Mass killing pit
This the best-preserved and, at the same time, the deepest mass killing pit and is 29 m in diameter; it shows clearly the structure of the embankments and the shooting holes. A site circles the pit. There was a wooden base all around the perimeter of the pit, on which the members of the SD Vilnius Special Squad lined up. At the entrance to the pit, on both sides of the embankment, there were also circular one-person sites, most likely the guard posts for the guards to monitor the state of affairs and shoot victims if they attempted to flee.
In the course of implementing the Soviet architectural rearrangement project of the Paneriai Memorial, a commemoration stone was erected in the pit in 1985 with the inscription (in Lithuanian and Russian): ‘Corpses exhumed from mass killings sites were burned here’. The inscription is not entirely accurate, because exhumed remains were not burned in the pits but taken from the pits to bonfires which were up to 4-5 m. high. The victims’ ashes were spread back into the pit or mixed with sand near the pit.