Small Riga Ghetto

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Nor did the others remain in the Park camp for long. Some people from Kaiserwald
(Misroch, his daughter and others) joined them, but fairly soon all of
them were taken away by ship to Stutthof.
d) Quartieramt
(Billeting Department)
The largest Kommando in the ghetto period was the Billeting Department. It
was a Wehrmacht unit that dealt with the billeting of the military forces and
was led by Captain Zorn. Hotels and numerous Jewish apartments with their
furniture intact were available for this purpose. Jews worked in all sections of
this Kommando; a small fraction of them lived in a satellite camp there.
At the headquarters of the Billeting Department on Vaļņu Street there were
workshops in which shoemakers, tailors (Baschkin and others), electricians,
mechanics, watchmakers and others worked. Many Jews worked in the furniture
transport unit, and the women Mrs. Kimcho, Mrs. Oretschkina and others
worked as cleaners.
From July 1941 until the liquidation of the satellite camp on 21 November
1943 the overseer of this work crew was Private First Class Schmidt. A sadist
by nature, he terrorized the Jews in the worst way imaginable, and his only
concern was to squeeze money out of them. He dealt out beatings very "generously".
But our real overseer was Sergeant Bendel. He too was very greedy for our
money. Once he had received his payment he immediately forgot what it had
been for, so that one had to give him money again and again. Nonetheless, the
Jews tried very hard to get assigned to this work crew. The work was not too
hard, and besides in the city center they could make contact with the outside
world.
Besides the Latvian Jews, many German Jews, men and women, also
worked in this satellite camp. After the liquidation of the ghetto, many Jews
tried to escape from here. One of the first was Lipmanowitsch; in reprisal, his
brother was taken to the ghetto and shot. Several people escaped from other
sections as well, for instance three people from 9 Ģertūdas Street and various
Jews from Eksporta Street (the musician Ostrowski and Fomin). In the large
satellite camp at 93 Brīvības Street a clinic had been set up in the large Witte
building, and Jews had to work there as well (G. Raizin, Feldmann, Gustav
Joffe, Kotzer, Mrs. Peres née Blumstein from Königsberg and others). Mrs.
Peres, however, was soon arrested, put into prison, and shot there.