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Obj. ID: 44144
Jewish Funerary Art
  Monument at the Killing Site in the Jewish Cemetery in Varakļāni, Latvia, 1950s(?)

© Vladimir Levin, Photographer: Levin, Vladimir, 4.2022

Memorial Name

No official name

Who is Commemorated?

Jews of Varakļāni murdered by the Nazis.

Description:

The memorial is a black concrete stele with a white marble plaque. The plaque bears a Star of David with the abbreviation פ"נ, as it is common in Jewish tombstones and similar (but not identical) inscriptions in Yiddish and Russian. These inscriptions are completely identical to the inscriptions on the monument in Preiļi (see here).

Inscriptions

Yiddish

פ"נ

מיר וועלן אייביק געדיינקן
אונזערע עלטערן, ברידער, שוועסטער
און קינדער, וועלכע זיינען אומגעקומען
פון די מערדערישע פאשיסטישע
הענד י"א מנחם-אב שנת ה'ת'ש'א'
ת'נ'צ'ב'ה'

Translation: Here are buried. We will remember forever / our parents, brothers, sisters / and kinder, who perished at the hands of fascist murderers on 11 of Maneham-Av 5701. May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.

Russian

Мы вечно будем скорбить
о наших родителях,
братьях и сестрах,
погибших от рук фашистов в 1941 г.

Translation: We will grieve forever / about our parents, / brothers and sisters / who perished at the hands of fascists in 1941.

Commissioned by

Jews originating in Varakļāni

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

8 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Monument at the Killing Site in the Jewish Cemetery in Varakļāni | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Date
1950s (?)
Synagogue active dates
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Unknown |
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Latvia | Latgale | Varakļāni
| Kapsētas St.
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Textual Content
Languages of inscription
Shape / Form
Material / Technique
Concrete, marble
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Measurements
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
Codicology
Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Coin
Coin Series
Coin Ruler
Coin Year
Denomination
Signature
Colophon
Scribal Notes
Watermark
Hallmark
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Trade Mark
Binding
Decoration Program
Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance

The troops of Nazi Germany entered Varakļāni at the beginning of July 1941. A provisional ghetto was set up next to the Jewish cemetery, and all Jews had to move to it. On August 4, 1941, a German SD unit (“Arājs Commando”), with the assistance of local self–defenders, shot practically all Jews of Varakļāni, approximately 540 persons,  in the territory of the Jewish cemetery near its fence.

After WWII, the victims were reinterred in a mass grave in the middle of the cemetery. A monument at the killing site was probably erected in the 1950s. The monument at the mass grave, judging from its style, was probably built in the 1990s (see here). 

Commemoration in the cemetery is held on the first Sunday of August (Rochko, p. 57)

Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

"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/varaklani-municipality-varaklani-the-jewish-cemetery/.

Meler, Meyer, Ebreju Kapsētas Latvijā - Jewish Cemeteries in Latvia - Evreiskie kladbishcha v Latvii (Riga: Shamir, 2006)., p. 117.

Meler, Meyer, Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember (Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013), pp. 412-414.

Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), pp. 85-87.

Rochko, Josif, Jewish Latgale: Guidebook (Daugavpils, by the author, 2018), pp. 56-57.
Type
Documenter
Vladimir Levin, Milda Jakulytė | 2022
Author of description
Vladimir Levin | 2023
Architectural Drawings
|
Computer Reconstruction
|
Section Head
|
Language Editor
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Donor
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Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed: