Obj. ID: 44122
Memorials Memorial "In Memory of the Ghetto Victims" at Mežciems in Daugavpils, Latvia, 1991
Memorial Name
In Memory of the Ghetto Victims - Geto gūstekņu piemiņai
Who is Commemorated?
The Jews of Daugavpils murdered in this forest
Description:
The memorial starts with a tombstone-like signpost next to the road inscribed in English, Latvian, and Russian. A forest road leads to the memorial itself. On both sides of the road, there are 16 stones shaped like traditional Jewish tombstones with the name of the country and a number of Holocaust victims there. Many of them have a Star of David and a stylized decoration on the upper part. The main part of the memorial is gravel-covered and consists of a large rock supported by a smaller rock. Before the rocks, a plague inscribed “Daugavpils 15000” is placed on the ground. The large rock has a Star of David formed by stylized roots. A Yiddish inscription in its center reads “Eternal memory to the Children of Israel.” Behind the rocks, a graveled area is surrounded by low stone posts.
A menorah made of white gravel is situated in front of the main rock. It seems, however, that the menorah is a later addition.
Inscription:
At the signpost at the road:
English
In memory of the
ghetto victims
Latvian
Geto gūstekņu
piemiņai
Russian
Памяти
жертв гетто
On the main stone:
Yiddish in Soviet orthography
אייביקער
אנדענק די
בניי יסראעל
Translation: Eternal memory to the Children of Israel
On the plaque in front of the main rock:
Daugavpils
15000
Individual “tombstones”:
Germany
Austria
270000
Holand
10500
Belgie
40000
Polska
3000000
Norge
900
България [Bulgaria]
14000
France
90000
Hungary
450000
Italia
8000
Romania
300000
Luxemburg
1000
Jugoslavia
20000
Československo
30000
Greece
45000
Baltic
223000
Россия [Russia]
Украина [Ukraine]
Белоруссия [Belarus]
1252000
Commissioned by
The Jewish community of Daugavpils
sub-set tree:
The German troops entered Daugavpils on June 26, 1941. On July 15, 1941, a ghetto was established in the bridge fortification on the left bank of the Daugava River. In total, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 Jews were placed in the ghetto, of which less than 100 persons survived.
From July 1941 to the end of 1943, prisoners of the Daugavpils Ghetto were murdered in the Mežciems (historical name – Pogulianka) Forest. The murder of large groups of Jews was recorded on July 29, 1941 (Jews 60 years old and older), August 2 (Jews from other towns), August 6, August 17, August 9 to 19 (400 children from an orphanage), the beginning of November 1941. By December 5, 1941, only 962 prisoners remained in the ghetto. On May 1, 1942, several hundred more were murdered, so that only 487 prisoners remained. On October 28, 1943, they were transferred to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Riga.
At the end of 1943, the commando 1005 (Stützpunkt) with the help of 30 Jewish prisoners from Riga unearthed mass graves in Mežciems and burnt the bodies of the victims. However, not all pits were found in 1943.
In the 1950s, the remains of 2000 children were found in Mežciems. They were reinterred in the Old Jewish Cemetery and after its demolition in the 1970s were transferred to the Jewish sector of the Communal Cemetery (see here). A memorial at the site was installed in 1967 and 1974 (see here).
In the late 1980s, additional pits in Mežciems were discovered. Jewish volunteers unearthed them and reburied them on July 9, 1989, near the Memorial to the Victims of Fascism (see here).
The memorial "In Memory of the Ghetto Victims" was initiated by Anatoly Fishil, the chairman of the Daugavpils branch of the Latvian Society for Jewish Culture.
The memorial, designed by the Daugavpils artist Oleg Marinoha, was unveiled on November 10, 1991. SInce then, it is the main memorial where the Holocaust in Daugavpils is commemorated.
Lenskis, Ilja, Holokausta piemina Latvijā laika gaitā 1945–2015 = Holocaust Commemoration in Latvia in the Course of Time, 1945–2015 (Riga: Muzejs “Ebreju Latvija,” 2017), p. 93.
Meler, Meyer, Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember (Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013), ззю 87б 90-91.
Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), pp. 147-149.
Rochko, Josif, Jewish Latgale: Guidebook (Daugavpils, by the author, 2018), pp. 25-26.
Rochko, Josif, Khronologiia Daugavpilsskoi evreiskoi obshchiny, 1940–2020 (Daugavpils: By the author, 2021), p. 39, 59.