Kelmė

Kelmė
City
Church of Kelmė
Flag Coat of arms
Kelmė Location of Kelmė
Coordinates: 55°38′0″N 22°56′0″E / 55.63333°N 22.93333°E / 55.63333; 22.93333Coordinates: 55°38′0″N 22°56′0″E / 55.63333°N 22.93333°E / 55.63333; 22.93333
Country	Lithuania
Ethnographic region	Samogitia
County	Šiauliai County
Municipality	Kelmė district municipality
Eldership	Kelmė eldership
Capital of	Kelmė district municipality Kelmė eldership
First mentioned	1484
Granted city rights	1947
Government
• Mayor	Vaclovas Andrulis
Area
• Total	7.85 km2 (3.03 sq mi)
Elevation	128 m (420 ft)
Population  (2017)
• Total	8.245
• Density	1.1/km2 (2.7/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Website	Official website

Kelmė (pronunciation (help·info); is a city in northwestern Lithuania, a historical region of Samogitia. It has a population of 8,206 and is the administrative center of the Kelmė district municipality.

History[]

Kelmė's name may come from the Lithuanian "Kelmynės", literally "the stubby place" because of the forests that were there at the time of its founding.^[1]

Kelmė was first mentioned in 1416, the year that Kelmė's first church was built.^[1]

Prior to World War II, Kelmė (Yiddish: Kelm‎) was home to a famous Rabbinical College, the Kelm Talmud Torah.

According to an 1897 census, 2,710 of Kelme's 3,914 inhabitants were members of the town's Jewish population, the vast majority of whom were merchants and traders and lived in the town.

Most of the Jews in Kelmė rural district were murdered during a mass execution on July 29, 1941. On August 22 a second mass execution occurred. On October 2, 1941, some Kelmė and Jews were murdered in Žagarė. The executions were committed by Lithuanians nazis, auxiliary police and Germans soldiers.^[2] In total, the number of victims is 1250-1300 people.

Gallery[]

• 

  Kelmė Manor, dates to the 15th century

• 

  Kelmė Manor gates and church in the distance

• 

  Evangelical Reformed Church, built in 1615

• 

  Roman Catholic Church

• 

  Kelmė Jonas Graičiūnas Gymnasium

• 

  Municipality building

People[]

• Antanas Mackevičius^[1]
• (1884–1916), writer.
• Aryeh Leib Frumkin, Rabbi
• Icchokas Meras, writer
• Zvi Yaakov Oppenheim, Rabbi 1883–1926
• Simcha Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm

Twin towns[]

Kelmė is twinned with:^{[citation needed]}

City	COA	Country
Biłgoraj		Poland
Hódmezővásárhely		Hungary
Egerszalók		Hungary

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kelmė.

• Official site of Kelmė district municipality