Two memorials in the Kalevi-Liiva dunes, located about 35 kilometres east of Tallinn, honour the German Jews and Estonian Roma who were murdered by Estonian policemen in 1942/43.
Kalevi-Liiva, 1942, An Estonian auxiliary policeman chasing a Jewish woman to a mass grave, Mémorial de la Shoah/CDJC
Kalevi-Liiva, 2004, Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Stiftung Denkmal
After the German invasion of Soviet occupied Estonia in the summer of 1941, Jews, »Gypsies« and others fell victim to the National Socialist terror. By the end of 1941, members of Einsatzgruppe A (mobile killing unit) and their Estonian helpers shot about 1,000 Jews. The SS subsequently declared the country to be »judenfrei« – free of Jews. On September 5, 1942, Estonian policemen murdered over 1,000 Jewish children, women and men from the Theresienstadt ghetto in the Kalevi-Liiva dunes on the Baltic coast. Further transports followed, carrying Jews from cities like Frankurt and Berlin. In total, up to 6,000 Jews from the German Reich and Poland as well as 110 Estonian Roma perished on the site in 1942/43.
Kalevi-Liiva, 1942, An Estonian auxiliary policeman chasing a Jewish woman to a mass grave, Mémorial de la Shoah/CDJC
Kalevi-Liiva, 2004, Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Stiftung Denkmal
In 1942/43, Estonian policemen shot between 1,600 and 2,500, perhaps even as many as 6,000 Jews, most of them from the German Reich, and about 110 Estonian Roma who were persecuted as »Gypsies« in the Kalevi-Liiva sand dunes.
Kalevi-Liiva, 1942, Open mass grave during a mass shooting operation, Mémorial de la Shoah/CDJC
Kalevi-Liiva, 2004, Inscription on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Stiftung Denkmal
The murder site on the beach of Kalevi-Liiva was only rediscovered in 1961 in the course of a war crimes trial. As a result, the Soviet authorities set up a first memorial to the victims of the murders in 1964/65.
On June 1, 1995, the minister of culture of Estonia, which had regained its independence in 1991, placed the Kalevi-Liiva dunes under special state protection as a murder site and mass grave. In the following year, a new memorial was dedicated on the initiative of the Jewish community. It bears the following inscription in Estonian and in English: »6,000 Jews from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany were murdered here in 1942–1943«. In 2002, the embassies of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic set up an information plaque in front of the memorial in cooperation with the Jewish community.
Moreover, there is a memorial stone to the approximately 2,000 murdered »Gypsies« depicting a wheel (the symbol of the Roma) and an inscription in Romany and Estonian. Recent research has shown, however, that there were only about 750 Roma living in Estonia at the time of the German invasion.
Each year, commemorative ceremonies are held on September 5, the anniversary of the first shootings at Kalevi-Liiva in 1942.
On June 1, 1995, the minister of culture of Estonia, which had regained its independence in 1991, placed the Kalevi-Liiva dunes under special state protection as a murder site and mass grave. In the following year, a new memorial was dedicated on the initiative of the Jewish community. It bears the following inscription in Estonian and in English: »6,000 Jews from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany were murdered here in 1942–1943«. In 2002, the embassies of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic set up an information plaque in front of the memorial in cooperation with the Jewish community.
Moreover, there is a memorial stone to the approximately 2,000 murdered »Gypsies« depicting a wheel (the symbol of the Roma) and an inscription in Romany and Estonian. Recent research has shown, however, that there were only about 750 Roma living in Estonia at the time of the German invasion.
Each year, commemorative ceremonies are held on September 5, the anniversary of the first shootings at Kalevi-Liiva in 1942.
Kalevi-Liiva, 2004, Information board and Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Stiftung Denkmal
Kalevi-Liiva, 2010, Memorial to the Murdered Estonian Roma, Laurentsiuse Selts
- Name
- Mälestusmärk Kalevi-Liival Mõrvatud Juutide
- Open
- The memorial site is accessible at all times.