Alternate names: Žeimelis [Lith], Zheĭmeli [Rus], Zheimel [Yid], Żejmele [Pol], Zheymelis, Zheyme, Žeimys, Žeimelio, Zheiml, Zemel, Zieme. Russian: Жеймели. זײמל-Yiddish. 56°17' N, 24°00' E, 40 miles NNW of Panevėžys, 22 miles NNE of Pakruojis, 11 miles SW of Bauska, a small village near the Latvian border in Siauliai (Shavli) region of northern Lithuania. Before 1941 about 50 Jewish families lived there. Shtetlink.
CEMETERY: Unmaintained cemetery is in poor condition with about 200 stones. Source of tombstone names: Dr. Aleksandrs Feigmanis forwarded by Judi Langer Caplan; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..[date?]
Jewish Cemetery website with photographs of matzevot and translation of genealogical data. [March 2009?]
JOWBR: burial list
MASS GRAVE: The Germans arrived at the end of June;, and for the first month life was normal. On August 8, Lithuanian activists rounded up Jews, led them two kilometers outside the village to a forest near Vileisiai, and murdered them with automatic gunfire. The adopted son of the pharmacist was saved by two priests who said that the boy was not Jewish. The fenced site had no monument as of 1984; the survivors escaped to the Soviet Union. A new immigrant to Israel brought the Lochamei Hagetaot Museum a document found in Zeimelis immediately after the Germans withdrew in 1944. It was a mayor's report from the mayor of Zeimelis to the head of the Siauliai Regional Council that a total of 205 Jews were murdered, 160 of them on August 8, 1941. Two Jewish women who attempted to escape failed were sent to Zagare because surviving Jews were brought to Zagare from Kursenai, Papile, Tryskiai, Joniskis, Zeimelis, Kriukai, Radviliskis, Saukenai, Kelme, Tirksliai, Krakes, Joniskelis, Linkuva, Pakruojis, Laukuvas, Lygumai and other places, a total of 7,000 Jews were gathered in the ghetto during this period. [March 2009]
Near the village of Vileisiai, in the forest, about 2 km from Zeimelis; 130; pic. # 181 US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.
[UPDATE] The Zeimelis Jewish Cemetery [June 2018]