Small Riga Ghetto

39
gogues, defiled and burned. Many Jews, dressed in their prayer shawls and
talith, flung themselves into the flames to save the torahs. All of them were
killed.
The only synagogue the murderers left standing in Riga was the large, wellknown
Peitavas synagogue in the old town center. It was spared only because
it stood in the midst of apartment buildings. But its interior was demolished
like the others.
IV.
In the meantime, the Latvians had moved the staff of Pērkoņkrusts (Swastika)
to the house of the banker Schmuljan on Valdemāra Street. We knew that this
was now the home of the notoroius Pērkoņkrusts murderers such as Arājs, Cukurs,
Tīdemanis, Razums and Freimanis. Moreover, they attracted a considerable
portion of the Latvian intelligentsia from the student fraternities to their
side. Many of these people, who have hundreds and thousands of murders on
their conscience, are living today out in the world in total freedom. They have
simply made use of the right to asylum that is guaranteed by the great democracies.
At that time, Riga alone did not satisfy their bloodlust, so they organized
gangs – here too with the help of the Latvian intelligentsia. These gangs
moved from city to city, from town to town, in order to kill the Jewish population
there in the most bestial way.
The cellar rooms of the former home of the banker Schmuljan were quickly
transformed into prison cells. Now countless Jewish women and men were
brought there either to be shot immediately or transferred from there to regular
prisons.
V.
I myself had to work, together with my son and my friend Pukin, in the field
headquarters. Every morning we went to work together, carrying our pass,
which protected us from the Latvians. One time, as we were walking through
the beautiful Wöhrmann Park in Riga, the Latvians drove us out of it. Nor can
I forget how once during the first few days, as we rode in a streetcar, the
woman conductor could not get over her outrage. She was beside herself with
fury over the fact that a Jew would dare to do "something like this" at all. She
immediately rang the bell to stop the streetcar and we were literally thrown
out.
In addition to my work as a decorator I was also used at the headquarters as
a cleaner, furnace stoker, and sweeper of the sergeant major's room and office.
This sergeant major, who was regarded as the master of the house, was a