Small Riga Ghetto

192
The barbers (Zijuni and others) also had a lot to do in Kaiserwald by the end
of the summer. Everyone's hair was cropped very short and a stripe was
shaved down the middle of their heads. The women's hair was shaved off
completely. Only the privileged ones who wore blue caps were not subjected
to this gezeire (affliction).
Political events started to happen in a rush, and the front came closer and
closer. The camp administrators started to think about what should be done
with the Jews and when they had to begin evacuating them. They decided to
liquidate the old and the weak ones and to transport those who could still work
to labor camps in Germany. "Aktionen" were carried out in all the satellite
camps and in Kaiserwald (see the chapter on the satellite camps). The people
were taken from the liquidated barracks camps directly to Kaiserwald, and
from there to points further on. * Among these unfortunates were the Kor
brothers, who managed to survive by sheer accident.
The organizers of all these Aktionen were Dr. Krebsbach, Dr. Wisner, **
Hirsch and others. The barber Fonarjow from Kaiserwald told me that the SS
people would return from these Aktionen with their faces completely scratched
up. On the way there, our Jewish women had flung themselves at the guards
and attacked their faces with their nails and teeth. According to reports, there
was even a shoot-out, which once again cost people their lives. When Fonarjow
asked the SS people quite naively why they had such scratched-up faces,
they answered: "That's the handiwork of Jewish women!"
There were also reports that these Jews had written little notes in Latvian
and that these notes had been found. These notes read: "Latvians, save us!"
But these appeals were directed to the wrong people. Some of the victims were
gassed *** and others were sent to the Biķernieki forest and killed there.
XXI.
Most of the survivors of Kaiserwald were transported to Germany on 6 August
1944. They were sent together with the prisoners from the other satellite
camps in the large transport ship Bremerhafen via Danzig to the Stutthof concentration
camp. Only about 1,500 people, men and women, remained in the
Kaiserwald concentration camp. I too returned to Kaiserwald as a hostage, to-
* [Ed.: to the forest]
** [Ed.: Wisner was a medic, not a physician.]
*** [Ed.: As there were no gas chambers in Riga, he must mean the gas vans, which were left
over from 1942.]