Obj. ID: 52461
Jewish Funerary Art Mass grave in the Brethern Cemetery in Jelgava, Latvia, 1970s(?)
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
45 mentally ill Jews and Soviet officials murdered by the Nazis.
Description:
There are two identical monuments built of concrete. Each bears a five-pointed star and a dedication in Latvian and Russian, accompanied by a quote from the book Notes from the Gallows by the Czech Communist journalist Julius Fučík, who was tortured and killed by the Nazis.
Inscription
Latvian:
Fašistiska terora upurem
1941 – 1944 g.
Cilvēki – esiet modri!
(J. Fučiks)
Translation: To the victims of fascist terror, 1941–1944. People – be vigilant! (J. Fučík)
Russian
Жертвам фашистского террора
1941–1944
Люди – будьте бдительны!
(Ю. Фучик)
Translation: To the victims of fascist terror, 1941–1944. People – be vigilant! (J. Fučík)
Commissioned by
Authorities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
sub-set tree:
The German army entered Jelgava on 29 June 1941, and already at the end of July, practically all Jews of Jelgava were murdered in the firing range of the former 3rd Jelgava Infantry Regiment of the Latvian army. On September 2, 1941, 45 mentally ill Jews and doctor H. Idelsohn were taken out of the Jelgava Psychiatric Hospital. They, together with Soviet activists, were murdered behind the Nikolai Cemetery (see here), but in later years, their remains were reinterred in the Jelgava Brethren Cemetery.
Two almost identical monuments were erected, and it is unknown where are buried mentally ill Jews and where Soviet officials.
"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/jelgava-the-brethren-cemetery/.
Meler, Meyer, Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember (Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013), p. 144.
Meler, Meyer, Mesta nashei pamiati: Evreiskie obshchiny Latvii, unichtozhennye v Kholokoste (Riga: by the author, 2010), p. 175.