Pinkas Hakehillot Latvia v'Estonia:

“Libau – Liepaja” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Latvia and Estonia
(Libaui or Libava, Latvia)

56°31' / 21°01'

Translation of "Libau – Liepaja" chapter
from Pinkas Hakehillot Latvia v'Estonia

Written by: Dov Levin

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1988

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Caroline S. Ruda

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from:Pinkas Hakehillot Latvia and Estonia:
Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Latvia and Estonia,
Edited by Dov Levin, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

(pp. 170, 180-186)

Libau – Liepaja

Translated by Shalom Bronstein

Subdistrict City in Kurzama (Courland). Second largest city in Latvia; important port city on the Baltic Sea.

Population Figures

Year	Total Population	Jewish Population	Percentage
1795	4,548	19	0.04
1850	---	1,218	---
1863	9,970	1,700	18
1881	29,611	6,651	22
1897	64,489	9,454	15
1911	83,650	10,308	12
1915	43,620	7,163	16
1920	51,583	9,758	19
1925	60,762	9,851	16
1930	57,238	7,908	14
1935	57,098	7,379	13

History to the End of World War I

        The first mention of the town is during the rule of the German Orders in a document from 1253 and it is described as a fishing village and a natural port used by boats from Scandinavia. In the beginning of the 14^th century, German merchants began using the port and as a result, the location received a Latin name – Liva Portus (Liva Port) and its German form Libau. At the end of the 16^th century, an improved port was built that greatly aided in the commercial development of the city. After various changes of rulers, it became part of the Duchy of Courland in 1608 and it was granted city status in 1625.

[The above is the introduction found on page 170.]

Page 180 – column 2, beginning where indicated:

Battles Against the German Invaders:

From the first day of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the city was heavily bombed by the German air force. Initially, the Soviets made great efforts to defend the important port: numerous young people were pressed into service, among them many Jews, citizens were confined to their regular places of work or pressed into public service and men were prohibited from leaving the city. The Soviets began evacuating the families of officers of the Red Army along with the families of local government officials from the second day of battle. A small number of Jewish families were also included. A few Jewish women and children managed to squeeze into the overcrowded evacuation trains, without official sanction, and escaped deep into the Soviet Union.

        Under increased German military pressure, the city became a battleground. Homes were destroyed, many civilians were injured, and the population hid in below ground shelters. These conditions made leaving the city difficult. Within a few days, the rail link between Libau and Riga, the main evacuation route to the east, was bombed out of commission. The Red Army withdrew from Libau in the end of June. The city was surrounded on all sides by the German army and all escape routes were cut off. A group of Jews attempted to break out by way of the sea, but their boat was hit and they drowned. The Workers Guard remained at their posts and in the heavy battles that took place on the roads leading to the city and in the area of the port, many of them, including Jews, fell. Among them was Abba Friedberg, the principal of the local school.

        On 29 June 1941, after a week of fighting the Germans conquered Libau. Dozens of Jews fell during the week both as civilians and as fighters. Because of being confined to their workplaces, the general draft and the destruction of the rail link only a few hundred Jews managed to escape deep into the Soviet Union. The majority of the community, some 7,000 people, remained in Libau and fell into German hands.

Under Nazi Occupation

July 1941 – Decrees and the murder of males:

Along with the entry of the German army into Libau came the German police forces. With the aid of the Latvian “Independent Guard,” which began organizing itself during the battles, arrests and murders on political grounds began [and took place] for the most part in Rainis Park in the new section of Libau, alongside of the defensive trench dug by the Soviets.

[Page 181]

Jews were among those murdered, including a group of 33 Jewish men who were executed during the first days of July. There were also random brutal murders of individual Jews. Among these victims was the director of Libau's opera, a Jewish refugee from Vienna named Walter Hahn who was murdered on the doorway of his house.

On 5 July 1941, in the pages of the Latvian newspaper Kurzemes Vards, the local military governor published a list of restrictions in effect for the Jews of Libau:

(1) All Jewish men, women and children are required to wear a yellow star on their chest and back. The minimal size of the star is ten centimeters by ten centimeters.

(2) All Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 are required to report to the City Square every morning to be assigned to work details.

(3) Jews are allowed to shop only between the hours of 10:00 and 12:00 in the morning. Outside of these hours, it is prohibited for them to make purchases of any kind.

(4) Jews are permitted to leave their houses only between the hours of 10:00 to 12:00 in the morning and between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. Exceptions are made only for those engaged in public works according to paragraph 2.

(5) Jews are forbidden to use any kind of transportation and to visit public places or beaches for bathing.

(6) Jews are required to get off the sidewalks whenever they come across a German in uniform.

(7) All Jewish store-keepers are required to post signs in indelible letters of at least 20 centimeters by 20 centimeters bearing the words “Jewish Store.”

(8) All Jews are required to turn over to the authorities at once all radios, typewriters and vehicles of transportation – bicycles, motor bikes and automobiles, as well as uniforms, weapons and any ammunition in their possession.

        These regulations went into effect on the day they were published with a stern warning that any Jew who did not fulfill them would be punished in the most severe manner. After the publication of the regulations, every morning in the square near the fire department, thousands of Jewish men would gather. They were surrounded by units of police equipped with firearms and clubs and subject to various kinds of abuse. A portion of those gathered were taken to forced labor by representatives of the German army, another group was sent for hard labor and assigned to clear the ruins caused by the war and to bury the dead. Many were taken from the square and led to the prison for political criminals on Tilzas Street that had previously served as a women's jail. On July 7 and 8 mass arrests of Jewish men and women were carried out including those seized on city streets. The women were released shortly afterwards, and the men remained incarcerated in cells already jammed with hundreds of Jewish detainees. Thirty of them, designated as “Jews and Bolsheviks” were already taken out and executed on July 7 as retribution for shots fired at German soldiers. On the 8^th and 9^th of July, the remaining hundreds of Jewish prisoners were taken from the jail and murdered by shooting. In the last week of the month, the scope of the arrests and murders was increased: some one thousand Jewish men were taken from the square, from the streets and from their homes and murdered. Among them was also a group of a few dozen mental patients who were taken in their pajamas from the hospital. They were also shot. Participating in the mass murder were volunteers from the Latvian unit “Arias Commando” that was established in Riga (cf.). Most of the executions were carried out on the Baltic coast south of the lighthouse and a smaller number took place in Skeden, north of the city. The magnitude of the July bloodbath included more than one thousand victims – most of them young and middle-aged men including a large portion of the communal workers and cultural leaders of the community.

        At first, the Jews of Libau did not realize what was happening. Although there many accounts of executions of Jews, at the same time there were widespread rumors that Jews had been sent outside of the city to work. What greatly increased the confusion was the practice of Latvian women of delivering notes and messages to the families ostensibly from those who were missing with requests for money, clothing and food. It took a few weeks before the bitter truth that the missing would never return was revealed.

        The Jews suffered from the first days of the occupation including economically. They were fired from their places of employment, their property was plundered and they were evicted from their residences. Germans and Latvians would routinely seize clothing, utensils and items of value from Jewish homes. Jews, especially owners of large houses located in the wealthier parts of the city, were evicted from their homes in order to make them available to the German and Latvian officials.

        In the middle of July 1941, the units of the security police who entered Libau with its capture left the city. A permanent regional station of the German security police was created locally. The commander of the post was an SS person named Keugler and his superior was the SS commander Dr. Dietrich. From then on, these two SS people had ultimate operational jurisdiction over the German policy towards the Jews in Libau and the surrounding area and bore the responsibility of organizing their annihilation.

The situation between August and December 1941:

In August, there was a temporary respite in the mass murder of Jews and a short period of relative calm began. Jews, including men and women, worked at various places on a steady basis and received working papers. These documents freed the men from the requirement to report daily to the Fire Department Square and granted them some protection from being seized and executed. This trend, which already began in July, expanded with time and included increasingly large numbers of Jews. In either September or October, the requirement to report to the square to be counted was discontinued. The Jews, for the most part, worked for units of the German army and navy and police stations. Skilled workers and technicians, who worked in their fields for the Germans, were considered in their eyes as vital,

[Page 182]

and their condition was relatively more secure and stable. Others did physical labor that did not require special training or skills. Women were utilized in cleaning and doing laundry in police stations and in the private homes of German police officers. During this time, two Jewish social service agencies operated in Libau: the old age home and the hospital “Linat Hatzedek.” The hospital had 15 beds and a small operating room. Because of the lack of equipment and the absence of means of anesthesia, it operated mostly as an infirmary and first aid station. The professional staff included four physicians – Plotkin, Baron, Weindrich and Zik, two nurses, as well as kitchen and cleaning personnel.

        Even during these relatively quiet months, the murder of Jews continued unabated, although not on the scale of the massive pogroms in the month of July. According to German police reports covering this period of time found after the war in Libau, there are many particulars concerning the executions of Jews. The report of 22 September 1941 records the execution of 61 Jews; the 24 September report records the murder of 37 Jews; reports covering the period between 25 September and the 17^th of October (the time of the holidays of the month of Tishrei 5702) mention the liquidation of 454 Jewish men and women “who are not fit for work.” This included mostly the elderly, pregnant women and the ill. In this pogrom (Aktzia), the residents of the old age home were completely wiped out. Thirty Jews were murdered between November 3 and 13; between the 13^th and 27^th of November an additional 33 Jews considered “dangerous from a political standpoint” were executed as well as another 43 Jews between the 10^th and 13^th of December. The murders of a total of 658 Jews are recorded in these documents. According to an official German source, only 3,890 Jews, mostly women and children, remained in the city by November 1941.

The murder of the women and children:

On Saturday, 13 December 1941, Dr. Dietrich, the senior SS officer in Libau, published an official order in the pages of the Kursemes Vards newspaper, requiring all Jews of the city to be confined to their houses on Monday and Tuesday, the 15^th and 16^th of December. At the same time, the German security police issued 300 to 350 new working papers, which were distributed, to Jews working in the police stations, the medical staff of the Jewish hospital and various other workers. Including their families, these numbered some 1,000 people, less than one third of the Jews still alive in the city. Fear, suspicions, rumors and various interpretations were rife among the Jews. Many attempted to prepare for the future. Some certificate holders inflated the number of their family members to include as many people as possible; others decided to disregard the order and prepared hiding places for themselves in the cellars, attics and among their Christian acquaintances. In some cases, German military personnel managed to get additional working papers for a small number of added Jews.

        In preparation for the pogrom (Aktzia), the city was divided into three sections: New Libau, and Old Libau into two parts – East and West. On Saturday night, between the 13^th and 14^th of December, Latvian guards began to arrest the Jews in New Libau. In the following days, arrests were carried out in the rest of the areas of the city. The guards had exact and detailed lists of all of the names of the Jewish residents and went house-to-house, conducting searches for those missing. The Jews were brought to the women's prison yard. The Yard was too small to accommodate the large number of people, which included many women, children and infants. In this crowded place, the Germans inspected the documents separating those with the new work permits from the rest. During this time, the Jews were forced to stand for hours facing the wall, without water or food. It was forbidden to talk or move. Children cried and the adults, who began to realize what was in store for them, began to panic. In order to “preserve order” the Latvian and German guards utilized brutal and savage measures. At the conclusion of the inspection, those with documents were sent home with their families, and the rest of the Jews were led to their execution in the town of Skeden on the Baltic coast north of Libau. Large pits 60 to 100 meters long and 3 to 4 meters deep had been previously dug. The Jews were taken to Skeden in trucks and on sleds. Children and the elderly were thrown into them with utmost cruelty. Others made their way on foot on the slippery road in the freezing cold of 5 degrees Celsius. Upon arrival at Skeden, the Jews were put in a shack. The men and women were ordered to completely disrobe, in groups of ten they were forced to run to the pits where they were shot by groups of Germans and Latvians. Two executioners aimed their weapons at each victim. Mothers were ordered to carry their little children on their shoulders to enable the murderers to shoot the children with greater ease. The horrendous bloodbath began on the morning of December 15, while the arrests of the Jews in Libau were at their height, and concluded on the afternoon of 17 December.

        During the three days of the Aktzia, 2,700 to 2,800 Jews were systematically murdered in cold blood, most of them women and children. After the Aktzia,

[Page 183]

about one thousand Jews remained in Libau – those who held work permits along with their families and some Jews without work permits who managed to evade the massacre.

        Throughout the winter and spring of 1942, lesser Aktzias took place: the third week of February 1942 the Germans carried out an Aktzia against those without a profession or those who were not engaged in essential work. However, many Jews, learning their cruel lesson from the December Aktzia, managed to escape this time. There were some who received prior notice from Jews who worked for the police and they managed to hide during this Aktzia. Others managed to leave jail after obtaining by various means the required work permits. A group of 22 Jews exhibited special daring; while being led to the killing pits in Skeden, they attacked their drunken Latvian guards and managed to escape. Jews paid off the German commander, Kigler, known as being amenable to bribery, and the German search for escaped Jews was called off. (Kigler was removed from his position in 1943 and sentenced by an SS court for taking bribes and financial irregularities.) Some one hundred Jews were murdered in these Aktzias, and another ten Jews committed suicide. In the second half of April 1942, the Germans executed a few more dozen Jews in the killing pits of Skeden. Approximately 800 Jews remained in the city after this carnage and they were confined to a Ghetto shortly thereafter.

In the Ghetto July 1942 to November 1943

Creation of the Ghetto:

The setting up of a Ghetto in Libau was delayed until the middle of 1942, as there was no specific Jewish area that could serve as its basis. In order to concentrate the Jews in one area, hundreds of Christian residents had to be moved. This ran into the obstacle of the lack housing because of the war. However, as early as the fall of 1941 the German authorities considered evacuating army bases outside of the city to establish a Ghetto. This was never carried through. Instead, the Germans set aside a small quarter in Old Libau for the remaining Jews and ordered the Christian residents to vacate their homes. The area which included 11 or 12 buildings, encompassed parts of four streets: Herrenstrasse, Gartenstrasse, Wiesenstrasse and Oststrasse. On July 1, the Jews were given ten days to relocate to the Ghetto. In August, the barbed wire fence that enclosed the area was completed and the Ghetto was sealed off. Jews were prohibited from leaving without permits and Christians were not permitted to enter it and or to maintain contact with its residents. Warning signs posted on the fence threatened that violators would be shot. A few Jewish women, married to Latvians, were required to undergo sterilization in order to continue living with their husbands outside the Ghetto. However, at a later stage they, too, were forced into the Ghetto. Other mixed couples, with the encouragement of the Germans, separated before the Ghetto was set up, and the Jewish partner shared the fate of the other Jews.

Administration of the Ghetto and its institutions:

Authority was placed in the hands of the German security police. A German police officer by the name of Kerscher was appointed the commander of the Ghetto. According to the testimony of survivors, he related to the Jews in a humanitarian manner. The Ghetto guards, who numbered 12 to 15 Latvian guards, were under his command. The Ghetto also included a place for the detention of those who 'violated' the various regulations – it was known as the 'bunker' by the residents. During the time of the existence

[Page 184]

of the Ghetto, the Germans executed several dozen Jews for the 'crimes' of conducting illegal trade with non-Jews, taking various supplies and items from their places of work, going out without wearing the yellow star, remaining outside the Ghetto without permission and other similar offenses.

        About a year before the Ghetto was established, the Germans appointed a committee of Jews that was officially called the “Council of Elders” (Altestenrat), and known by Jews as – Kehillah. At its head was an long time public servant by the name of Izraellit who was aided by a young lawyer named Kagnesky. The committee was responsible for all areas of life in the Ghetto and it was given the authority to keep order and discipline. Under its command was a small Jewish police unit responsible for the day-by-day maintenance of order and sanitation as well as the implementation of the Ghetto regulations such as the nighttime curfew and the limitation on the use of gas, etc. In the framework of the Jewish administration of the Ghetto, there was also an employment bureau that concerned itself with the organization and distribution of work. The chairman of the council headed it. Also set up were a central agency for the distribution of food, workshops and training classes. The Linat Hatzedek hospital, whose origins date back to before the Ghetto was set up, also continued to function. In addition to providing medical care, the medical staff provided documents for workers and performed abortions as pregnancy was prohibited in the Ghetto. An arbitration court of honor, headed by the attorney Wolf, dealt with disagreements between neighbors and with violations of the internal Ghetto code. The elderly and those whose working capacity was limited cared for the few children. The Ghetto residents organized several small cultural activities – a library, a drama club and a small synagogue. In one of the houses, there was a radio that provided the Ghetto residents news of what was happening. According to the testimony of survivors, all of the Jewish functionaries of the Ghetto, including the police, behaved with the utmost efficiency, honesty and without bureaucracy. They endeavored to ease the plight of the Jews and were well regarded by the residents of the Ghetto.

Forced Labor:

Some of the Jewish workforce was employed in the Ghetto but most worked outside. The Jewish Committee attempted to take into consideration the professional expertise and the physical capabilities of the workers.

        For the most part, those engaged outside of the Ghetto worked for the German army or police – in sewing workshops, as shoemakers, carpenters, in garages and in workshops. They were employed as craftsmen and unskilled laborers. A portion worked in army and police warehouses where lumber, clothing and plundered items were stored, at the railroad station and in various workshops producing shoes, smoked fish, gasoline, etc. The women worked in factories, workshops, in kitchens and in cleaning. The workers gathered early every morning at an assigned place in the Ghetto, were organized into groups (kolonot) according to their places of employment and marched to and from their jobs in orderly rows accompanied by the Jewish head of the group. This was in contrast to other places where the Germans required that the head of the group be a non-Jew. They worked long hours and with the daily marching to and from their jobs, they spent most of the day outside the confines of the Ghetto.

        Those working inside were involved in the Ghetto operation and in workshops and work places set up by the “Committee of Elders” – in sewing, shoe repair, as blacksmiths and in a gold and silversmith workshop. These places were under the supervision of the Germans who would periodically tour the Ghetto. They supplied the Ghetto needs and took outside orders from Germans and Latvians for which they were paid. This money was turned over to the German administration. The elderly and weak were employed in the Ghetto workshops to spare them from having to do hard work outside.

        A small number of noted Jewish experts, employed by the economic arm of the German security police, received special documents granting them additional privileges, including free movement outside the Ghetto. They utilized these privileges to help others and enjoyed special status in the Ghetto. Outstanding among them was David Ziftchon, the 'Over Jew' ['Jew Supervisor'] of the electric workshop of the police and Arieh Hertzbach who operated the gold and silversmith workshops and did personal work for top ranking German police officials.

Physical and economic conditions:

The Germans allotted only four square meters per resident of the Ghetto causing serious overcrowding. For example, a five room dwelling with a kitchen housed 22 people, that is 3 to 6 people per room. In order to limit friction, the Committee tried as much as possible to match residents with each other; whenever possible, each family was allocated one room to itself. People who had close family members were joined together and single people were assigned separate rooms. The Jewish workers remodeled the dwellings and most of them had sanitary lavatories and cooking facilities. The authorities provided technical assistance and help in supplying material for heating. The Jewish Committee enacted special regulations to maintain cleanliness and order and the Ghetto police supervised their implementation. As a result, there was no incidence of neglect, filth or plague in the Libau Ghetto.

        The official food rations allotted to working Jews and their families was centrally distributed to the Jewish Committee and they in turn distributed it weekly from the Center for Food Distribution. The weekly allocation was 2,500 grams of bread, 180 grams of sugar, 50 grams of butter, potatoes, soup prepared in the Ghetto kitchen and occasionally other food items. Those engaged in heavy labor received an additional ration of food. However, the official allotment did not contain enough to meet the requirements of the average person. In order to obtain additional food and other required items, such as cleaning and heating supplies, the Jews had to endanger their lives and find other ways, which were considered serious violations

[Page 185]

of German regulations. From their places of employment, Jewish workers would smuggle sugar, coal, leather, clothing and other items – for personal use, for sale or to trade. Others exchanged items of value that they had saved from before the war for needed items. Trade, both for cash and barter, was carried on among the Jews themselves and with the Latvians, at their work places and on their way to work. Some Jews paid with their own lives and in some cases with the lives of their families for this violation.

        The small number of Ghetto residents, the fact that it included only workers and their families, the many connections they had with their surroundings, and the relatively benign authorities that were in charge of the area, all of these helped prevent hunger in the Libau Ghetto. Even so, there were instances of malnourishment.

The Riga Group:

On 22 October 1942, a group of Jews from the Riga Ghetto, consisting of Latvian, German and Lithuanian Jews, was brought to Libau to work in the local sugar factory. Including their families, this group numbered about 160 people. At least one physician came with them from Riga. They were housed in separate buildings in the Ghetto. At first, they were barred from entering the main part of the Ghetto but, with time, this prohibition was cancelled. The new arrivals also received their weekly food rations through the Center for Food Distribution in the Ghetto. The Committee helped them obtain food to prepare hot soup. Many from the Riga group succeeded in smuggling sugar into the Ghetto from the factory. They would sell it for 40 marks a liter. Some were caught and executed. Eight of them were shot to death one night for unclear reasons. At the end of December 1942, with the completion of the seasonal work at the sugar factory, about one hundred of the group was returned to the Riga Ghetto. About fifty others remained in the Libau Ghetto on German orders to work in loading and unloading in the port. Three representatives, one from each of the three 'ethnic' groups, went to Riga with German permission to bring back winter clothing. They utilized this opportunity to establish contact between the two Ghettos by bringing news with notes and messages. The Riga group smuggled coal from the port that was sold for 3 marks a liter. In March 1943, they were all sent back to the Ghetto of their city [Riga]. At the same time, some skilled craftsmen in the building trade were taken from the Libau Ghetto. Together with their families, they numbered 32 people. They were sent to work for the building company of the SS in Paplaka, some 35 kilometers outside the city.

Liquidation of the Ghetto:

In the fall of 1943/44, the “Council of Elders” was notified by the Ghetto commander, Kerscher, that the Ghetto was to be liquidated and its residents were to be transferred to a concentration camp. They were further informed that the Jews would be permitted to take with them all that they could carry by themselves. From past experience, the Jews did not put much trust in the German announcement and thought that 'the transfer' was a pretext for the murder of the Ghetto residents. Many Jews obtained poison tablets and some even used them. Others, gave their valuable possessions to Latvian acquaintances for safe keeping with the hope that they would be able to reclaim them upon their return in the future. A few of the youth planned to resist and wanted to set the Ghetto on fire and a small group managed to escape from the Ghetto on the eve of its evacuation (see below). The Ghetto Council tried its best to rescind the extreme decree and was aided in this by the Ghetto commander Kerscher. He suggested to the German authorities that residences for the Jews could be provided at their workplaces after the Ghetto was terminated and that they not be deported to concentration camps. However, his suggestion was ignored. Meanwhile, in the workshops of the Ghetto work clothing was prepared for the Jews to wear in the concentration camps. On the last night before the liquidation, the authorities cut off the supply of gas to the Ghetto.

        On Friday, the eve of Yom Kippur 5704, 8 October 1943, at 4:00 AM the Jews were assembled in the Ghetto yard. They were required to turn over all their money and valuables and then were loaded on cars of trains destined for the concentration camp of Kaiserwald near Riga. The following day, all those who were unable to work, the elderly, weak little children along with their mothers, about one half of the Jews of Libau, were sent to the Latvian section of the Riga Ghetto where they remained until its liquidation. The second half remained in Kaiserwald. In Libau, the Germans kept three Jews from the Ghetto to do various kinds of work. They escaped shortly afterwards finding refuge with Latvians (see below). On 29 April 1944, a group of Jews working for the SS in Paplaka were arrested. After a few of them managed to escape, the rest were sent to the central prison in Riga. On May 2 of the same year, they, too, were transferred to the camp in Kaiserwald, where the remaining Jews of Latvia were assembled. The fate of the remnants of Latvia's Jews was the same as that of the rest of the prisoners of the camp. The city of Libau and its environs was then officially declared “Judenrein,” free of Jews.

Rescue and Rescue Attempts:

During the German occupation, Jews attempted various rescue efforts and some of them succeeded in the short term. A group of Jews managed to hide during all of the Aktzias and left their hiding places only when the Jews entered the Ghetto. As previously noted, a group escaped in February 1942, on the way to the killing pits of Skeden. Other Jews obtained documents testifying to their affiliation with the Christian church. In August 1942, the Germans accused a Russian priest of the Greek Orthodox Church of selling these types of documents to six Jews. Eleven Jews hid in a 'bunker' after the liquidation of the Ghetto and survived until the end of the war. David Ziftchon and Michael Skotlavski, who enjoyed free movement in the city due to their professional expertise, prepared the “bunker” during the time of the Ghetto. It was constructed under the cellar of the bakery at 14 Kaufstrasse, where David Ziftchon had previously lived. With the help of the Latvian janitor Sedulas, the place was well hidden and equipped with an air vent, water, electricity and gas as well as method of warning if danger approached along with means of escape.

        On the last night before the liquidation [of the Ghetto], Ziftchon, Skotlavski along with their wives in the Ghetto found shelter in the prepared bunker.

[Page 186]

After a while, they were joined by a woman who escaped from Kaiserwald, the three Jews who the Germans kept in the Ghetto after its liquidation and others. The number of those rescued came to eleven people. In exchange for electrical equipment and shoes, the Latvian janitor Sedulas secured food for them. He also obtained a pistol and bullets for self-defense or to use to commit suicide in case the Germans discovered their hiding place. After Sedulas was killed in shelling of the town, his wife and friends, who were in on the secret, continued to concern themselves with their needs.

        About ten other Jews hid with Latvians in various places around the city. Some children were hidden with area farmers. Between twenty and thirty Libau Jews remained alive until the city's liberation on 9 May 1945.

        After the war, a few hundred Jews from various places settled in the city. With time, they left Libau and there is no longer a local Jewish community.

Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page

Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
Emerita Yizkor Book Project Manager, Joyce Field z”l
Contact person for this translation Caroline S. Ruda
This web page created by Lance Ackerfeld