Small Riga Ghetto

274
But what I really am is a man who has shared, step by step, the martyrdom
of his countrymen and coreligionists, and who has while writing this book experienced
all those sufferings anew in his mind. So my whole downcast heart
is contained in it!
My duty is fulfilled. I have done my part to secure immortality for the six
million Jews, valuable and irreplaceable human beings, and in particular for
our Latvian martyrs, whom we have lost to the utmost cruelty because of the
murderous system of National Socialism.
***
Of the approximately 95,000 Jews living in Latvia at the time of the invasion
by German troops, only a very small percentage was able to escape from Latvia.
In most cases, this was possible only to those living in the eastern province
(Latgale), where the Russian frontier was very near. This is also confirmed
by the fact that the Jews now returning from the Soviet Union are
chiefly people from Latgale. Jews from Riga and the province of Kurzeme can
hardly be found any more.
Under the German government, about 40,000 Jews remained in Riga and
about 33,000 in Latgale and Kurzeme. (With few exceptions, all the Jews of
Kurzeme and Vidzeme had remained.) Of the total number of Jews living under
German-Latvian rule (about 73,000), only between 950 and 1,000 persons,
including 175 to 200 women and about fifty older children, were able to survive.
All the others had been bestially killed, most of them in Latvia and the
remaining ones later in Germany. Even after the liberation, many more died of
weakness and diseases. Nearly all the graves are unmarked, and may be traced
from Latvia down to the western border of Bavaria.
The Latvian kibbutz, or Jewish community, of today is composed mostly of
returnees from the Soviet Union. But in my opinion, this number too is very
small (about 14,000 in the whole of Latvia).
An influx of Jews to Riga and Latvia in general is coming chiefly from Russia
(even from Leningrad and Ukraine). The 8,000 Jews who are still missing
— that is, who have not returned from the Soviet Union – perished in the war
or from the effects of war. (The Jews who emigrated to the Soviet Union before
the war are not included in this number.)
The young men and women who went to the Soviet Union were enlisted for
military service. The Latvian Division was composed of these people, who
later were awarded the name "Latvian Guards Division" as a mark of distinction.
They participated in the defense of Moscow, and according to reports
there were more Jews than Latvians among them. There were also many Jews