Latvijas Vēsturnieku komisijas raksti - 18.sējums "Holokausts Latvijā

Rudīte Vīksne. Holokausts Latvijas mazpilsētās
Rudīte Vīksne
Extermination of Jews in Latvian Towns:
Problems and Research Results
Summary
Over the recent years, the Holocaust historiography has seen the appearance of more
and more works of regional history, which allows fuller understanding of the process of
extermination of Jews in Eastern Europe during the Nazi occupation, and Latvia is no
exception in this regard.
By now, we have achieved a more or less complete picture of these tragic events in
the towns of Bauska, Krustpils, Limbaži, Rūjiena, Valmiera, Ludza, Malta, Silene, Gostiņi,
Subate, Aknīste, Auce, Jaunjelgava, Valdemārpils, and Ventspils. The present article
analyses the problems that historians have to face when studying the extermination of
Jews in Latvian towns.
The extent to which the Holocaust-related issues have been studied in each respective
location to a large degree depends on the availability or lack of sources. The main sources
resorted to in the research on the Holocaust in Latvian towns fall into the following groups:
materials compiled by the Republican Extraordinary Commission, criminal cases of the
persons involved in the Holocaust, as well as newspapers in case the respective town
had its own press publication. Useful information about several towns can be found in the
documents of municipal councils and district police stations as well as in the documents of
the Headquarters of the Closure of Latvian Police of Public Order. Of lesser value for townrelated
research are “event reports” by the German Security Police and SD management
(Ereignismeldungen UdSSR).
The information gathered by Extraordinary Commissions largely follows a certain
standard, it is superficial and aimed to show the Nazi crimes in as grave light as possible.
This fact is particularly revealed by the exaggerated number of victims. Research of the
extermination of Jews is hampered also by the frequent tendency of the Soviet authorities
to describe civilian casualties during the war using the broad term “peace-loving Soviet
citizens,” which in many instances makes it impossible to determine the number of Jews
among this category.
A problem lies also in the fact that extermination of Jews in provincial towns was so
fast and total that the sequence of events has often faded from the eyewitnesses’ memory;
therefore, the recollections of the eyewitnesses of the Holocaust, including those of persons
involved in the crimes, may be deceptive.
Certain clarity about some particular facts can be derived from the files of the criminal cases
from the former KGB Archives. However, considering the “specific” methods of investigation
during the Soviet rule, the information contained therein should be assessed critically.
235