Partisan bunker, Remember Hill in Rūdšilis Forest
2,2 km in the direction of Šakiai
This place resembles the creative freedom fighters whose idealism, the bright word led one partisan forward. One of them is the well-known journalist Julijonas Būtėnas-Strėvė. In 1947 The Lithuanian weekly Ziburiai, published in Augsburg, can be found in numerous articles: „The Destiny of the Earth“, „Washington – Moscow“, „The Crush of Crime“, „The New Comintern Strategy“, „The Military Psychosis“ and others. All of his works are optimistic, full of faith that the native land will be released immediately from the hands of the occupier. Familiar with the partisan Juozas Lukša in the West and invited to go to Lithuania, he agreed and started to prepare intensively for this trip. 1951 April 19 In the early morning, Jonas Kukauskas-Gardenis and journalist Julijonas Būtėnas-Strėva arrived in Kazlų Rūda forest for paratroopers. The leader of the partisan association Petras Jurkšaitis-Beržas, having learned about the paratroopers, arranged their transfer to a specially prepared bunker near his back-hiding place at Rūdilei, near Lekėčiai. A little over a month later, on May 22, the bunker was issued and surrounded by 600 (elsewhere, 2500) soldiers. Three men began to destroy documents, money. P. Jurkšaitis and J. Būtėnas tried to push, but both were shot. Inside the bunker, J. Kukauskas remained alive.
Bunker rebuilt in 1994, 2019.
