Obj. ID: 52458
Memorials Memorial at the killing site at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Bauska, Latvia, 1950s(?), 2004
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
Five Jews, five Latvians, and ten Soviet POWs, taken as hostages and killed at this site.
Description:
The monument is a concrete stele shaped like a shield. Originally, it had a five-pointed star and a Latvian inscription. Later, the inscription was covered by a bronze plaque. After the plaque was stolen, a new granite plaque with Latvian, Hebrew, and Russian inscriptions was affixed to the stele in 2004. This plaque mentions the names of the Latvian and Jewish (Hebrew) hostages killed on this site and a phrase about Soviet POWs in Russian.
Inscriptions:
The original inscription in Latvian (as seen in a photo in Meler 2010, 59; Meler 2013, 60):
Mūžīgā slava kritušiem
varoniem par mūsu
dzimtenes atbrivosanū
1944 – 1945 gadā
Translation: Eternal glory to fallen heroes for the liberation of our motherland in 1944–1945.
Inscription on a bronze plaque, which was stolen in the 1990s:
Original text unknown, translation: To victims of fascist terror (according to Meler 2010, 59; Meler 2013, 60).
Inscription on the granite plaque of 2004, in Latvian, Hebrew, and Russian:
Šajā vietā
1941. gada 2. jūlijā
nacistisko okupantu
karavīri publiski nošāva
5 latviešus,
10 sagūstitus sarkanarmiešus,
5 Bauskas ebrejus
Translation: In this place, on July 2, 1941, the soldiers of the Nazi occupiers publicly shot 5 Latvians, 10 captured Red Army men, 5 Jews from Bauska
Āķis
Vaitekūns
Mollis
Misūns
Nezināms [translation: Unknown]
שוכן
וסרמן
וסרמן
אלמוני
אלמוני
Translation: Shokhen, Vasserman, Vasserman, Unknown, Unknown
10
неизвестных
пленных красноармейцев
Translation: 10 unknown soldiers of the Red Army, prisoners of war.
Latvias ebreju draudžu un kopienu padome
Latvian Council of Jewish Communities
Совет еврейских общин Латвии
Commissioned by
Authorities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1950s?)
The Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia (2004)
sub-set tree: 
The Nazi German forces occupied Bauska on 28 June 1941. Already on 2 July, pursuant to the order by the German military commander, near the Old Jewish Cemetery, “an intimidation” action was organized, during which 20 hostages, 5 Jews from Bauska among them, were shot by German soldiers for fictitious crimes.
During the Soviet period, on the side of the Old Jewish Cemetery, a concrete monument was erected with the inscription “Eternal glory to fallen heroes for the liberation of our motherland in 1944–1945.”
Later these words were covered by a screwed–on bronze plaque stating “To the Victims of Fascists’ Terror.” In the 1990s, this plaque was stolen by people gathering non–ferrous scrap metal in the 1990s.
In 2004, the Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia erected a new plaque in granite with a dedication in Latvian, the names of murdered Latvians in Latvian (on is unknown), the names of murdered Jews in Hebrew (only three are known: Shakhen, father and son Vasserman), and a Russian sentence about 10 POWS.
"Holocaust Memorial Places in Latvia," a website by the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Latvia, http://memorialplaces.lu.lv/memorial-places/zemgale/bauska-municipality-bauska/.
Meler, Meyer, Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember (Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013), pp. 59-60.
Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), pp. 59-60.