Standing beside the Vilnius–Druskininkai road, the sculpture “Mother of Pirčiupiai” (Pirčiupių Motina) serves as a powerful reminder of one of the most tragic civilian massacres in Lithuania during World War II — the Pirčiupis village tragedy.

On the early morning of June 3, 1944, Soviet partisans hiding in the nearby Rūdininkai Forest attacked German military vehicles near the village. Several German soldiers were killed, and the survivors fled to Eišiškės. That same day, a punitive unit was dispatched to the village. The unit surrounded Pirčiupis, herded the residents into barns, and set them on fire, burning 119 people alive — 58 men and 61 women. Among them were 49 children under the age of 16, the youngest just six weeks old.

In 1960, a granite memorial ensemble was unveiled — the sculpture “Mother of Pirčiupis” by Gediminas Jokūbonis, along with a memorial wall engraved with the names of the 119 victims. In the village of Pirčiupis, visitors can also find the mass grave and the site where the massacre occurred. The emotionally expressive granite sculpture symbolizes a mother’s profound grief.

This tragedy was immortalized in Justinas Marcinkevičius’s poem “Blood and Ashes” (Kraujas ir pelenai) and in director Almantas Grikevičius’s film “Fact” (Faktas), which was partly filmed in the ethnographic village of Zervynos.