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:
#Latvia mourns tens of thousands of Jews that have been murdered by Nazis and their collaborators in 1941, #Holocaust is a stark reminder that dictators who are not stopped and defetead immeadiately, hate speech and totalitarian ideologies form the basis for such horrific crimes
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) July 4, 2022
The day will be marked by numerous remembrance events, including at the site of the former Great Choral Synagogue in Rīga, scene of one of the most appalling atrocities of all. President Egils Levits, himself of partly Jewish heritage, will lay flowers at the memorial, in keeping with memorials across the country.
Rīga mayor Martiņš Staķis also drew attention to the day's importance on social media, saying "The remembrance of the Holocaust in Rīga is getting stronger every year".
🕯The Holocaust is our common tragedy. Almost 100 thousand Jews lived in Latvia before the war. They were our people who perished in the Holocaust. Victims of this genocide are commemorated in Latvia today. The remembrance of the Holocaust in Riga is getting stronger every year.
— Mārtiņš Staķis (@MStakis) July 4, 2022
In Cēsis, a new series of environmental sculptures is due to be unveiled commemorating the city's former Jewish community of around 200, which was completely destroyed by Nazi occupation. A specially created map of the city will help people discover the locations of the sculptures at what were formerly Jewish households in Cēsis. More details are available here.
A full account of the horrific events of the Holocaust in Latvia 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.
To see how the Holocaust unfolded in a typical small town away from Rīga, we recommend viewing this short 15-minute documentary, with English subtitles, from LTV outlining the fate of the Jews living in Valdemārpils. We also have this summary of the documentary.
