Small Riga Ghetto

George Schwab *
Foreword
7
Max Kaufmann's Churbn Lettland: The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia, is a
classic. Published in Munich, Germany, in 1947, only two years after Nazi
Germany's collapse, the book contains Kaufmann's recollections and those of
other Latvian Jewish survivors whom he was able to buttonhole in the tumultuous
immediate postwar period. In Yiddish, Russian, German, and Latvian he
grilled them in Riga, Berlin, and Munich on their wartime reminiscences.
With little more than pen, pencil, and slips of paper, Kaufmann made copious
notes and painstakingly reconstructed what had transpired between 1941 and
1945. What makes this work unique is Kaufmann's account to record for posterity
the deliberate destruction of the once culturally rich Latvian Jewish
community.
Why publish this oeuvre in English now? Notwithstanding the fact that
Holocaust studies have been and still are widely pursued, serious gaps in the
analysis of the enormity of this heinous crime perpetrated by Germans and
their local collaborators still remain. The case of Latvia, where more than
80,000 Latvian Jews and thousands non-Latvian Jews were slaughtered, is but
one example. Though it is true that a few eyewitness accounts and some scholarly
works by Latvian and non-Latvian scholars have appeared since 1947, especially
in the recent past, much still needs to be researched in general and
also in the wake of the huge, recently released trove of declassified documents
stored in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Another reason why this work should be
known today is the need to counter the works of charlatan writers who, out of
ignorance or prejudice or malice, deny that the Holocaust in Latvia and elsewhere
ever took place and dismiss eyewitness accounts and documentary evidence
as inventions by Jews and their sympathizers.
The late Boris Kliot, a survivor and resident of New York City, understood
the relevance of Kaufmann's book and commmissioned its translation into
English. Professor Gertrude Schneider of the City University of New York
corrected factual errors and mistranslations of technical terms, especially those
referring to ghetto and concentration camp language. Wherever possible, the
Riga archivist Rita Bogdanova corrected the spelling of names to accord with
those found in the Riga archive and transliterated many Latvian spelled names
* Dr. George Schwab, Professor Emeritus, City University of New York (City College and
Graduate Center), President, National Committee on American Foreign Policy.