Small Riga Ghetto

42
The following experience also belongs here. At that time a Jewish woman
worked at the field headquarters together with me and the others. Her name
was Ellis and she had been born in Hungary. She was a professional chanson
singer and piano player at the well-known Riga night club Alhambra. Now she
worked as a cleaning woman at the headquarters, mainly in the rooms of the
commander, Captain Fuhrmann. He noticed her and decided to save her. He
had Aryan identity papers issued for her. Later on, when the situation grew
dangerous, he sent Mrs. Ellis to Vienna with a letter of recommendation that
got her a job as a singer on the radio. By chance, the all-powerful Minister of
Propaganda Goebbels heard her on the radio in Berlin. He realized that when
she sang in the style of Zarah Leander, she performed the songs better than the
famous Swedish Zarah herself. With great delight, he now told the people
around him that he had found a "genuine" German Zarah and would soon
make it possible to listen to her in Berlin. The new "German" star was now
invited to come to Berlin. She was asked to report directly to the great Goebbels,
who would organize a concert for her with a select government audience.
The director of Radio Vienna was in despair, for he knew all about this star
who was not quite "kosher". What to do? It was decided that "Zarah" would
be declared ill. Thus the "German" Zarah was saved, and today she is walking
around freely in Vienna with Jewish identity papers.
VIII.
The Latvians' cruelties worsened from day to day. They would simply round
up Jews on the street and force them to do all kinds of work; they not only
beat them mercilessly but murdered many of them.
For example, one group of ten Jews who were repairing a damaged bridge
over the Daugava in an Organisation Todt (OT) work group were simply
thrown into the water, where they drowned.
The looting of Jewish homes became more and more frequent. The owners
were not only robbed, but many of them were killed on the spot. The Latvian
murderers even went as far as to simply hack off the fingers of living people
merely to gain possession of their rings.
If apartments were needed, the Jewish tenants were thrown out on the spot
without being allowed to take a single thing with them. There were two methods:
either the people were arrested and taken to the murderers' headquarters
at the Pērkoņkrusts center, or they were put into prison. Nobody returned alive
from either of these places.