Obj. ID: 52628 First Holocaust memorial in the Likverteni Forest near Bauska, Latvia, after 1956
Official name
No official name
Who is commemorated?
Jews and several Soviet activists from Bauska and other towns murdered here.
Description
According to a photograph from the State Inspection for Cultural Monuments Preservation published by Ilya Lensky (Lenskis, p. 43), the monument was situated on a small hill in the forest. It was a wide stele of white color (probably concrete) with a darker plaque. The first monument was replaced by a new one in 1971 (see here).
Inscriptions
Illegible
Commissioned by
Local Jews or the authorities of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
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 a new memorial in 1961.
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. 41-43.