Kudirkos Naumiestis

History

The settlement was first mentioned in 1561 as a village called Duoliebaičiai. Queen Cecilia Renata, who held the Jurbarkas starostwo as her dower estate, founded a town here under Magdeburg Law, which she named Władysławów () in honor of her husband King Władysław IV, by virtue of a charter dated March 26, 1643. The town was granted a coat of arms featuring a stag’s head with three stars above it. Journalist and writer Herman Bernstein was born here in 1876 and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, who would become a prominent American Jewish leader, was born here in 1893. The Shubert family, which later became prominent in building the American Broadway theatre district, also has its origins here. During World War II, the town was occupied by the Soviet Union from 1940, then by Nazi Germany from 1941. In 1941, an Einsatzgruppen of Germans and Lithuanian collaborators murdered the local Jewish population in mass executions. Hundreds of people were massacred. The Gestapo also carried out executions of ethnic Jewish prisoners of war from the nearby Oflag 60 POW camp in Schirwindt/Širvinta (now Kutuzovo) in the nearby forest.

Most-observed species

• Fieldfare

  Turdus pilaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  50
• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  47
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  46
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  46
• Yellowhammer

  Emberiza citrinella Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  45
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  45
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  42
• European Goldfinch

  Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  41