Small Riga Ghetto

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among the officers. They fought and died like heroes. Because this division
was generally regarded as a Latvian unit, the world, of course, knows little of
the Jewish fighters. But we Latvian Jews cannot, and never will, forget them!
Among the returnees there was also a large number of people who had fought
in this division; most of them had been decorated, and many of them were invalids.
The approximately 1,000 Jews who "happened" to have survived the German
occupation survived only thanks to the rapid evolution of events. If the
war had lasted only one or two months longer, it may be taken for granted that
not a few hundred but only a few individuals would still be alive, for the Germans
and Latvians had always intended to annihilate all of them in order to
remove possible witnesses. For this reason, corpses were even disinterred and
cremated.
A partisan movement did not exist among the Latvian Jews, as it did in other
ghettos. Moreover, the number of people who went into hiding was very
small. Every undertaking, for instance the weapons incident in the ghetto, had
a bad outcome and was unsuccessful. These facts are accounted for by the attitude
of the indigenous population, which worked hand in hand with the Germans.
That is the history of the Latvian Jews!
Besides, Jews from all parts of the world were brought to Latvia – for instance
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Holland, France, Lithuania
and Poland. Their exact number can no longer be determined. About
20,000 men, women and children were brought to the Reich Jewish ghetto and
to Jumpravmuiža. All the others were transported directly from the railway
station to the forest, where they were shot. They had been brought to Latvia
because "Latvia was the appropriate venue for these murders", as General
Jeckeln declared at his trial.
Moreover, the Latvians formed volunteer battalions which contributed to the
annihilation of the Jews in the countries outside Latvia. They also participated,
as has been ascertained, in the destruction of the ghettos in Warsaw, Minsk
(White Russia), Minsk-Mazowiecki (Poland) and other cities. They took part
in all the punitive expeditions in and outside Latvia (L. Krašaps, Prokurora
piezīmes – Memoranda of a Public Prosecutor, Vapp, Riga 1946).
These events are also confirmed in detail by documents in the files of the
great Nuremberg trial. In one of these documents it is said that the 15th Latvian
Police Battalion took part in an action in White Russia called Marsfever.