Obj. ID: 44125
Jewish Funerary Art Memorial at the killing site in the Railway Garden behind the White Swan Prison in Daugavpils, Latvia, 1960s, 2007
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
More than 1,000 Daugavpils Jews murdered on this site.
Description:
The monument is placed at the far end of a huge mass grave site surrounded by a wooden fence with five-pointed stars. Four large mass graves are marked by concrete frames; A pathway in the middle leads from the wooden gate to the monument.
The monument is a white obelisk on a white base probably made of brick and concrete. A black marble plaque affixed to it bears inscriptions in Latvian and Russian.
The Council of Latvian Jewish Communities supplemented the Soviet-time memorial with a monument to the murdered Jews. In the corner of the right-hand (southern) mass grave, near the obelisk, there are two small black marble slabs designed by Ilana Lisagor. They bear Stars of David inscribed with the letters פ"נ and identical inscriptions in Latvian, Russian, English, and Yiddish.
Inscription:
On the obelisk:
Latvian:
Šeit atdusas
vairāk nekā 10 000
sarkanās armijas
karavīru un komandieru,
partizānu un mierīgo
iedzīvotāju, kas gājuši
bojā II pasaules
kara laikā
Translation: Here rest more than 10,000 Red Army soldiers and commanders, partisans and peaceful citizens, who perished during World War II
Russian:
Здесь покоятся
более 10 000 бойцов и
командиров
Красной армии,
партизан и мирных
жителей, погибших от
рук фашистских
захватчиков
Translation: Here rest more than 10,000 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, partisans and peaceful citizens, who perished by the hands of fascist occupiers.
Black slabs:
Latvian
Šajā vietā 1941. gada jūlija nacisti nošāva
vairāk nekā 1000 Daugavpils ebreju
Latvijas Ebreju draudži un kopienu padome
Russian
Здесь в июле 1941 года нацисты расстреляли
более 1000 евреев Даугавпилса
Совет еврейских общин Латвии
English:
In July 1941, the Nazis executed here
More than 1,000 of Daugavpils Jews
The Council of Latvia Jewish Communities
Yiddish
אין יולי 1941 זיינען דא דערשאסן געווארן דורך דיא נאציס מער
פון 1000 דוינסק'ער יידן
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.
די ראט פון יידישע קהילות אין לטביה
Commissioned by
Authorities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1960s)
The Council of Latvia Jewish Communities (2007)
20 image(s)
sub-set tree:
The German troops entered Daugavpils on June 26, 1941. Until July 7, 1,125 Jews were arrested and taken to the White Swan Prison. Later they were shot in the Railway Garden.
In 1944, Red Army soldiers fallen during the liberation of the city were buried in the same place.
Apparently, an obelisk was erected on the site in the 1960s. In 2007 it was supplemented by a Jewish monument.
The monument to the murdered Jews was unveiled on August 21, 2007. On the same day, a similar monument was unveiled in the Soviet-time memorial to the Victims of Fascism at Mežciems (see here).
"Holocaust Memorial Places in Latvia," a website by the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Latvia, http://memorialplaces.lu.lv/memorial-places/latgale/daugavpils-railwaymens-garden-dzelzcelnieku-darzs/.
Meler, Meyer, Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember (Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013), pp. 79, 87, 91.
Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), pp. 138, 148-149.
Rochko, Josif, Jewish Latgale: Guidebook (Daugavpils, by the author, 2018), p. 23.
Rochko, Josif, Khronologiia Daugavpilsskoi evreiskoi obshchiny, 1940–2020 (Daugavpils: By the author, 2021), p. 67.