Small Riga Ghetto

59
Although these events took place six years ago, they are as firmly fixed in
my memory as though they had happened only yesterday. And they will remain
just as unforgettable for everyone who survived them.
Even today it is incomprehensible to me that Boira-Oilom (God) could sit on
his kisei-hakowed (throne of honor) and look down upon our great catastrophe.
Why didn't the earth open up and swallow the murderers of our precious family
members?
Why didn't the sun grow dark when it saw the mass murder of our beautiful,
pure, innocent Jewish children?
The ten bloody days and other similar events will remain an indelible mark
of shame not only for the people that claims world culture for itself, but also
for the Latvian people.
The world had never before experienced the sadism and the animalistic instincts
which came to light at that time.
And today all of these murderers dare to demand "just treatment" and "recognition"!
Unfortunately, humankind is only too ready to forget - but we Jews can
never and will never forget!
I.
On 27 November 1941, a Thursday morning, a large printed announcement
was put up in Sadovnika Street in the ghetto: "The ghetto will be liquidated
and its inmates will be evacuated. On Saturday, 29 November, all inmates
must line up in closed columns of one thousand persons each. The first ones to
go will be the inhabitants of the streets near the ghetto gate (Sadovnika, Katoļu,
Lāčplēša, part of Maskavas Street and others)."
The announcement included various further regulations which I can no
longer remember today. The decree hit the ghetto like a bolt of lightning, and
total chaos broke out. Sadovnika Street was swarming with people, and the
work crews that had been standing there were not let outside until later on.
People stood stunned before the momentous announcement and kept trying
to puzzle out the meaning of the words "liquidated" and "evacuated". Nobody
could imagine that behind these two terms something dangerous and catastrophic
was concealed. It was decided that Viļānu Street and half of Līksnas
Street had to be emptied of their inhabitants by the evening of 28 November.
All the inhabitants of this block were driven into the interior of the ghetto.
Work on the new fence around the diminished ghetto was begun immediately.
The two streets looked as though a pogrom had taken place there. They were