Seidel Ortrud's file / תיק – סיידל אורטרוד

The documents document the The painful history of Latvian Jewry and those deported from Germany during the Holocaust, focusing on the Nazi occupation and the extermination system. The sources detail the The establishment of the ghettos and camps in cities like Riga and Salspils, and include statistics on mass murder of civilians and children. Through Personal testimonies and diariesThe text describes the subhuman conditions on the deportation trains, the hard labor, and the cruelty of the SS. In addition, the documents include Maps of deportation routes and Semitic lists of specific victims to preserve their memory. The last part of the material is devoted to To commemorate and remember, describing monuments erected at these sites and calling for the fight against modern neo-Nazism. In short, this is a documentary collection that combines Historical facts with human memory Deep to instill the lessons of the past.

The documents before us present a harsh and detailed picture of the Nazi occupation of Latvia, the extermination of local Jews, and the deportation of German Jews to camps in the Riga area between 1941 and 1944. Below is a breakdown of the main themes that emerge from the sources:

The Nazi occupation and the reign of terror in Latvia

German forces occupied Riga on 1 July 1941, shortly after the start of Operation Barbarossa (H38-1f). A reign of terror was established in the area under the leadership of Alfred Rosenberg, appointed Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, andHeinrich Loza, who served as Reich Commissioner for the "Ostland" (H38-1f). Rosenberg promoted the "Generalplan Ost", which included the deportation of millions of people to make way for German settlers (H38-1f).

Concentration and extermination camps: Salaspils and Jungfernhof

The sources describe two central sites of suffering and murder:

• Salaspils: Officially described as a labor and education camp, it actually functioned as an extermination camp where about 100,000 people were murdered, including about 7,000 children (H38-1f). The prisoners were employed in grueling forced labor in quarries under conditions of extreme hunger and cold (H38-1f).
• Jungfernhof: A collection camp near Riga where those deported from Germany (like the deportation convoy from Stuttgart) were housed in subhuman conditions in barns and tenements (H38-1f). Survivors' testimonies describe severe hunger, cold of up to minus 40 degrees, and the cruelty of the camp commander, Rudolph Zack (H38-1f).

The logistics of murder and deportation

The sources detail the cooperation of the Reichsbahn (Reich Railway) in the extermination enterprise. Jews were deported in overcrowded cattle cars without water or food, with the train charging a fee for each "passenger" (H38-1f). The cars were marked with letters for identification: "Da" for David (German Jews) and "PJ" for Polish Jews (H38-1f). Mass massacres were carried out in Latvia itself, such as the murder of 27,000 Riga Jews and the Rumbula Forest massacre in which about 10,000 Latvian Jews were murdered in November 1941 (H38-1f).

List of key figures

Nazis and war criminals:

• Alfred Rosenberg: Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, one of the drafters of Nazi ideology (H38-1f).
• Hinrich Lohse: Reich Commissioner (Reichskommissar) in Ostland (H38-1f).
• Rudolf Seck: The commander of the Jungfernhof camp, known for his personal cruelty towards the prisoners (H38-1f).
• Adolf Eichmann: Mentioned in the context of organizing train logistics and obtaining deportation cars (H38-1f).

Victims and survivors:

• Leopold Marx: Holocaust survivor, poet and writer, who immigrated to Israel after the war and settled in the Zionist Captivity (H38-1f).
• Harry Kahn: A survivor who provided detailed testimony about the deportation from Stuttgart and life in the Jungfernhof and Slasspils camps (H38-1f).
• Sofi Billig: A survivor who described in her testimony the conditions at Jungfernhof and the murders of Rudolf Zack (H38-1f).
• Rabbi Dr. Carlebach: The community rabbi who was murdered along with his wife and children in the massacre on March 26, 1942 (H38-1f).
• Dr. Ludwig Elsas: A Jewish doctor from Stuttgart who served as a doctor in the Jungfernhof camp (H38-1f).
• Emma Mandel, Laura Mandel, Martha Rosenthal and Leopold Kahn: Jews from the Swabian Gemeinde who were deported on December 4, 1941, and perished in the Holocaust (H38-1f).
• Karlis Feldmanis, Yannis Loggins, Konstantin Strelchik and Yazeps Knepa: Underground and resistance members executed in Slasspils in 1943 (H38-1f).

List of sources

• H38-1f : A comprehensive historical document that includes overviews of the Nazi occupation of Latvia, testimonies of survivors from the Jungfernhof and Slasspils camps, deportation maps, and descriptions of commemoration.

 

– H38-1f

** end of Seidel Ortrud files **

**Press to go back to Holocaust Table**