Img. ID: 410492
Memorial Name
Memorial to the Victims of Fascism - Fašisma upuru memoriāls.
Who is Commemorated?
Victims of the Nazis murdered at Mežciems and buried at this site.
Description:
The memorial is a large territory with mass graves. It is divided from the road by a stone fence, to which two metal plaques with inscriptions are affixed. The inscriptions in Latvian and Russian “In this forest, in 1941–1944, the fascist occupiers tortured and shot down more than 100,000 people.”
The main pathway leads from the entrance to the obelisk on a raised platform. The obelisk replaced in 2005 the original bronze monument stolen in the 1990s. On both sides of the pathway, mass graves are marked by stone frames.
A high obelisk painted white (erected in 2005) stands on the stone pedestal that remained from the original monument of 1960. A marble plaque affixed to it says in Russian “Eternal memory” and has a cross and a bunch of flowers depicted on it. Stone slabs on both sides of the obelisk are inscribed in large letters, in Russian and Latvian, “To the victims of Fascism, 1941–1944.”
The Council of Latvian Jewish Communities supplemented the memorial with a monument to the murdered Jews. In the corner of a mass grave on the righthand side of the pathway, there are two small black marble slabs designed by Ilana Lisagor. They bear Stars of David inscribed with the letters פ"נ and identical inscriptions in Latvian, Russian, English, and Yiddish.
Inscription:
At the entrance:
Latvian
Šajā mežā
1941. – 1944. g.
fašistiske okupanti nomocīja
un nošāva pāri
100 tūkstošu cilvēku.
Translation: In this forest, in 1941–1944, the fascist occupiers tortured and shot down more than 100,000 people.
Russian
В этом лесу
в 1941 – 1944 гг.
фашистские оккупанты замучили
и расстреляли свыше
100 тысяч человек
Translation: In this forest, in 1941–1944, the fascist occupiers tortured and shot down more than 100,000 people.
On the plaque affixed to the obelisk:
Russian
Вечная память
Translation: Eternal memory
On the both sides of the obelisk:
Latvian
Fašisma upuriem
1941-1944
Translation: to the victims of fascism, 1941-1945
Russian
Жертвам фашизма
1941-1945
Translation: to the victims of fascism, 1941-1945
Black slabs:
Latvian
Šajā vietā ir apbedītas Daugavpils geto
ieslodzīto mīrstīgās atliekas
Latvijas Ebreju draudži un kopienu padome
Russian
Здесь захоронены останки узников
Даугавпилсского гетто
Совет еврейских общин Латвии
English:
The remains of prisoners of the Daugavpils
ghetto are buried here
The Council of Latvia Jewish Communities
Yiddish
אין דעם ארט 1941 זיינען באערדיקט יידן וועלכע זיינען כעהרגעט
געוורן אין דוינסק'ער גטו
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.
די ראט פון יידישע קהילות אין לטביה
Commissioned by
Authorities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1960)
The Council of Latvia Jewish Communities (2007)