America after the war, where he died in 1965. The day after the crime, the commander of the 5th brigade of the Home Army Zygmunt Szendzielarz "Łupaszko" decided to carry out a "retaliatory action". The situation was obvious to the Lithuanian policemen, who fortified themselves in their headquarters that were in Paberžė and also ordered the evacuation of Lithuanian colonists from the area. Łupaszko abandoned the idea of attacking the post, instead taking the lands of pre-war Lithuania as the target. From the outset, the aim was to commit an equally cruel crime against the Lithuanian civilian population, in addition to Lithuanian policemen and members of Lithuanian paramilitary organisations, their family members and military settlers were to be targeted, to frighten the Lithuanian society and thus discourage them from persecuting Polish people. Łupaszko did not command the action himself, entrusting direct command to Lieutenant Wiktor Wiącek "Rakoczy". The action lasted from 22 to 24 June 1944, at least 68 people were murdered during it, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians. The action culminated in the Dubingiai massacre. The AK command of the region did not plan, and actually strictly forbade, any reprisals against innocent civilians. Łupaszko acted on his own, without agreement with the AK district commander, Lt. Col. Aleksander Krzyżanowski "Wilk", perhaps even ignoring orders not to take revenge and to halt the action. Wilk gave orders to the Home Army's , commanded by Major "Węgielny", to carry out a "punitive expedition"; the targets were to be Lithuanian troops in German service, not civilians. The expedition unsuccessfully attacked the police station in Paberžė (where the Lithuanians had in the meantime been replaced by an SS detachment) and then proceeded into pre-war Lithuanian territory towards Joniškis, and fought a successful battle with a German detachment on the way back. The operation lasted from 25 June to 2 July; despite the original intentions, 13 civilians were murdered during the operation, but there were no women or children among them. In 2015, the massacres in Glitiškės and Dubingiai (the former committed by the Lithuanian auxiliary police battalion and the latter by the Polish Home Army) were called war crimes by the Polish historian Paweł Rokicki. Number of victims Both German and Polish reports produced immediately after the events mention 27 dead including Władysław Komar. Aleksander Krzyżanowski specified that five children under the age of 8 and 12 women were killed. A