Obj. ID: 50780
Memorials Holocaust memorial in the Likverteni Forest near Bauska, Latvia, 1971
Official name
Cilvēku stāvi (Human figures)
Who is commemorated?
Jews and several Soviet activists from Bauska and other towns murdered here.
Description
The current memorial replaced the first monument erected after 1956, see:
The memorial is situated in the forest, and its territory is surrounded by spruces.
From the “entrance,” a large path paved with concrete blocks leads to a stone wall made in the form of a row of 21 human figures. Each figure is composed of a rectangular “body” made of stones, without legs or hands, and a stone head, showing a nose, eyes, and a forehead. The figures are of different heights, symbolizing men, women, and children.
On the right side of the paved path, there is a lying almost square granite plaque with a Latvian inscription.
Inscriptions
In Latvian:
Mūžīgā piemiņa
padomju pilsoņiem
kurus 1941 g. noslepkavoja
vācu fašistiskie iebrucēji
un buržuāziskie nacionālisti
Translation: Eternal memory to Soviet citizens, who in 1941 were murdered by German Fascist invaders and [Latvian] bourgeois nationalists
Commissioned by
Authorities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
15 image(s) Items per page
sub-set tree: 
Lying plaque:
Base: height 29 cm, width 124 cm, thickness 114 cm;
Upper part: height 14 cm, width 107 cm, thickness 97 cm
The shooting in the Likverteni Forest began in the second half of July 1941, when 60 Jews and several Soviet activists from Bauska were killed there. On July 29, 1941, 70 more Jews were shot dead. On the night of August 9-10, 1941, the Arājs Kommando murdered about 500-600 Jews from Bauska and 200 (or 153) Jews from vicinities on the next day. 50 (or 70) Jews from Jaunjelgava were killed at the site in late August.
Commemorative events on the killing site were reported in 1954 (Lenskis, pp. 41-42).
The first monument on the site was installed after 1956 (Lenskis, p. 43). It was replaced by the current memorial in 1971.
"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-the-likverteni-forest/.
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), pp. 41-42.
Meler, Meyer, Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember (Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013), pp. 58-59.
Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), pp. 57-59.