Small Riga Ghetto

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camp in Riga and the last one in the well known Lenta satellite camp of the
Riga Gestapo. * This final transport included the remains of the "youth of Daugavpils",
the aforementioned seven small children. The few Daugavpils Jews
who are still alive today come from these three transports.
"Daugavpils is free of Jews!" was the inscription on the signs one saw when
entering the city.
Gone is the great and beautiful Jewish Dvinsk, gone forever! The great Beth
Midrasch has been transformed into a dance hall, and the Planower house of
prayer is still an old-age home for Aryans.
This was the end of the Jewish community of Daugavpils, once famous and
known throughout the world.
b) Rositten
(Rēzekne) and Its Surroundings
(Zilupe, Ludza, Krāslava, PreiĜi etc.)
The small town of Rēzekne, in which about 7,000 Jews lived, suffered great
destruction because of the enemy's attacks. In the very first days after it was
occupied, a Gestapo presence was established. But the local population did not
even wait for the commands of the "conquerors"; it began its "work" immediately
on its own initiative. All the Jews were locked up in the town prison and
they had to go to work from there. A short time later a small group was taken
from the prison to the Jewish cemetery of Rēzekne. The local rabbi, Reb
Chaim Lubotzki, also received an "invitation" from the Gestapo. Instead of
reporting to the Gestapo, he went directly to the cemetery. People said that he
first went into the mikwe (ritual bathhouse), and then put on his coat and talith.
At the cemetery he met his children, among others. He comforted all those
who were present and read a chapter of the Psalms. Then he turned to the
German and Latvian murderers and assured them that there was no help for it,
they would lose this war, whatever happened. Moreover, because of the destruction
of Jewry, God's vengeance would come down on them. Just as he
turned toward his children to bid them farewell, a shot was fired. He ended his
life with the words, "Schma..." from the prayer "Hear, Israel…". All of the
others who had been taken to the cemetery were also killed.
* [Ed.: Lenta was the only camp where Jews lived in relative comfort. Kaufmann did not
mean "notorious", when he called it "well known".]