Obj. ID: 50688
Jewish Funerary Art Old Holocaust memorial near Sabile, Latvia, 1960s (?)
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
Jews of Sabile killed on August 6, 1941.
Description:
The monument is situated in the forest, on the site where the Sabile Jews were killed and buried.
It is a low low stone with a metal plaque affixed to it. The plaque bears identical inscriptions in Latvian and Russian (the latter with mistakes).
Inscription
Latvian
Šeit apbedīti 240 vācu
fašisma terora upuri
nogalināti 1941. g. 6 augusta
Translation: Here are buried 240 victims of German Fascist terror killed on August 6, 1941.
Russian
Здесь похорон. 240 жертвы
фашистского терора [террора]
Убитые 6 августа 1941 года
Translation: Here are buried 240 victims of Fascist terror killed on August 6, 1941.
Commissioned by
Probably, surviving Jews from Sabile.
6 image(s)
sub-set tree:
The German Nazi troops entered Sabile on July 1, 1941. They put on fire the synagogue and the mikveh. On August 4, 1941, Jews were concentrated in one building. On August 6, 1941, they were taken to a forest along the road to Kuldīga (approximately 7 km from Sabile) and shot there.
A modest monument on the killing site was erected during Soviet times. In 2017, a new monument near the road was created (see here).
The metal plaque was damaged, probably in the 1990s (Malnach).
"Holocaust Memorial Places in Latvia," a website by the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Latvia, http://memorialplaces.lu.lv/memorial-places/kurzeme/talsi-municipality-sabile/.
Malnach, Aleksandr, "V Zlekas otdali dan' pamiati zhertv natsistskogo terrora," Baltnews, December 13, 2018., https://lv.baltnews.com/authors/20181213/1022540845/v-zlekas-otdali-dan-pamyati-zhertvam-nacistskogo-terrora.html (accessed September 2, 2023)
Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), pp. 372-374.