Memories from Riga's file / תיק – זיכרונות מריגה

These sources document the The History and Destruction of Latvian Jewry During the Holocaust through a combination of personal testimonies and historical research. The archive includes Biography of Professor Vladimir Mintz, a surgeon known to have treated Lenin and later murdered in the Buchenwald camp, alongside the memoirs of Anna Vitinsky who survived the war. The documents of Professor Leo May Statistical inaccuracies in previous publications about the extent of the murder in the Riga ghetto and the surrounding forests are sharply criticized. The handwritten and printed testimonies describe Horrors in concentration camps, death marches, and daring rescue operations carried out by individuals. The whole serves as an indictment against Nazi policy in Latvia and as documentation to preserve the memory of the victims and survivors.

The documents before us present a broad and detailed picture of the fate of Latvian Jews during the Holocaust, through the personal memories of Leo Mai, biographies of key figures, and statistical data (H33-3f, H33-5f, H33-6f).

Historical overview and key events

The war in Latvia began under the shadow of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which led to the Soviet occupation and mass deportations of civilians, including Jews, to Siberia in June 1941 (H33-3-1f, H33-3f, H33-4f). On July 1, 1941, Riga was occupied by the Nazis, and murders and persecutions immediately began (H33-3-4f, H33-4-4f). One of the defining events was October 25, 1941, when an estimated 10,000 to 13,000 Jews were murdered in what was defined as the gradual liquidation of the ghetto (H33-3-4f, H33-6-7f).

Throughout the war, Jews were employed in grueling forced labor. Leo May describes the work in the "Forest Column" and in the brick factory, where prisoners suffered from the cruelty of the SS and camp commanders (H33-3-20f). Later, prisoners were evacuated to concentration camps outside Latvia, such as Stutthof andBuchenwald (Folte factory in Magdeburg), where work continued under subhuman conditions (H33-3-23f, H33-3-41f, H33-6-3f).

Towards the end of the war, in April 1945, the prisoners were evacuated from Magdeburg on a death march towards Sachsenhausen. During the evacuation, under Allied shelling, many were killed, including Leo Mai's brother, who died on 25 April 1945 (H33-3-27f, H33-3-34f, H33-3f). Leo Mai himself managed to escape and reach the town Løvborg, where he hid and worked in agriculture until liberation by the Red Army (H33-3-30f, H33-3-49f).

The Underground and Resistance

Inside the inferno, a Jewish underground group operated under the name "Vespriga" (or "Vesp riga"), which contacted partisans and provided them with medical equipment and explosives (H33-1f, H33-3-9f, H33-35). Leo Mai himself was involved in this activity, and even managed to produce dynamite for the underground (H33-3-9f, H33-35).

Statistics and controversies

Leo May devotes a significant portion of his later writings to correcting statistical data appearing in various encyclopedias. He claims that in 1935, some 94,000 Jews lived in Latvia, and at the time of the Nazi occupation in 1941, some 70,000 remained (H33-6-11f, H33-6-13f, H33-6f). He emphasizes that official extermination data are often inaccurate and underestimate the number of victims murdered even before the establishment of the ghettos (H33-6-5f, H33-6-11f).

Key figures

Victims and survivors:

• Leo May: Author of memoirs, professor of chemistry, survivor of the Riga ghetto and the Magdeburg and Buchenwald camps (H33-3f, H33-6-19f, H33-68).
• Professor Vladimir Mintz: A renowned Jewish surgeon who headed the surgical department at the "Bikur Cholim" hospital in Riga. He became famous for operating on Lenin in 1918. He perished in the Buchenwald camp in February 1945 (H33-5f, H33-69, H33-70).
• Hanna-Anna Witonsky (née Gurevich): A Holocaust survivor who lost her parents in Latvia. She fled to Uzbekistan and immigrated to Israel in 1949 (H33-2f, H33-17).
• Leo's brother Mai (Bruno?): Worked with Leo in the mechanics and chemical laboratories in the camps; killed at the end of the war in Magdeburg (H33-3-27f, H33-3-34f, H33-38).
• Alexander Grom and Constance Ostrin: Key figures in the "Vespriga" underground who acted against the Nazis (H33-3-9f, H33-35, H33-36).
• Bruno Kalnins: A Latvian Social Democratic leader who was imprisoned with the Jews in the Stutthof camp (H33-3-20f, H33-43).

Nazis and collaborators:

• Pauli & Hoppe: The commanders of the Stutthof concentration camp, known for their cruelty (H33-3-20f, H33-43).
• Selonke ("The Butcher Fritz" – Selonke): A cruel executioner who operated under Nazi command (H33-3-20f, H33-43).
• Gustav Sorge ("Iron Gustav"): Commander of the HKP camp in Riga (H33-3f, H33-37).
• Hasselbaum: A photographer from Kuldiga who became one of the local Nazi leaders and was involved in the persecutions (H33-3-4f, H33-31, H33-62).
• Karlis Briker: One of the main executioners who murdered Jews in the Kuldiga forests in June 1941 (H33-3-30f, H33-51).
• Walter von Schulte-Mesum: A Nazi officer who ran the laboratory where May worked. Despite his position, he assisted May and the underground and was aware of their activities (H33-3-9f, H33-19, H33-35). Click here For additional information about Walter von Schulte-Mezum

List of sources

• H33-1-7f : A page from Leo May's memoirs in Yiddish/German.
• H33-1f : A collection of handwritten memoirs by Leo May dealing with the war and the underground.
• H33-2f : Letter and biographical details about Hanna Anya Witonsky (née Gurevich).
• H33-3-1f : Memories of Leo Mai – the pre-war period and the Soviet occupation.
• H33-3-4f : Description of the Nazi occupation, persecution, and massacre in Riga.
• H33-3-9f : The activities of the "Vespriga" underground and the connection with the partisans.
• H33-3-15f : Testimony about Germans who helped and saved Jews.
• H33-3-20f : Description of the Stutthof camp, its commanders, and life in the forced labor camps.
• H33-3-23f : Life in the Buchenwald-Magdeburg camp and work in the "Polte" factory.
• H33-3-27f : The evacuation of the camp, the death march, and the death of the author's brother.
• H33-3-30f : Life and work in the town of Loborg towards the end of the war.
• H33-3-34f : Searching for the brother's grave in Magdeburg and returning to Riga after the war.
• H33-3-39f : Loborg's post-war period and work with the Red Army.
• H33-3f : The complete and detailed memoirs of Leo May in Russian.
• H33-4-1f : Memoir page (duplication of H33-3-1f).
• H33-4-4f : Memoir page (duplication of H33-3-4f).
• H33-4f : Collection of memoirs of Leo Mai (PDF file).
• H33-5-3f : Biographical information page about Professor Vladimir Mintz.
• H33-5f : A comprehensive biography in Russian of the surgeon Professor Vladimir Mintz.
• H33-6-1f : Letter from Leo May regarding historical and statistical data of the Holocaust.
• H33-6-3f : Continuation of the letter and criticism of incorrect historical studies.
• H33-6-5f : Statistical data on the Jewish population in Latvia in 1941.
• H33-6-7f : Details of the murders and extermination of the Jews of Latvia and Europe.
• H33-6-9f : Data on survivors and mass graves in the forests.
• H33-6-11f : Comparing statistical data from various historical sources.
• H33-6-13f : Analyzing demographic miscalculations in the research literature.
• H33-6-15f : Data on the Holocaust in Latvia from encyclopedias and studies.
• H33-6-17f : Information about the Latvian Legion and collaborators with the Nazis.
• H33-6-19f : Biographical details about Leo May and a recording of his memoirs.
• H33-6f : A collection of letters and statistics by Leo Mai on the subject of the Holocaust in Latvia.

 

– H33-1f

– H33-1-7f

– H33-2f

– H33-3f

– H33-3-1f

– H33-3-4f

– H33-3-9f

– H33-3-15f

– H33-3-20f

– H33-3-23f

– H33-3-27f

– H33-3-30f

– H33-3-34f

– H33-3-39f

– H33-4f

– H33-4-1f

– H33-4-4f

– H33-5f

– H33-5-3f

– H33-6f

– H33-6-1f

– H33-6-3f

– H33-6-5f

– H33-6-7f

– H33-6-9f

– H33-6-11f

– H33-6-13f

– H33-6-15f

– H33-6-17f

– H33-6-19f

** end of Memories from Riga files **

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