Small Riga Ghetto

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Part II
The "Zentralka" and "Terminka" Prisons of Riga
The Central and Terminal Prisons were the two large Riga prisons within
whose walls many thousands of Jews came to a tragic end in the course of
three years. Besides these, which were not large enough, the so-called juvenile
prison at the corner of Matīsa and Krišjāņa Barona Streets was used for a short
time as an annex. The Terminal Prison was only for women, so initially only
men were put into the Central Prison. Toward the end, after the liquidation of
the Jewish women in the Terminal Prison, women were also brought to the
Central Prison. In both prisons the Jews were separated from the Aryans and
had their own wards.
According to the records, about 7,000 Jews were taken to the Central Prison
in the first eleven days after the enemy's occupation of Riga. During the same
period 1,500 women were taken to the Terminal Prison. Because the Latvians,
directed by their murderous staff headquarters on Valdemāra Street, were constantly
sending new people into the prisons, a whole group of prisoners was
removed as early as the night of 4 July 1941 and "sent to work" in order to
make space. They never came back. On 8 July 1941 the Latvians loaded about
775 men from the Central Prison into large trucks. They were driven to the
Biķernieki forest. There they were ordered to line up in rows of three. Every
third man was pulled out and shot on the spot. The remaining men had to bury
the dead in the graves that had already been dug for them. After that they were
taken back to prison. This Aktion claimed the lives of many prominent Riga
personalities (Widser, Katz, Gurewitsch, Preiss and others). The Latvian
Ozols (from the Second Police Precinct) gave this Aktion particularly strong
support. Later, between 800 and 1,000 people were taken away every night,
and they did not return to the prison. The murders were committed not only in
the Biķernieki forest but also in Jugla, in the woods around Baltezers (White
Lake).
The doctors who were brought to the Central Prison were locked up in a
special cell and initially they were not sent either to work or to be liquidated.
A large number of women who had gradually filled up the Terminal Prison
were told they would be put to work in a juvenile reform colony in Irlava. But
in reality they, like the men, were taken in groups directly to the Biķernieki
forest and to White Lake in Jugla and gruesomely murdered there. They were
taken away early in the morning in the familiar blue city buses. Other women