Small Riga Ghetto

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The drives to Kaiserwald to fetch rations or visit the clinic or the dental
clinic were the women's only connection with the outside world. On these occasions
people brought back letters and other forbidden items from Kaiserwald.
Very often, strict inspections were carried out before they left Kaiserwald,
and only too often the SS man Hirsch (who was from Bavaria) beat the
women mercilessly (among them were L. Burian, O. Rogalin and others).
Because of their difficult situation, some women tried to escape from the
AEG barracks camp, as people were doing everywhere. But they were caught,
taken back to Kaiserwald and punished there. A certain Sophie Berger, who
had handed a letter to an Aryan, was fetched by Kommandant Roschmann in
person and transported to prison. But she was lucky and was not killed at that
time.
The order to crop the inmates' hair was a great tragedy for all the women.
Kommandant Sauer himself went to the AEG satellite camp to make sure this
barbarous order was implemented precisely. After that, the unfortunate women
could be seen marching to and from the factory wearing their striped zebra
dresses and white headscarves. When they were on the street, the rest of the
traffic was barred from Vidzemes Avenue. In this way the commanders tried
to keep people from seeing the women or giving them anything.
Nobody who was not there himself can describe the misery of this
Kasernierung. It was also called the "women's cloister".
In August 1944, when the AEG factory was evacuated to Thorn, 500 of
these women were also transported there. * They reached their destination after
a long journey under inhuman conditions in cattle cars. Those who remained in
Riga were taken to Stutthof by ship on 25 September 1944 (see the chapter
"The Evacuation"). During this evacuation the half-Aryan Mrs. Olga Klaus
(Mrs. Ginsburg) succeeded in escaping. The women who had been transported
to Thorn had to work in bunkers under very difficult conditions and were supervised
by the SS man Blatterspiegel.
In early 1945, as the Russians were approaching Thorn, the work crew was
taken away from there to an unspecified destination. But as they were on their
way, the hour of liberation struck for these women, through the Russians.
Blatterspiegel and his guards managed to disappear before this happened. A
great many of the liberated women survived: Mrs. B. Kaufmann and her
daughter, Mrs. Gurwitz and Mrs. Salzberg from Kovno, L. Burian and Mrs.
Ameisen from Prague, Mrs. Rogalin and her daughter Olga, Fira and Rosa
* [Ed.: They are listed in Stutthof, but went directly to Thorn.]