1 Killing site(s)
Astrīda Z., born in 1939:
"Witness: On the other side of the forest was the house of my father’s grandparents. My cousins, who were older than me, lived there. They heard noises at night. They said they heard cars arriving, shooting in the forest, and that large pits were being dug where many people were buried. Our parents didn’t allow us to go in that direction, but my cousins still went, and that is how they saw the shootings and the bodies in the pits. It was on the other side of the forest. The victims were brought there at night to be killed. They were probably Jews. Some of them were half-naked. Maybe some had managed to escape, but I’m not sure.
YIU: Is this place far from the Padure Forest?
Witness: No, this is Padure Forest. The house of my grandparents was called Mezkrogs, but now it’s called Atmiņas.
YIU: Is the forest behind this house?
Witness: Yes. There are two roads: one goes to a kiln, and the other goes along the Venta River toward Mezkrogs. I also walked there once and saw that someone had left roses there, like at a grave." (Testimony N°YIU108LV, interviewed in Jelgava, on September 14, 2021)
"In July 1941—although I no longer remember the exact date—I arrived for work at the brickyard located in the Padura volost. The guard at the brickyard told me that during the night, in the Padura forest, about 1 km from our workplace, the Germans had shot Soviet citizens. Six other workers and I went into the forest to the place where the execution had taken place. We arrived very early, around seven in the morning. We saw many people who had been shot; some of them, though unconscious, were still moving their hands and feet.
We also saw two elderly women sitting by a tree and talking to each other. I don’t know what they were saying, because I did not go up to them. They had blood on their faces and hands. I assume these women had not been killed during the execution but only wounded. I do not know what happened to them afterward. When I looked at the people who had been shot, I saw that none of my relatives or acquaintances were among them, and I immediately returned to my work at the brickyard.
A few days later, from my workplace, I again heard gunfire coming from the same area of the Padura forest where I had seen with my own eyes the Soviet citizens shot by the Germans. The shooting continued for several days. It was obvious to all the brickyard workers that the Germans were continuing to execute Soviet citizens, but I no longer went into the forest after the executions because I was afraid.
I do not know where the people who were shot were buried, as I did not see the place. However, I was told (I no longer remember by whom) that there were many pits in the Padura forest in which the Soviet citizens were buried." [Deposition of Fritsis Mikhailovich Zveia, born in 1902, given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on June 6, 1945; GARF 7021-93-2415/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp. 168-172]
Kuldīga is situated approximately 152 km (94.5 mi) west of Riga and 80 km (50 mi) northeast of Liepāja. The town has been mentioned in written sources since the 13th century, but the Jewish population began to settle there only in the late 18th century. In the early 19th century, the community established its cemetery and organized a burial society (chevra kadisha). Soon afterward, a Talmud Torah school was created, along with a fund to assist impoverished brides (gmilut ḥasadim) and other Jewish charitable groups.
According to the 1835 census, Kuldīga had 2,330 Jewish residents, comprising 57% of the town’s total population. In 1850, there were 2,534 Jews, including 112 merchants and 1,137 craftsmen. In 1840, twenty-two Jewish families moved to agricultural settlements in southern Russia under a Czarist offer of land, tax exemptions, and relief from military service. Later in the century, an influx of Latvians caused the Jewish community to lose its majority. By 1897, Jews numbered 2,543, making up 26% of the town’s 9,720 inhabitants.
In the late 19th century, economic and political hardships prompted many Jews from Kuldīga to leave the town. Some moved to other parts of Latvia, particularly the port cities of Libau and Windau, while others emigrated to the United States or South Africa. By 1935, the Jewish population had fallen to 646 people, comprising about 9% of the town’s 7,000 residents. The sharp decline was largely the result of the First World War, during which the Jews of Courland were expelled into Russia and many community buildings were destroyed. Only about a third returned after the war, and the community was rebuilt with assistance from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Kuldīga was home to two synagogues, both built in the second half of the 19th century, as well as numerous Jewish societies, including a branch of the Jewish Women’s Palestine Society, a branch of the Jewish National Fund, and other Zionist organizations. By 1935, Jews owned 95 of the town’s 205 businesses.
In 1940, the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union marked a turning point for the region’s inhabitants, with the nationalization of private businesses and the closure of community institutions.
On the eve of the German occupation, some Jewish residents managed to evacuate the town, but about 600 remained in Kuldīga when German troops arrived.
Kuldīga was occupied by German troops on July 1, 1941. Immediately after the Red Army withdrew, Latvian activists killed several Jews, while others were forced into labor in the town and on nearby farms. Soon afterward, the Jews were gathered in the synagogue, which was turned into a temporary ghetto, and held there until their murder.
Regarding the destruction of the Jewish community in Kuldīga, the population was not gathered and murdered all at once. Instead, groups of Jews were killed in forests surrounding the town. Although sources differ on the precise dates and the number of victims, it is generally accepted that more than 600 Jews from Kuldīga—along with a number of non-Jewish victims—were murdered in two rural districts near the town: Padure parish (at the Krāces Forest and two nearby sites close to the Old School) and Rumba parish, where four killing sites have been identified. According to available sources, the killings began in mid-July 1941 and continued into early August. Today, all of these sites are marked with Soviet-era memorials dedicated to the victims of fascist terror, and several have since been supplemented with newer commemorative markers.
The killing sites in the Krāces (Padure) Forest in Padure parish are where Jewish residents of Kuldīga—including women, children, and the elderly—were taken by truck, with the vehicles making at least four return trips. The Aktion was carried out by the Latvian SD unit known as the Arājs Commando, which arrived from Riga with Viktors Arājs himself, assisted by local self-defence forces. Over the course of a single day, more than 300 Jews were murdered. They were forced to undress and were shot in groups of ten to fifteen beside pits that had been prepared beforehand. According to local residents interviewed by Yahad, the killings in the forest continued for several days.
Another location of mass killings is situated in the Kalnamuižas Forest in Rumba parish, where members of the local self-defence units shot an unknown number of Jews. Soviet archival records and the inscription on the monument claim that more than 600 people were killed in one of the pits, although the exact number of Jewish victims cannot be established. It is also possible that this figure represents the overall number of Jews from Kuldīga who were murdered during the war.
24 Jewish men, including Jewish specialists who had been temporarily spared during the Aktions conducted in Padure and Rumba parishes, were eventually killed and buried in two separate pits in the forest located near the Kuldīga–Aizpute road.
After the destruction of the Jewish population of the town, the victims’ property was divided among the locals. Some Jews managed to survive the war with the help of local farmers.
During its investigation in the area, the Yahad team—working on information provided by a local witness—identified the reburial site of some Holocaust victims and a number of Soviet activists. According to the witness, they were reinterred at Annas Cemetery in Kuldīga, where a large memorial now stands at the cemetery entrance.
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