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Commemoration of Jewish Victims
The first monument to the Jewish victims of Daugavpils was erected in the Mezciems Forest (Pogulyanka) on June 27, 1960. The composition consisted of several figures, with an ethnically neutral inscription in Russian and Latvian on the granite gravestone: “Eternal memory to victims of Fascism, 1941-1944.”Later, during the first years of Latvian independence, this monument, designed in the official Soviet style, was removed, leaving only its base. A new, joint memorial ensemble was unveiled on November 10, 1991. In the center of the ensemble there is a six-pointed star (Star of David) and a Yiddish inscription: “In memory of the Sons of Israel.” Next to it there is a gravestone with an inscription, reading that 30,000 Jews perished in Daugavpils (contemporary researches say this number is highly overestimated). Around the six-pointed star are sixteen memorial stones, relating to the number of countries occupied by the Nazis; each stone bears the number of Jews killed in each country.
In 1967, another obelisk was erected at the mass murder site next to the Mezciems railroad station, not far from the first monument. In 1974, a memorial stone was erected with an inscription in Russian: “In this place on November 8-9, 1941 the German Fascists shot 2,000 civilians – children and adults.”
A monument was erected in 1963 beyond the local prison, at the Golden Hill – the site of the mass murder of the Jews in the former railway public garden. The monument bears the following inscription: “Here lie Soviet Army solders and officers tortured to death by the German-Fascists invaders during 1941-1945. Eternal memory to the victims.” In the 1990s, another inscription was added: “Here lie victims of Fascism.”
A small monument commemorating Daugavpils Jewry was erected in the Jewish cemetery. The inscription on the monument reads: “Here lie ten Jewish families murdered at the hands of the German-Fascist invaders in 1941-1944.” A separate black tombstone in the Jewish Cemetery also bears an inscription in Yiddish and Russian: “Here lie the remains and ashes of 2,000 Jewish children, killed and burned by the Hitlerist murderers in 1941-1943.” In 1975, when the Daugavpils Jewish cemetery was demolished by the local authorities, the first monument was brought to the town’s cemetery, where people of different religions are buried. The remains of Holocaust victims in the Jewish cemetery were reburied near the monument to the victims of Fascism in Pogulyanka. In 1988, a group of Jews from Moscow and local areas reburied near the same monument the remains of Jewish victims found in the area of the Mezciems Forest.
Since the mid 1960s, every August (since 1992, on July 4, the official Latvian Holocaust Remembrance Day) Jews and non-Jews as well as the local authorities of Daugavpils participate in an annual mournful gathering held next to the memorial in Mezciems.
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| The first monument in the Mezciems Forest YVA, Photo Collection 230GO2 |
Monument in Daugavpils YVA, Photo Collection 1878 |
New joint memorial ensemble, Mezciems YVA, Photo Collection 3485/2 |
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| A separate grave at the Jewish cemetery YVA, Photo Collection 7170/4 |
Letter written by Avraham Sosnovik to the CHGK in March 1945, with a list of his family members who were murdered in Daugavpils. YVA JM/21226 |
Letter written by David Zalihin to the CHGK in March 1945, with a list of his family members who were murdered in Daugavpils. YVA JM/21226 |
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 Video |
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 To view - click here Rachel Schneider was born in 1927 in Daugavpils, and lived there during the war years. (Interview in Russian) |
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 Part I To view - click here |
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 Part II To view - click here Reburial ceremony of Holocaust victims in Daugavpils The Jewish Cemetery (USSR, 1989) Directed by and courtesy Rafail Nahmanovich & Yuriy Maryamov, Production Company: Tzentrnauchfilm Yad Vashem, The Visual Center V318 |
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