2 Killing site(s)
Nikolajs M., born in 1928: "During the shooting of the patients at the psychiatric hospital, one man managed to escape. I don’t know how he did it—it was a miracle, given the number of guards present. He made his way back to his family home, located about 6 to 8 km from mine. His family hid him there. He was very ill, but he lived in the village for about ten more years before he passed away." (Testimony N°YIU30LV, interviewed in Aglona, on May 6, 2019)
" […] According to investigative materials and the statements of local citizens, it has been established that from the very first days of the German occupation, beginning on June 29, 1941, the Nazis began mass arrests and executions of civilians in Aglona Parish, including residents of Somerseta village. The first to be arrested were Soviet activists who had not managed to evacuate into the interior of the USSR. Those detained were held in cellars and in the local bathhouse.
Around mid-July 1941, the entire Jewish population of Somerseta—56 people—was arrested and confined in the synagogue. The following day, they were taken about 250 meters from the village, in the direction of Aglona station, and shot in a pine grove near sand pits on the left side of the road. These arrests and executions were carried out on the orders of the German occupation authorities. The local organizers were: the field commandant of the district overseeing four parishes, L*** — a former captain of the Latvian army; the head of the Aizsargi unit, Z***; and a police representative, Rulais V*** (a list of those who carried out the executions is attached).
Before their arrest, by order of the German authorities, the Jewish population was required to wear yellow five-pointed stars on their clothing. During the arrests, Jews were beaten in an effort to force them to reveal the locations of their valuables. Mowshe Haller, Alter Lyak, and Nokhum Kagan were killed with rifle butts during their arrest. During the execution, the moans and cries of the victims, along with the desperate weeping of children, could be heard throughout the area. Of the 56 people shot, there were 10 men, 16 women, and 30 children.
The day after the execution, all Jewish property and valuables were looted and sent away on the orders of the German authorities.
The execution of the arrested Soviet activists was carried out on July 24, 1941, at the same location. Fourteen civilians from the parish were shot.
In August or early September 1941, near the Aglona Gymnasium building, approximately 700 people—children from an orphanage and psychiatric patients from a mental hospital—who had been brought from the city of Daugavpils, were shot on the orders of the German occupation authorities.
Before the Germans retreated in July 1944, eleven of the more than fifty partisans who had been arrested were shot. The rest were taken to Germany for forced labor. The partisans were executed in the same place, near the sand pits.
Thus, during the German occupation, 78 civilians from Aglona Parish were killed, including 30 children, along with 700 people brought from the city of Daugavpils. In total, 778 people were murdered.
In the spring of 1944, in an effort to conceal evidence of their crimes, German troops arrived at the execution sites in vehicles. They covered the sites with tarpaulins, exhumed the bodies of those shot in 1941, and burned them on pyres over the course of several days. Even after the cremation, human bones, teeth, and jaw fragments could still be found in the ashes.
We hold the German occupation authorities and their local nationalist-fascist collaborators responsible for the murders and torture committed against the civilian population of our parish." [Act drawn by State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK), on March 28, 1945, p. 11; GARF 7021-93-94/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
Aglona is situated approximately 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the city of Daugavpils. The Jewish community began settling in Aglona at the beginning of the 19th century and, over time, moved into nearby areas, including Rusoni, Somerseta (annexed to Aglona in 1961), and Jaunaglona. According to the 1935 census, the settlement of Somerseta had 57 Jewish residents, accounting for more than 20% of its total population.
In Somerseta, the Jewish community owned 12 houses and maintained both a prayer house and a Hebrew school. Jewish residents operated all four of the village’s textile shops—run by Beila Weiner, Boruch Lurie, Sarah Zilberman, and Hirsch Truskin. The only grocery store belonged to Naia Geller, while imported goods were sold by Nochum Kagan. The village butcher, Avsey Weiner, and the pharmacist, S. Dimanstein, were also members of the Jewish community.
Aglona was occupied by German troops on June 28, 1941. Soon after, a new administration was established in the town, including the creation of a Latvian auxiliary police force—known as the Self-Defense squad.
Not long after the German occupation began, anti-Jewish measures were introduced in the area. The Jewish residents of the village of Somerseta (today part of Aglona) were ordered to wear yellow five-pointed stars on their clothing as a means of identification. They were also subjected to forced labor, primarily agricultural work. Around mid-July 1941, all 56 Jewish inhabitants of Somerseta were gathered in the synagogue—though some accounts state it was a school. During the roundup, three individuals were killed.
The following day, the remaining Jews were marched under armed guard about 500 meters toward Aglona station. They were executed in a pine forest near the shore of Lake Cirīši. The Aktion was carried out by local police, while a German officer reportedly filmed the operation. In August 1941, another group of Jews—likely from nearby settlements—was brought to the same site and killed. In total, 96 Jewish victims were murdered there. Alongside the Jewish victims, Soviet activists, partisans, and soldiers who died during the war were also buried at the site.
After the destruction of the Jewish community of Aglona, all Jewish-owned property and valuables were looted and transported away.
Aglona also became a site of mass murder for children from nearby orphanages and mentally ill patients from the Daugavpils psychiatric hospital, among them Jewish individuals. After being transported to Aglona, the victims were confined in the Aglona Gymnasium for approximately three weeks before being taken to a site about 100 meters behind the building, where they were shot and buried. This Aktion took place on August 23, 1941, and was carried out by local policemen under German supervision. According to various sources, the total number of victims—including elderly people, women, and children—may have reached 700. One local witness, Nikolajs M. (born in 1928), interviewed by Yahad, recalled that one mentally ill person managed to escape from the killing site and survived the war.
In the spring of 1944, in an attempt to conceal evidence of the crime, the victims’ remains were exhumed and burned as part of Operation 1005.
After the war, monuments were erected at both sites. The killing site on the shore of Lake Cirīši is now known as the Communal Cemetery. The location where the Jewish victims were murdered and buried lies just behind the cemetery fence. In 2007, alongside the Soviet-era memorials, a separate monument was installed to commemorate the 96 Jewish victims.
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