The Nazi occupation of Latvia brought the atrocities of the holocaust with it. The first mass murders of Jews began in 1941 with the largest actions taking place in Riga, Daugavpils, and Liepāja, as well as in other smaller towns.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs provided an early reminder of the occasion on social media.
Today Latvia mourns thousands and thousands of Jews that have been murdered by Nazis and their collaborators during #Holocaust, hate speech and totalitarian ideologies form the basis for such horrific crimes, this is why we must continuously remind history and say #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/xLYzrTj1JK
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) July 4, 2020
State President Egils Levits, who himself has partly Jewish family heritage, laid flowers at a special ceremony on July 3 at the site of the former Rīga Great Choral Synagogue, burned to the ground in one of the most horrific episodes of the Second World War in Latvia.
Officials including Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš and Saeima speaker Ināra Mūrniece also attended the ceremony, along with leaders of Latvia's Jewish community.
?FOTO: Valsts prezidents Egils Levits piedalās Ebreju tautas genocīda upuru piemiņas dienai veltītajā ziedu nolikšanas ceremonijā https://t.co/1Xk6oKAIwo
— Valsts prezidents (@Rigas_pils) July 3, 2020
More information about those horrific events can be read at the website of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia which records:
"The first mass murders of Latvian Jews started in July and continued until September. Groups of Jews were ordered to be shot in Riga, Daugavpils and in many smaller towns. Recent research shows that all these actions were organised by the German authorities but usually carried out by Latvian auxiliaries without direct German involvement.
"In September, the remaining Jews in Riga were herded into a fenced-in ghetto in the city's Moscow Suburb and forcibly kept there under guard.
"From the Riga Ghetto, under the direct supervision of Friedrich Jeckeln, about 25,000 Jews were driven on foot to Rumbula Forest, on the outskirts of Riga, and murdered there in two operations— on 30 November and 8 December 1941. Latvians performed guard duties; Jeckeln's SS men shot the victims."
"About 3000 Jews from Liepāja were murdered between 15 and 17 December. This was practically the end of the mass annihilation of approximately 70,000 Latvian Jews."