Memories on Latvian Holocaust's file / תיק – זיכרונות על השואה הלטבית

📰 Documentation of the participation of Latvian and Estonian Jewry in the war against the Nazis

These sources document the The tragic history of Latvian Jewry, with a special focus on events The Holocaust and in the process of destruction in cities such as Riga and Daugavpils. The collection includes Personal testimonies, letters and newspaper clippings detailing the atrocities in the ghettos, the The massacres in the forests and the harsh living conditions in concentration camps such as Kaiserwald. Alongside the historical description of the destruction, the sources also deal with In memory preservation and in commemorating the victims through research, poetry, and memorial ceremonies held after the war. In addition, the documents survey the transition from Soviet rule to Nazi occupation and The impact of anti-Semitism The local government on the fate of the community. In conclusion, the materials present a broad picture of Jewish life in Latvia, from the pre-war cultural boom to the survivors' rehabilitation and documentation efforts.

History of Latvian Jewry: From Early Settlement to Independence

The roots of the Jewish community inLatvia Rooted in Judaism Livonia (Livland) andCourland (Courland), two principalities on the Baltic coast that were annexed to the Russian Empire in the 18th century (H21-6f). The Jews of Courland formed a special group within Russian Jewry; they were influenced by the German culture that dominated the region and by the Jewry of neighboring Lithuania, and the Enlightenment penetrated them at an early stage (H21-6f). Unlike most of the Jews of Russia, these regions were outside the "The seat area", and only Jews who could prove that they had lived there legally before the annexation of the region were allowed to continue to reside there (H21-6f). Despite this, the Jewish population gradually grew, and by the mid-19th century there were about 9,000 Jews living in the Livonian Order, a number that had jumped to 26,793 in 1897 (H21-6f).

With the establishment of the independent Latvian Republic (1918–1940), the Jews enjoyedNational autonomy Broad (H21-6f). The General Education Law of 1919 granted minorities the right to self-manage schools, and a Jewish department was established in the Ministry of Education headed by Jacob Landau (H21-6f). Representatives of various Jewish parties served in the Latvian parliament (Saima), including Mordechai Dovin From "Agudat Israel", Mordechai Nurok andNoah Maisel From the "Bund" (H21-6f). The situation changed after the fascist coup of Karlis Olmanis On May 15, 1934; Jewish autonomy was abolished, political organizations were outlawed, and Jewish schools were placed under strict supervision (H21-6f). In 1935, there were 93,479 Jews in Latvia (H21-5f).

The period of the first Soviet occupation (1940–1941)

In June 1940, following an agreement Ribbentrop-Molotov, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union (H21-6f). The communist regime nationalized Jewish industry and commerce, and Jewish public and political activity was stopped (H21-11f). Archive documents including Soviet press clippings describe the summer of 1940 as a "revolution" supported by the masses, but note that the Latvian bourgeoisie was "neutralized" (H21-21-15f). On June 14, 1941, about a week before the German invasion, the Soviet authorities deported thousands of Jews considered "politically undesirable elements" to Siberia and other remote areas of the Soviet Union (H21-6f, H21-5f). Handwritten notes on a photograph indicate that members of the "Riga 1939 Youth Group" were deported or murdered, and only a few survived (H21-22f).

The Holocaust in Latvia: The Destruction of the Community (1941–1944)

With the invasion of Nazi Germany on June 22, 1941, Latvia was occupied within a few weeks (H21-6f). The German army entered Riga on July 1, 1941 (H21-11f). Immediately after the occupation, pogroms and murders against the Jews began, carried out by Germans and local collaborators, led by the organizationEissargi (Aizsargi) and the fascist organization Paraconchosis (Pērkonkrusts) (H21-6f). On July 4, 1941, the synagogues in Riga were set on fire, and the synagogue on Gogol Hundreds of Jews were burned alive (H21-11f, H21-7f).

The organized extermination operations were carried out by theEinsatzgruppe A (Einsatzgruppe A) under the command of Franz Stalker (H21-2f). Official reports indicate that by the end of October 1941, 30,025 Jews had been murdered in Latvia (H21-6f). The largest massacre took place in the forests Rombola (Rumbula) andBikanerniki (Biķernieki) near Riga; on November 30 and December 8–9, 1941, approximately 25,000 Jews from the ghetto were murdered in Rumbula (H21-11f, H21-6f). Among the victims was the renowned historian Shimon Dubnov (H21-11f). Testimony of a German soldier named Walter Brons Depicts rows of Jews, women and children, being led to firing pits in the forests, where 1,500 people were murdered every hour (H21-21-3f).

Ghettos and concentration camps

In October 1941, it was established Riga Ghetto In the "Moscow Quarter", where about 30,000 Jews were imprisoned (H21-11f, H21-7f). After the December murders in Rumbola, the ghetto area was reduced to the "Small Ghetto", where mainly men able to work remained (H21-11f). At the same time, the "German Ghetto" was established for about 15,000 Jews who had been deported from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia (H21-11f). Ghettos were also established inDaugavpils (Dünaburg) andLiepaja (Libau) (H21-6f).

Concentration and labor camps were established throughout the country, the most notable of which were Salspils (Salaspils) andKaiserwald (Kaiserwald) (H21-6f). Testimonies about the Salspils camp describe subhuman conditions, hunger and disease that claimed the lives of thousands (H21-1f). BKaiserwald, established in March 1943, imprisoned the remnants of Jews from the liquidated ghettos (H21-6f). Documents from the archive include a call for help from Willy Dehnal (Willy Dähnel), a German who served as a holiday home manager and tried to help Jews with clothing and food, and as a result was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp (H21-15f). Another testimony tells of the athlete Lily Al-Honoch (Lilli Henoch) who was deported from Germany to Riga in September 1942 and murdered there (H21-13f).

Resistance and rescue operations

A Jewish underground operated within the Riga ghetto, whose members included, among others, young people Beitar (H21-7f). Among the key figures in the underground were Lulik Hinkin, Aaron Zeev Gamzo andNathan Michlin (H21-7f). The underground members were busy collecting weapons, training, and preparing hiding places outside the ghetto (H21-7f). On October 28, 1942, a group of 10 underground members tried to break out of the ghetto to join the partisans, but they encountered a German ambush and most of them were killed in battle (H21-7f).

Outside the ghetto, a prominent figure in rescue operations was Jan Lipka (Jan Lipke), a Latvian port worker who managed to save dozens of Jews by providing them with hiding places (H21-6f). In total, only a few hundred Jews survived in Latvia under the German occupation (H21-6f).

Estonian Jewry during the war

The Jewish community inEstonia It was smaller than that of Latvia, with a population of about 4,500 in early 1940 (H21-2f). With the German invasion in the summer of 1941, about 3,000 Jews managed to escape deep into the Soviet Union (H21-2f). About 1,000 Jews who remained in Estonia were murdered by the Germans and local collaborators (H21-2f, H21-21-22f). In January 1942, it was reported at a conference Wanze Because Estonia is "Judenfrei" (Judenfrei – free of Jews) (H21-2f). Concentration camps were also established in Estonia, such as the Kaluga (Klooga), to which Jews from Vilnius and other places were sent towards the end of the war (H21-2f, H21-3f).

Terminology and definitions

• Aizsargi: A Latvian paramilitary organization founded in 1919 and used as an auxiliary force for the Nazis in the murder of Jews (H21-6f).
• Pērkonkrusts: "Thunder Cross", an extreme fascist and anti-Semitic organization in Latvia (H21-6f).
• Einsatzgruppe A: A mobile SS extermination unit that operated in the Baltic region (H21-2f).
• Judenfrei: A Nazi term meaning "clean of Jews," used to describe an area in which all its Jews were murdered or expelled (H21-2f).
• Actions (Aktionen): Organized operations of concentration, deportation and mass murder of Jews (H21-11f).
• Saeima: Parliament of the Republic of Latvia (H21-6f).

List of sources

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• H21-1f – Chapters from the book "The Münster Myth" dealing with the deportation of German Jews to Riga and the crimes of the SS in Latvia
• H21-2f – Report on the extermination of the Jews of the Baltic States by Einsatzgruppe A and statistical data by district
• H21-3f – Inventory list and index of archival divisions at Yad Vashem related to Jewish communities in Europe during the Holocaust
• H21-4f – A page from the newspaper "Ha'olam" (1945) that includes articles on the activities of Keren Hayesod and reviews of Jewish communities
• H21-5f – A historical and geographical overview of the Holocaust of Latvian Jews, including maps of the ghettos and sites of mass murder.
• H21-6f – An English entry from an encyclopedia about Latvia, covering the history, economy, and culture of the community
• H21-7f – Historical research in Hebrew "Beginnings of Revolt in the Riga Ghetto" on the activities of the Zionist underground and the Betar movement
• H21-8f – A document in German from 2001 detailing the commemoration activities in the Bikanerniki Forest and the deportation of Jews to Riga
• H21-9f – A collection of Yiddish poems in memory of the victims of the Rumbola massacre, accompanied by photographs of Jewish writers and public figures.
• H21-10f
• H21-11f – A historical overview of the Holocaust of Latvian Jews, the Riga Ghetto, the Rumbula Massacre, and post-war demographic data
• H21-12f – Photocopy of letters from the Daugavpils and Riga communities (1946) dealing with the situation of the survivors and the restoration of community life
• H21-13f – Biographical documentation and photographic documents on the fate of the Jewish athlete Lili Al-Hoch, who was murdered in Riga
• H21-14f – Handwritten testimonies about the fate of Latvian Jews in the Holocaust and the activities of Jan Lipka in rescuing Jews
• H21-15f – An article in the newspaper "Yediot Hadassah" about the German Willy Dehnel, who helped Jews in Riga and was sent to a concentration camp
• H21-16f – A personal handwritten letter in Hebrew from Riga detailing the life of the Jewish community and what was done in the synagogue.
• H21-17f – Handwritten testimony and poems in memory of family members who were murdered in the burning of the synagogue in Riga during the war
• H21-18f – Sheet music and lyrics for songs in German and Yiddish that deal with pain, loneliness, and memory from the Holocaust era
• H21-19f – Press clippings about Cantor Mordechai Shoval and the revival of the world of cantorship and Jewish music in Latvia and Israel
• H21-20f – Photo of the back of the illustrated map with the archive stamps confirming the original from the estate of H. Sheinzon
• H21-20-1f – A hand-drawn map of Latvia and Estonia showing the layout of Jewish settlements in the region
• H21-21-1f – Photographs of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda in the Latvian press and their translation into Russian for documentation and research purposes
• H21-21-10-1f – An article in Russian about the importance of researching the past, the Shimon Dubnov Archive, and preserving the community's historical memory
• H21-21-12-1
• H21-21-20-1f – Detailed testimony in Russian by Solomon Feigerson about the Kaiserwald concentration camp and the conditions of imprisonment there
• H21-21-21-1f – Another copy of the English article on the Buchenwald camp by Tom Driver, "I Saw It Myself"
• H21-21-22-1f – An article in Russian about the extermination of the Jews of the Baltic states in the Holocaust and the crimes of local collaborators
• H21-21-9-1f – An article in Russian about Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day highlighting the crimes of occupation and genocide in Latvia
• H21-21-2f – A collection of Yiddish articles from the end-of-war press about the destruction of Jewish communities in Latvia
• H21-21-20-3f – Continued testimony of Feigerson in Russian about the forced labor in Kaiserwald and the evacuation to the Stutthof camp
• H21-21-3f – Newspaper clipping "Stars & Stripes" (1948) about a German officer's confession to mass murder in Riga in 1941
• H21-21-15-4af – An interview page in Russian dealing with the political circumstances of Latvia's annexation to the Soviet Union in 1940
• H21-21-4f – An article in Russian from a Soviet newspaper about the murders and abuse of Riga Jews during the first days of the occupation
• H21-21-5f – An article in Hebrew about the Eichmann trial and the Latvian fascist organization "Perkonkrustas" which participated in the murder of Jews
• H21-21-9-5f – Continued article in Russian on the commemoration of the Baltic communities and the connection with the Jewish community in England
• H21-21-6f – A historical article in Hebrew "Besides the Roads" reviewing the history of Latvian, Lithuanian and Courland Jewry
• H21-21-7f – Appeal to the public in the Israeli press (1972) for the submission of documents and testimonies for the study of Latvian and Estonian Jewry
• H21-21-8f – A review of historical literature in Hebrew on Latvian Jewry, Zionist leadership, and Jewish cultural life
• H21-21-10f – Photographic documentation of monuments commemorating the victims of fascism in Riga and an article in Russian about the work of Shimon Dubnov
• H21-21-11f – An article in Hebrew about the testimony of Frida Michelson, who survived the Rumbola massacre and fought for its commemoration.
• H21-21-13f – Interview in a German newspaper about forced labor compensation and a description of Leah Roche's role in commemorating the victims of the Holocaust
• H21-21-14f – A report from the German press about neo-Nazi harassment of a Jewish doctor and his family in Germany in 1987
• H21-21-15f – A collection of articles in Russian on the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 and its impact on the Jewish community
• H21-21-16f – An article in Russian about public historical discussions in Latvia regarding the events of World War II
• H21-21-17f – An article in Russian about the discovery of mass graves of Jews in the Daugavpils forests and the memorial ceremonies held there
• H21-21-18f – Report in the Hebrew press about a memorial rally in the Valley of the Killings in Riga and the commemoration of Holocaust and Heroism Day
• H21-21-19f – A page from the newspaper "Ma'ariv" that includes articles about the commemoration of the Holocaust in Latvia and prominent figures in the community
• H21-21-20f – A collection of testimonies in Russian about the concentration and labor camps in Latvia, including Kaiserswald and Salspils
• H21-21-22f – A historical overview in Russian of the Holocaust in the Baltic region, including photographs from the Vilnius ghetto and labor camps
• H21-21-15-55abf – An article in Russian titled "Latvia: Summer 1940" covering the Soviet Union's takeover of the country
• H21-21-15-59abf – Continuation of the article in Russian about the events of 1940 in Latvia, the establishment of Soviet rule and the population's reactions
• H21-22f – Photographs of a group of young Jews in Riga (1939) and the back of the photographs with handwritten notes
• H21-23f – Colorful illustrations and paintings expressing the horrors of the Holocaust, the deportation and the suffering of Latvian Jews
• H21-51f – An encyclopedic entry in Hebrew on Latvia, including historical maps and an overview of the destruction of the community in the Holocaust
• H21-57f – A detailed statistical table of the number of Jewish victims of the Holocaust by various European countries

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