Img. ID: 520459
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
6,428 Liepāja Jews who perished in 1941–1945
Description:
A 12 m long concrete wall furnished with grey granite was erected near the 1993 monument on the mass grave of about 300 Jews murdered in the Raiņa Park on June 29 and July 2-3, 1941 (see here). Its left edge is raised and has a depiction of the Star of David.
It contains eight showcases containing 15 metal plaques with the names of 6,428 Liepāja Jews who perished in 1941–1945: either murdered by the Nazis in Liepāja and in death camps or died in exile and Stalin's camps in the Soviet Union.
The first plaque contains a short description of the fate of the Liepāja Jews in 1941–1945 in Latvian, English, Russian, and Yiddish, as well as the list of Latvian and German rescuers of Jews of Liepāja and the list of 164 donors.
Inscriptions
Due to the length of the texts, we transcribe here only the English text, which is identical with the Latvian, Russian and Yiddish texts:
6428 LIEPĀJA JEWS WHO PERISHED 1941-1945
The Liepāja Jewish community, numbering about 7100 in June 1940, was largely destroyed during the Second World War. On 14 June 1941, 209 were deported to the USSR, of whom more than 1/3 had perished by the end of the war. Another ~300 fled when Germany attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941, and of the about 160 who were in the military or Workers' Guard, many fell in the battle for Liepāja whereas others retreated with the Red Army. That left about 6500 Jews, most of whom perished in the Holocaust that began when German forces occupied Liepāja on 29 June 1941.
By the end of 1941, only 1050 Jews were still alive. More than 1500 men had been shot in July by Nazi SS, SD, and the Latvian Arājs Commando from Rīga. Shootings, soon including women, continued in the next months – first at the lighthouse and fish smokehouse, then on the Navy Base, and finally at Šķēde. On 15–17 December 1941, 2749 Jews – mainly women and children – were murdered at Šķēde by German SD and local henchmen.
After further shootings in the next few months, 832 Jews remained, who were forced into a ghetto on 1 July 1942. About 800 were still alive on 8 October 1943 when the residents were deported to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Rīga. Old people and mothers with children under 12 were killed locally or sent to Auschwitz for gassing, leaving about 350 who were deported to the Stutthof concentration camp in August–September 1944. Only 175 of them were still alive at the end of the war, but 33 others survived in Liepāja, having been hidden by brave and kind-hearted Latvians such as Roberts and Johanna Seduls who risked their own lives to save them.
We dedicate this wall to the victims, in the hope that such atrocities will never happen again. May a new era free of hatred begin, when all ethnic groups of Latvia again work together in friendship toward the goal of building a prosperous, independent Latvia.
The list gives: Name-Age at death-Place of death
The following abbreviations are used for Place of Death:
CZ= Czechoslovakia
DE= Germany
EE= Estonia
LT= Lithuania
PL= Poland
SU= Soviet Union
J = Jukhnovlag
V = Vjatlag
Commissioned by
The Liepāja Holocaust Memorial Committee of Prof. Edward Anders (California, USA) and Vladimir Bāns (Liepāja) with the assistance of 164 donors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.