her 4 - year old son were also reported to have been killed . The total number of victims is estimated at between 20 and 27 . Aftermath . The reprisal actions of AK in Dubingiai , even if premature and unplanned by AK command , marked the beginning of a wider AK operation in which units beyond the 5th Brigade were involved . From 25 to 27 June various Polish units entered pre - war Lithuanian territory and carried out a series of actions against Lithuanian Nazi police forces and those labeled as Nazi sympathizers . Bridges and telecommunication lines were destroyed . Polish sources note that a number of civilian casualties , both Lithuanian and Polish , occurred as a result of the wider operations during that period , particularly when several buildings caught fire . According to Lithuanian sources between 70 - 100 Lithuanians , including civilians , were killed in total by the end of June 1944 in Dubingiai and the neighbouring villages of Joniškis , Inturkė , Bijutiškis , and Giedraičiai . Boradyn contends the AK ' s reprisal of 23 – 27 June was successful , since there were no further actions by Lithuanian forces similar to the preceding Glinciszki massacre . This contention of success against the Lithuanians is , however , largely speculative as the potential for further escalation by either side was cut short by the Soviet occupation of Vilnius ( pre - war " Wilno " ) two weeks later . This chain of events stained the reputation of AK in Lithuania . According to Boradyn this was the only reprisal action against Lithuanians ever undertaken by the AK . Zygmunt Szendzielarz , the commander of the 5th Brigade , which was responsible for the massacre , and later member of the Polish anti - Soviet resistance , was arrested in 1948 by the communist Polish secret police and after more than two years of torture and interrogation was executed by the communist Polish government in 1951 . After the fall of the communism , Szendzielarz was rehabilitated and declared innocent of charges which he had been accused of . On 2007 Polish president Lech Kaczyński posthumously awarded Szendzielarz the order of Polonia Restituta , creating controversy in Lithuania .