Small Riga Ghetto

106
Although the Command Headquarters had warned the policemen, they paid
these warnings no heed whatsoever. The result of this heedlessness can be seen
today.
The Jews are hereby warned and ordered to
1. strictly obey all orders, and
2. go to work punctually.
3. It is forbidden to leave places of residence after 8 p.m."
The following morning, a Sunday, a second announcement of the commandership
was posted:
"1. The Latvian Ghetto will be annexed to the German ghetto.
2. The ghetto will be divided into two parts, Group R (Reichs Juden) and
Group L (Latvians).
3. The leadership of both groups will remain in the hands of council of
Group R.
4. Frankenberg will continue as the police chief of the Command
Headquarters.
5. The police chiefs of Groups R and L will be Haar and Perl
respectively."
In effect, we had now lost all of our leadership in the ghetto. Max Leiser from
Cologne became the elder of both ghettos. Wand was added to elders as the
representative of Group L. Kölmann took over the administration of economic
affairs. All the other positions remained in the hands of the Latvian Jews.
XXIV.
Before I return to the events of the final days, I would like to devote the following
brief chapter to the memory of the policemen who died so tragically.
Precisely because there have been no good reports about the behavior of the
police in other ghettos and camps, I believe it is my duty to solemnly declare
here - not only in my own name but also in the name of my surviving comrades,
all of whom knew our ghetto conditions in detail - that all the policemen
who died held very nationalistic views. They did their duty with the sole intention
of making our lives easier. They included some of our best young men
and we were extremely proud of them. They were true heroes who always
fought for us bravely and went heroically to their death.
We Jews who were saved will never forget them and will always hold their
memory sacred!
The deaths of Blankenstein and Safro were especially tragic, for unfortunately
both of them had just joined the police force the previous week. By con-