The Untold Stories. The Murder Sites of the Jews in the Occupied Territories of the Former USSR

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Community:

Liepaja

Murder Sites:

Rainis Park

The Lighthouse south of Liepaja

Skede

Commemoration:

Commemoration of Jewish Victims

During the Soviet period after World War II, the Skede murder site was closed to visitors as a military zone. A monument was erected at the site, with no mention of the nationality of the victims. Its inscriptions in Russian and Latvian read: “Here, in 1941-1945, the German occupiers cruelly murdered more than 19,000 residents of the city of Liepaja. We will forever remember the Soviet partisans!” When the murder site was opened for visitors in 1990s, the mass grave was no longer discernable from the ground.
During the Soviet period, an additional small, stone monument was erected in the city’s cemetery. It was inscribed with the red Soviet star, as well as the names and years of the victims.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Liepajan Jews and their counterparts from other cities and countries initiated some commemorative acts.
From the 1998-2001, the international Liepaja Jewish Memorial Committee collected the names of Jews killed during the war from different archives. Later, Jews from Liepaja and their descendants raised funds, and on June 9, 2004, a memorial was dedicated in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery. The memorial bears 7,060 names of Jews from Liepaja who were murdered by the Nazis or perished in the Gulag. The monument is made from granite, inscribed with a Star of David and the years “1941-1945.” A monument to the Jews of the city killed during the Holocaust was also erected in Liepaja’s old Jewish cemetery.
In Skede, a new monument was erected on October 27, 2006, not far from the murder site.
At the Lighthouse murder site, a memorial was established on the wall of the fishery. The brick wall bears plaques with inscriptions.
There is also a statue in Liepaja in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

YVA, Photo Collection 7647/3


Memorial at the Lighthouse murder site YVA, Photo Collection 7563	Monument in Skede YVA, Photo Collection 231GO4	Monument in Skede YVA, Photo Collection 7647/7


Monument in the city’s cemetery YVA, Photo Collection 7994/1	Statue in Liepaja in memory of the victims of the Holocaust YVA, Photo Collection 1693/5	Statue in Liepaja in memory of the victims of the Holocaust YVA, Photo Collection 1693/1


Opening ceremony of the new monument at the Skede murder site, 2004 Courtesy Brian Friedman	Memorial at the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery with the names of Jews who were murdered by Nazis or perished in Gulag Courtesy Brian Friedman

Video

To view - click here

Solomon Feigerson was born in 1930 in Liepaja, and lived there during the war years.
(Interview in Hebrew)

Related Resources

Pages of Testimony