Dubingiai massacre

The Dubingiai massacre was a mass murder of 20–27 Lithuanian civilians in the town of Dubingiai (Dubinki) on 23 June 1944. The massacre was carried out by the 5th Brigade of Armia Krajowa (AK), a Polish resistance group, in a reprisal for the Glinciszki (Glitiškės) massacre of 20 June. The Dubingiai massacre started a wider AK operation in which units beyond the 5th Brigade were involved. In total, 70–100 Lithuanians were killed by the end of June 1944 in Dubingiai and the neighbouring villages of Joniškis, Inturkė, Bijutiškis, and Giedraičiai. While Nazi collaborators were ostensibly the prime targets, the victims included the elderly, children, and even infants. Further conflicts between Lithuanian and Polish units were prevented by the Soviet capture of Vilnius in mid-July.

The Lithuanian–Polish relations during the interbellum period were strained since both sides had laid claim to the Vilnius Region. During World War II, these tensions were exacerbated by different allegiances: Lithuanian administration and paramilitary units were leaning towards Nazi Germany while Polish resistance waged an active partisan war against the Nazis. Eventually, these tensions grew into a low-level civil war that culminated in a series of civilian massacres.

On 20 June 1944, members of the Armia Krajowa (AK) killed four members of the 258th Lithuanian Police Battalion in the village of Glitiškės (Glinciszki); in retaliation the Lithuanian police killed 26 or 37 Polish villagers (the Glinciszki massacre). In light of these events as well as other information about intensified pacification actions by the Lithuanian forces, the AK command for the Vilnius Region, under Aleksander Krzyżanowski codename 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.

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