Obj. ID: 44139
Jewish Funerary Art Entrance Gate in the Jewish Cemetery in Preiļi, Latvia, 2015
To the main object: Jewish Cemetery in Preiļi, Latvia
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
Preiļi Jews murdered in this place.
Description:
The memorial is placed near the entrance to the cemetery and stands in the center of a circle of cobbled stones. It is a concrete rectangular arch with a metal gate. The two parts of the gate are cut by the text of the Yizkor prayer for Holocaust victims in Hebrew, repeated three times. A metal seven-branched menorah made of metal “leaves” is attached in the center.
According to the website "Holocaust Memorial Places in Latvia," "Forms from ancient Egyptian architecture can be discerned in the shape of the arch, created as a reference to the story about Moses and the release of Jewish people from slavery in Egypt."
On both sides of the gate, there are five metal plaques with inscriptions cut into them. The left inscription in Latvian and English provides the dates of construction and reconstruction. The right one contains the blessing “May their souls be bound in the bond of life.” Similar plaques on the inner side of the memorial looking toward the cemetery include the names of initiators, donors, and supporters and the names of the organizations that designed and built the memorial.
Inscriptions
Façade, right side:
Latvian
Ebreju kapi 1861–1964
rekonstruēti 2013–2015
Holokausta upuru memoriāls
rekonstruēts 2004
English:
Jewish cemetery 1861–1964
Renovated in 2013–2015
Holocaust memorial
renovated in 2004
Façade, right side:
Latvian
… lai viņu dvēseles tiktu
iesietas dzīvības tīstoklī…
English:
… May their souls be bound
in the bond of life…
Rear, left side, in Latvian and English
Rekonstrukcijas iniciatīva un finansējums
Renovation initiative and funding
David and Bella Silberman
Ar ziedojumiem atbalstīja / Participating donors:
Robert and Elena Dobrusin
Shmuel Latvinsky and Naomi Nochinson, Frida Klockina
Benjamin Tsemel, Chona and Sheva Vapne, Gena Khil
Sadarbībā ar Preiļu novada domi
un Latvijas ebreju draudžu un kopienu padomi
In cooperation with Preili Municipality Council
and Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia
Rear, right side, in Latvian and English
Kapsētas rekonstruciju īstenoja Lot E.V. brīvprātīgie
Cemetery is renovated by volunteers of Lot E.V.
Piedalījās / Assisted by
Preiļu skolu audzēkņi / pupils of Preili schools
vadītājas / headed by Nora Šņepste, Nadežda Hļebņikova
Tekla Bekeša, Valentīna Maksimova, Oļegs Hļebņikovs
Gita Umanovska, Pilsētas iedzīvotāji / Residents of Preili
Projektēšanas darbi / Design “SIA Malas”
Būvdarbi / Construction works “SIA Preiļu celtnieks”
Commissioned by
David and Bella Silberman, in cooperation with the Preiļi Municipal Council and the Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia
13 image(s)
sub-set tree:
On the rear, lower right:
Projektēšanas darbi / Design “SIA Malas”
Būvdarbi / Construction works “SIA Preiļu celtnieks”
The German troops entered Preiļi on 28 June 1941. Arrests of about 400 Jews by Latvian “self-defenders” took place on July 26, 1941, and the arrested were placed in the synagogue. On the next day, July 27, the arrested were taken in groups to be shot at specially prepared pits behind the Jewish cemetery. The next mass shootings took place at the same site on August 9 and 10, 1941, and also included Jews from the vicinity of Preiļi. About 500 Jews were murdered. The Holocaust events in Preiļi were described in the diary of Sheina Gram, who was shot in August 1941. In 1944, the Nazis unburied and burnt the bodies of the dead.
Probably in the 1950s, a monument inscribed in Yiddish and Russian was erected on the killing site. In 2004, a new memorial was constructed (see here). It also included the black granite stele from the Soviet-times memorial. The new memorial was initiated and financed by David Silberman, a former inhabitant of Preiļi, an engineer, and a public figure in the USA. The author of the new memorial is Sergey Rizh).
The symbolic gate to the cemetery was erected in 2015, also on the initiative of David and Bella Silberman.
"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/preili-municipality-preili-the-jewish-cemetery/.
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. 103.
Rochko, Josif, Jewish Latgale: Guidebook (Daugavpils, by the author, 2018), pp. 58-60.