• Memorials to the Murdered Jews of Liepāja
The port city of Liepāja is situated on Latvia's Baltic coast in the Courland region (Latvian: Kurzeme). Members of SS Einsatzgruppe A (mobile killing unit) and Latvian collaborators shot almost all of the city's Jewish residents by the end of 1942.
Today, memorials at the sites of mass shootings in Liepāja and the closeby town of Šķēde commemorate the victims.
Image: Liepāja , around 1925, View of the city, Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
Liepāja , around 1925, View of the city, Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs

Image: Liepāja, 2004, Memorial wall containing the names of the murdered Jews of Liepāja, Henry Blumberg
Liepāja, 2004, Memorial wall containing the names of the murdered Jews of Liepāja, Henry Blumberg
Before World War II, there were about 7,300 Jews living in Liepāja. Many of them were German-speaking. After Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, Jewish life in Liepāja was subjected to harsh restrictions. On June 29, 1941, just a few days after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the German Wehrmacht took the port city at the Baltic coast. The Wehrmacht was followed by SS Einsatzgruppe A (mobile killing unit), which, assisted by local nationalists, shot about a thousand Jews within one month in the course of several »Aktionen«. Many Roma also fell victim to these campaigns. The victims were mainly elderly Jews and those deemed unfit for work.
The Germans deployed Jewish men between the age of 16 and 60 in forced labour. The majority of them had to work for the SS in the arms industry; beginning 1942, many worked at the Liepāja sugar plant. The shootings which had taken place from July 1941 were interrupted by the Reich Commissioner on the grounds of being too unorganised. For this reason, there were no executions in Liepāja between August and the beginning of December 1941. After this period of relative calm, a three-day mass shooting took place in mid-December. From December 15 to 17, 1941, members of the SS and Latvian auxiliary police forces murdered between 2,700 and 2,800 Jews, among them many women and children, in the dunes of the fishing village of Šķēde north of Liepāja. At the beginning of 1942, further mass shootings took place. By April 1942, about 90 per cent of Liepāja's pre-war population had been murdered. The few surviving Jews, about 800, had to move into a newly established ghetto. On October 8, 1943, the SS dissolved the ghetto of Liepāja and deported its residents to the Kaiserwald concentration camp near Riga.
Image: Liepāja , around 1925, View of the city, Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs
Liepāja , around 1925, View of the city, Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīvs

Image: Liepāja, 2004, Memorial wall containing the names of the murdered Jews of Liepāja, Henry Blumberg
Liepāja, 2004, Memorial wall containing the names of the murdered Jews of Liepāja, Henry Blumberg
It is estimated that about 5,000 Jews from Liepāja and the vicinity perished. Among the victims were also many Roma, however, their exact numbers are not known.
Image: Liepāja , December 15 to 17, 1941, Jewish women are forced to undress before being shot, BStU
Liepāja , December 15 to 17, 1941, Jewish women are forced to undress before being shot, BStU

Image: Liepāja, 2008, Detailed view of the memorial complex at the shooting site close the fishing village of Šķēde, Henry Blumberg
Liepāja, 2008, Detailed view of the memorial complex at the shooting site close the fishing village of Šķēde, Henry Blumberg
In 2002, a memorial stone was dedicated to the murdered Jews of Liepāja. On June 9, 2004, a memorial wall on the Jewish cemetery in Liepāja, containing the names of several thousand victims from the city, was inaugurated. 42 names commemorate Germans and Latvians who were able to save a total of 33 Jews. The memorial wall came about thanks to a grass-roots initiative and was financed solely by private donations.
After the war, when Latvia was once again occupied by the Soviet Union, a small memorial stone was set up in Šķēde and dedicated to »19,000 Soviet patriots«. Jewish victims were not named. In 2006, Jews originally stemming from Liepāja dedicated a memorial plaque to all those who were murdered in Šķēde between 1941 and 1945. In the meantime, an artistically sophisticated memorial complex was also set up at the site.
Image: Liepāja, 2008, Detailed view of the memorial complex at the shooting site near Šķēde, Henry Blumberg
Liepāja, 2008, Detailed view of the memorial complex at the shooting site near Šķēde, Henry Blumberg

Image: Liepāja, 2008, Detailed view of the memorial complex at the shooting site near Šķēde, Henry Blumberg
Liepāja, 2008, Detailed view of the memorial complex at the shooting site near Šķēde, Henry Blumberg
Name
Memoriāls Liepāja
Web
http://www.liepajajews.org/
Open
The memorial wall in Liepāja and the memorial complex in Šķēde are accessible at all times.