25/07/2010

Riga Latvia: Part 2

Holocaust and Jewish sites of the City

My guide Peteris met me just after 6pm, if you want a good private guide on Riga's history or Jewish heritage call him: +371 2 9503503 - I will dig out his email address too if anyone is interested. He is fantastic, not so good with numbers- his own admission- but excellent guide.

SALASPILS: the site of the old concentration camp, about 8-10km outside of Riga, the guide book says 8, he says 10- as I said- not so good with numbers. It is haunting, large Soviet monuments fill the empty forest clearing accompanied only by a thundering metrodome-acting as the missing heartbeats of the dead. The entrance says, in Latvian, "The Earth moans beyond this gate".

RUMBULA: Is another haunting site- the trenches surrounding the mass graves just engage images in the mind of what happened here, particularly if you have seen the famous Reinhardt film footage. Thousands of women are children were just shot dead here and left to fall on to others. The site has been respectfully designed as a Jewish memorial and grave: the focus is stone, a twisted menorah looks like a tree in the centre surrounded by stones with family names and members engraved on them. Both of these sites are graves/ memorials not touristy, commercial ventures like so many places have become.

To finish the tour Peteris drove me around the Old Ghetto area, where there is no sign of this past, but only of the decaying Soviet architecture. We visit the Old Jewish graveyard, used for mass killings- he tells me that the Russian-speaking man who lives opposites saw it all when he was a young boy, but didn't dare speak of it during Soviet times, he was traumatised by this. Except for 2 stone memorials on the site the cemetery is no longer recognisable, it is a park (created by the Soviets and named "Russian fighters park"), the Latvians have since name it Ebreju iela and Ebreju kapi (Jewish road and Jewish park). Whilst the park looks serene and beautiful, Peterais informs me that the hilly terrain is not natural: it was formed by the 1000s of dead bodies, of human bones.

The last stop is the excavated remains of one of the synagogues, which was burnt by the Nazis with local Jews inside. One can imagine the beauty that once stood here- not that long ago. The 1st memorial in 1991 was a stone block, but once the mass grave was dug up, the foundations were excavated and remain on display Since they have also built a beautiful memorial naming each of the victims.

On the way to the synagogue, we see the Jewish school and hospital which were eventually returned to the Jewish community. The school had been built under the 1st Russian occupation and the community had managed this by saying it would be a Russian-speaking school, therefore "Russianize" the Jewish community, of course the Russians loved this and allowed it to be built!! Alongside Russian, it taught Hebrew and the Torah.

Peterais' own story was very interesting, he had, not so long ago discovered his grandmother was Jewish, but had a Latvian name and after the war converted for ease of life (thus, he is still not particularly accepted in some of the Chassidic communities). Her family lived in the middle of a Jewish neighbourhood, but the Nazis did not wonder why and nobody betrayed them. Perhaps because his grandfather, a general in the Latvian army had been asked by KGB before, and now the Gestapo to join their forces (very much a "with us" or "against us" tactic). He only managed not to due to a "kind" person in the SS office who, when his wife went there, said they would call for him once more at a particular time and on a particular day, of they were not in, then he would be left alone. And so it was- he happened to be out at that time.

It seems the Jewish community have suffered for a long time in this city, they were accepted as great for Riga's economy between 14th-18th century, but found themselves placed outside of Riga's fortress in the Jewish hotel- poor conditions and expensive to live, but allowed to trade. The Russian Empire expelled and let them back, over and over again. They blamed the German-speaking Jews (of which, most of them were) for the success of the German army in the area during WW1 and expelled the entire 100,000 strong community to Siberia, only for 90,000 to return when Latvia got its independence in 1918. During this period Jewish culture flourished, Jews and Latvians were integrated, except for the close-knit Chassidic community. Jewish intellectualism and cultural groups sprung up everywhere, the Bund was allowed to flourish and young Jews gained skills in the countryside before many of them moved out to Kibbutz in Palestine. Those that did the latter praise Latvia for allowing them such freedom to do this and thus they escaped the Holocaust.

During Soviet and Nazi occupation Jews were sent to Gulags, concentration camps and shot- often on the same sites by both (such as Rumbula and Salaspils). Peterais informs me that the memorial at Salaspils is seen by some as a "cover up" for the fact it was built by the Soviets to commemorate Nazi victims, but in fact they had used the site too and were afraid this would be revealed. The Holocaust memorial by the station is confusing- the sign refers to the cattle carts sent to the Gulags, but it is advertised as the Holocaust memorial: maybe they are 2 combined?

However, one must not forget that for Latvia, the Holocaust lasted only a short time (dreadful and devastating, but much shorter than the majority of Europe), it was 3 years until they were "liberated/ incarcerated again" by the Soviets, but the killings happened mainly with 1 month. In comparison the torment of Jews and Latvians alike continued for 51 years: perhaps this is why there is such social cohesion, they have shared the same devastating history.