Small Riga Ghetto

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turn. At that point he sent her to the Reich. * Her luck continued and, as far I
have heard, she is still alive.
After the liquidation of the Small Ghetto, when everything was put under the
command of the Kaiserwald concentration camp, the Gestapo barracks camp
was also changed into a small Kasernierung. The workshops were moved to
the Lenta factory on the other side of the Daugava, and the work crews were
enlarged by adding to them people from the Small Ghetto and the Kaiserwald
concentration camp. From that day on, the unit was no longer called the Gestapo
satellite camp; it was called Lenta.
It took a fairly long time to remove all the machines from the Lenta factory
and transform it into a residence hall. Wiskind (who was later arrested) was
appointed business manager, and Herzenberg from Libau became the chief supervisor.
Now a Jewish police force was set up, consisting mostly of German
Jews. Among them was a certain German Jew named Lewi, who was sent to
Stȕtzpunkt because he was making trouble for his coreligionists. Others were
also sent there as hostages because of various crimes (Jakobsohn, Steingold
and others). Roschmann also granted "housing" in Lenta to the elite of the
German Jews (Leiser and Dr. Aufrecht).
Under the rule of this Kommandant Roschmann the camp's inmates experienced
especially difficult times. This was why various inmates – for example
Firkser, the Jutters (father and son), Schneider (of the Makkabi sports club)
and others – escaped to Dobele in Kurzeme. Of these, Jutter Jr. and Schneider
were shot by the Latvian Aizsargi shortly before the liberation. Later, Schloma
Koblenz and his brother, Traub, Rotbard and others also escaped. As a collective
punishment, the lovely gray suits were striped with white oil paint, the
men had a stripe shaved down the middle of their heads, and the women had
all their hair cut off. Others were arrested, sent to prison and murdered there.
The only person who died a normal death, of a heart attack, was Hirschmann
from Jelgava. In spite of the hopeless situation, a small Jewish religious center
was formed. There people studied the holy scriptures, the Talmud, and observed
the holidays (Golowtschiner, Joffe, Borchowik and others).
Our artists Schelkan, Schalit, Aronsohn, Sperling-Tschuzhoj and others also
tried through their art to help us get through difficult hours.
Over time, the Jews in the Gestapo satellite camp in Lenta were joined by
others from Daugavpils and Vilno (e.g. Sienitzki the gardener).
* [Ed.: According to rumors, Tamara was taken to Paris by Scherwitz and she survived there.]