Viekšniai

Viekšniai is a town in the Mažeikiai district municipality in northwestern Lithuania, about 17 kilometres south-east of the district seat of Mažeikiai. It is also recorded under the Samogitian name Vėikšnē, the Yiddish name Vekshne and the Polish name Wieksznie. The name is thought to come from a former lake that lay near the town. Viekšniai had a large Jewish community before the Second World War: around 1900 it had three synagogues, several Jewish primary schools and a yeshiva, and the 1897 Russian census counted 1,646 Jews among a total population of 2,951. In the summer of 1941 more than 400 Jews from the town were murdered in Mažeikiai together with others from the district. The historian and politician Mykolas Biržiška, a signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania, is listed among the town's notable people.