Survivors Memories from Latvia's file / תיק – זיכרונות של ניצולים מלטביה

This collection of sources presents Personal testimonies and historical reports Documenting the bitter fate of Jews Latvia During the period The HolocaustThe documents include handwritten memoirs, photographs, and official reports detailing the Life in the ghettos, the mass murders in the forests and the use of Jews For forced labor Under the Nazi occupation, the survivors describe their path of torment through concentration camps such as Kaiserwald, Stutthof and Buchenwald, emphasizing the loss of family members and coping with severe physical and health difficulties. Some of the testimonies also deal with the hardships of The post-war period, which include poverty, disability, and traumatic memories that accompany the survivors into adulthood. The professional reports included in the collection provide A broad historical perspective about the local extermination process and the cooperation of auxiliary forces with the Nazis. Together, the sources constitute Painful and comprehensive documentation of the destruction of the Jewish community in Latvia and the stories of survival of a few of its members.

The story of Latvian Jews under Nazi occupation, as it emerges from the sources, is a chilling journey of persecution, mass extermination, and extraordinary acts of heroism and survival:

The Nazi occupation and the beginning of the persecutions

With the German invasion of Latvia in the summer of 1941, violent measures against the Jews immediately began. In cities such as Riga andDaugavpils, Jews were arrested on the streets and in their homes and sent to perform humiliating forced labor, such as cleaning streets and carrying heavy loads (H56-11f, H56-15f, H56-33f). On July 4, 1941, one of the most shocking crimes was committed: Burning of synagogues, and primarily the Choral Synagogue in Riga, with the hundreds of Jews hiding within them (H56-13f, H56-14f, H56-5f). The sources describe how Jews were forbidden from walking on the sidewalks, and were required to wear the yellow patch on their chest and back (H56-15f, H56-20f, H56-33f).

Life in the ghettos and the mass slaughter

Jews were concentrated in ghettos under conditions of extreme overcrowding and hunger. The Riga ghetto was established in the "Moscow suburbs", where thousands of people lived in small apartments without proper heating and with minimal food rationing – about 100 to 120 grams of bread per day (H56-33f, H56-13f, H56-26f). At the end of 1941, the major "Aktions" were carried out: on November 30 and December 8, tens of thousands of ghetto Jews were murdered in the forest. Rombola (H56-11f, H56-15f, H56-26f, H56-33f). Eyewitnesses describe endless convoys of women, children and the elderly being led to the pits, while the able-bodied men were segregated into the "little ghetto" (H56-13f, H56-26f, H56-33f). Similar atrocities occurred inDaugavpils In the Pogolinka forest andLiepaja (H56-1f, H56-19f, H56-25f).

Concentration camps and forced labor

After the liquidation of the ghettos, the survivors were sent to concentration camps. Camp Kaiserwald (Kaiserwald) served as a central transit station, where the prisoners underwent further humiliations and selections (H56-12f, H56-30f). From there they were transferred to camps in Germany and Poland, such as Stutthof (Stutthof), Buchenwald (Buchenwald) andBergen-Belsen (H56-11f, H56-13f, H56-16f, H56-23f). In these camps, prisoners suffered from starvation to the point of skeletons ("Moslems"), diseases such as typhus, and hard labor in military factories such as AEG (H56-11f, H56-16f, H56-23f).

Survival, rescue and the tragedy that follows the war

Alongside the evil, heroic rescue stories are documented. Alfred Bankovich, a local German, saved his Jewish wife Rachel and other family members by hiding them in cellars and pits (H56-10f, H56-9f, H56-7f). Other figures such as Dorofey Shalokhin and the Paterson family risked their lives to hide Jews (H56-15f, H56-22f). For some survivors, the suffering did not end with liberation. Pavel Trainin, who survived the ghetto and Nazi camps, was drafted into the Soviet army but was arrested on charges of treason only for surviving the German occupation; he was sent to 9 years in Stalin's gulags (H56-5f).

Expansion of important sources

• Gabriel Zivian Report (H56-33f): A rare historical document written in October 1942. It provides precise statistical data on the Jewish population before and after the occupation, details the organizational structure of the "Judenrat", and documents the proceedings of the Rumbula massacre based on testimony from the commander of the Latvian Guard.
• Sophia Augustine's testimony (H56-26f): A long and incredibly detailed personal testimony. Auguston describes daily life in the ghetto, the loss of her family, and the difficult experiences in the camps in Germany, including a description of the "death marches" towards the end of the war and the humiliating treatment by the guards.
• Testimony of Pavel Trainin (H56-5f): This source is essential for understanding the double tragedy of Holocaust survivors in Soviet-ruled Latvia. It illustrates how physical survival became a pretext for political persecution under Stalin's regime.
• Pavel Trainin was born in Riga in 1920 (H56-5f). During the war, his parents and sister were shot dead by the Nazis (H56-5f). His grandfather, the rabbi Shalom-Joseph Gaiman, was burned alive along with many other Jews in the Choral Synagogue in Riga on July 4, 1941 (H56-5f). Trainin himself went through a path of torment in various concentration camps: he spent time in the ghetto, and was later sent to camps Kaiserwald, Tire and-AM-441 (H56-5f). At the end of 1941 he was transferred to an extension of a camp Buchenwald In Magdeburg, where he worked in an underground military factory until his liberation by the American army in April 1945 (H56-5f).
  Trainin's fate after the war was no less tragic: he was drafted into the Soviet army and served in Germany, but was arrested and tried on charges of "anti-Soviet activity" (H56-5f). His very survival in the Nazi camps was considered by the authorities as an aggravating circumstance indicating "treason to the motherland" (H56-5f). He was sentenced to death, a sentence commuted to 20 years in prison, of which he served 9 years in Stalin's camps in northern Russia until his name was cleared (H56-5f).

Key figures

Victims and survivors:

• Pavel Treinin: A Holocaust survivor who survived Buchenwald and served a long sentence in the Soviet Gulag (H56-5f).
• Gabriel Zivian: The author of the historical report on the Latvian Holocaust who fled to Switzerland (H56-33f).
• Avram Gerson: A survivor of the Riga ghetto who hid in a basement until liberation (H56-15f).
• Sophia Augustin: Survivor of the Riga ghetto and the Stutthof and Torun camps (H56-26f).
• Hirsch Joffe: A survivor who survived the burning of synagogues and the Aktions in Riga (H56-14f).
• Abram Kitt: A survivor who worked in the burial of the dead in Ulina and survived the Stutthof camp (H56-13f).
• Avram Namchan: A survivor who passed through the Kaiserwald, Stutthof and Buchenwald camps (H56-11f).
• Leonid Bankovich and Yehudit Zilber: Children who were hidden and sheltered by Alfred Benkowitz (H56-10f, H56-7f).
• Hello-Joseph Gaiman: A rabbi who was murdered in the burning of the Choral Synagogue in Riga (H56-5f).
• Dr. Lazar Yarkovich and Dr. Lazar Yaborkowski: Doctors who survived the central prison and the ghetto (H56-3f, H56-4f).

Nazis and collaborators:

• Sauer: The commander of the Kaiserwald concentration camp (H56-12f).
• Dankop: A German colonel who was in charge of women's work groups (H56-26f).
• von Kube: Nazi governor of Belarus; Jewish sacred objects were hidden in his parents' house (H56-26f).
• Aras and Cukurs: Commanders of Latvian units that committed mass murders (H56-30f).
• Ozolin: The commander of the Latvian ghetto guard who provided information about the murders (H56-33f).
• Janson: A local policeman who abused Jews and destroyed holy books (H56-2f).

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List of sources

• H56-1f : Testimony of Semyon Shrongin about the Daugavpils ghetto and the escape to Russia.
• H56-2f : Testimony of Yaakov Barkan about persecutions in Kraslava and Daugavpils.
• H56-3f : Testimony of Dr. Lazar Yarkovich about his imprisonment in the central prison in Riga.
• H56-4f : Testimony of Dr. Lazar Jaborkowski about his work as a doctor in the ghetto and camps.
• H56-5f : Pavel Trainin's testimony about the Holocaust and imprisonment in Stalin's camps after the war.
• H56-6f : Anna Althausen's testimony about the Daugavpils ghetto and the Stutthof camp.
• H56-7f : Testimony of Yehudit Zilber about her rescue by Alfred Benkowitz.
• H56-8f : Mendel Bash's testimony about the Riga Ghetto and his musical career after the war.
• H56-9f : Printed testimony of Leonid Bankovich about his father, Righteous Among the Nations.
• H56-10f : Handwritten testimony by Leonid Bankovich about the family's hiding.
• H56-11f : Testimony of Avram Namchan about forced labor in peat bogs and concentration camps.
• H56-12f : Testimony of Gregory Ahrensburg about escapes from the ghetto and work in Kaiserwald.
• H56-13f : Testimony of Avram Kit about his service in Olena, the Riga Ghetto, and the Stutthof camp.
• H56-14f : Hirsch Yoffe's testimony about the burning of synagogues and his survival under a false identity.
• H56-15f : Testimony of Avram Gerson about hard labor in the ghetto and hiding with Dorofey Shaluhin.
• H56-16f : Anna Krevin-Yudina's testimony about the extermination camps and liberation from Bergen-Belsen.
• H56-17f : Testimony of Hani Zipzon about the ghetto in Lipaia and the escape through the barbed wire fence.
• H56-18f : Rosa Friedland's testimony about escaping from a freight train and life among partisans.
• H56-19f : Maria Blumenthal's testimony about the murders in Lipaia and the humiliating treatment from neighbors.
• H56-20f : Testimony of Alexander Itrov on the liquidation of the Jews of Liepaja and the work in Germany.
• H56-21f : Leah Band's testimony about the fate of her parents in the Daugavpils ghetto.
• H56-22f : Testimony of Wilhelm Hofmanis about working in the peat bogs and hiding with the Patterson family.
• H56-23f : Testimony of Sarah-Riva Lutsova about working in the AEG factories and the liberation in Torun.
• H56-24f : Testimony of Esther Barshman about severe torture in the camps and the murder of her family.
• H56-25f : Testimony of Israel Chorin about serving as a prisoner in various concentration camps.
• H56-26f : Sophia Auguston's testimony detailing the Rumbola massacre and the death marches.
• H56-27f : Philip Dambo's testimony about hard labor dismantling bridges and an injury to his leg.
• H56-28f : Testimony of Nahum Weinberg about the Stutthof, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt camps.
• H56-29f : Testimony of Abram Šeljas about his survival in a firing pit in Latvia as a child.
• H56-30f : Zalman Appleson's testimony about working in crematoria in the extermination camps.
• H56-31f Testimony: This is a medal for surviving the December Aktion in Riga.
• H56-32f : Testimony of Riva Sheffer about the hiding of her family in Riga by the Righteous Among the Nations.
• H56-33f : A comprehensive historical report by Gabriel Tsivian on the Holocaust of Latvian Jews.
• H56-35f : Identification documents of Avram Plax from the Lanta concentration camp.
• H56-37f : An article about Yaakov Zubarov and the survival story of the Mewar family.

 

 

– H56-1f

– H56-2f

– H56-3f

– H56-4f

– H56-5f

– H56-6f

– H56-7f

– H56-8f

– H56-9f

– H56-10f

– H56-11f

– H56-12f

– H56-13f

– H56-14f

– H56-15f

– H56-16f

– H56-17f

– H56-18f

– H56-19f

– H56-20f

– H56-21f

– H56-22f

– H56-23f

– H56-24f

– H56-25f

– H56-26f

– H56-27f

– H56-28f

– H56-29f

– H56-30f

– H56-31f

– H56-32f

– H56-33f

– H56-34f

– H56-35f

– H56-36f

– H56-36-1

– H56-37f

– H56-37-01f

– H56-37-05f

 

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