List of massacres in Latvia

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The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Latvia (numbers may be approximate):

NameDateLocationDeathsNotes
Liepāja massacres 1941 Liepāja and vicinity, including Priekule, Aizpute, and Grobiņa 5000+5,000+ Jews. as well as gypsies, communists and the mentally ill were killed in a series of mass executions, many public or semi-public, in the city of Liepāja
Daugavpils Ghetto June 26, 1941 to October 1943 Daugavpils and vicinity, including Pogulyanka (Poguļanka) Forest (sometimes called Mežciems forest).13,000 to 16,000 Jews, mostly Latvians with some Lithuanians
Burning of the Riga synagogues July 4, 1941Riga400All synagogues were destroyed and 400 Jews were killed [1] [2]
Rēzekne massacre July 1941 Rēzekne 2,500Killings were carried out by a German SD group, which was helped by Selbstschutz men and Arajs Kommando. Beginning in July 1941 and into the fall, about 2,500 Jewish men, women and children were murdered. [3] [4]
Jelgava massacres Second part of July or early August, 1941 Jelgava and vicinitySeparate estimates of 1,500, 1,550, and 2,000 victims have been made.German police along with Latvian auxiliary police murdered the Jewish inhabitants of the city during a series of mass shootings
Varakļāni massacre August 4, 1941 Varakļāni 540The Nazis forced 540 remaining Jews to dig their own graves, and then shot them to death
Rumbula massacre November 30 and December 8, 1941Rumbula forest (near Riga)25,000About 24,000 Latvian Jews and 1,000 German Jews were murdered in or on the way to Rumbula forest near Riga. [5]
Audriņi massacre January 3-4, 1942 village of Audriņi, Audriņi Parish, Rēzekne Municipality215215 inhabitants were killed, including 51 children
Dunamunde massacre March 15-26, 1942 Daugavgrīva, Latvia3,740About 3,740 German, Czech, and Austrian Jews were killed by the Nazi German occupying force and local collaborationists in Biķernieki forest.
Gulbene kindergarten massacreFebruary 22, 1999 Gulbene 419-year-old Alexander Koryakov entered a Gulbene kindergarten and hacked three girls to death with a meat cleaver. He also killed a teacher and wounded a nurse before trying to escape. After his arrest, he told police that he wanted to become famous. Koryakov was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 7, 1999. [6] [7] [8] [9]

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References

  1. ↑ Liniņš, Eduards (4 July 2014). "Šī diena vēsturē. Sinagogu nodedzināšana Rīgā 1941. gada 4. jūlijā - Raksts". Public Broadcasting of Latvia (in Latvian). Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  2. ↑ Demidovs, Viktors; Kinca, Aija (4 July 2021). "Ebreju tautas genocīda upuru piemiņai – 80. gadadiena / Raksts". Public Broadcasting of Latvia (in Latvian). Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  3. ↑ "Rezekne". Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Retrieved 3 October 2023., quoting Encyclopaedia Judaica (2008)
  4. ↑ "Rezekne and the Holocaust". kehilalinks. JewishGen.org. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Liniņš, Eduards (30 November 2021). "30. novembris. Ebreju masu slepkavošanas akcija Rumbulas mežā 1941. gada / LR1 - Latvijas Radio". Latvijas Radio (in Latvian). Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  6. ↑ Town in shock after slaying of kindergartners and teacher Archived June 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Associated Press (February 23, 1999)
  7. ↑ "Once they were children" Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine , The Baltic Times (March 25, 1999)
  8. ↑ Killer sentenced in Gulbene deaths Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine , The Baltic Times (December 9, 1999)
  9. ↑ ""Viņš stāstīja, kā viņus nogalināja!" Vienīgais cilvēks, kurš intervējis bērnu slepkavu Gulbenē - tv3.lv". TV3 (in Latvian). 22 February 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2024.


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