![Daina K., born in 1934: “After being rounded up on the Gostiņi stadium, the Jews were taken to the marshes [Kaķīši marshes] to be killed. Some time after, I heard gunshots coming from the marshes.” ©Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad - In Unum](/thumb/cache/2239f26349aef4310e9588c95da54fc9/65440/media_fichier_YIU_LV6_J4_ZEMGALE_Gostini_T165_01_10_2022_03.jpg)
1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Valda B., born in 1936: "I just want to add something so that people don't think all Latvians were murderers of Jews. There were two brothers, Lats [Lat], Menke, and Motke, who managed to escape. They lived on Vidzemes Street, and my cousin lived next door to them. After escaping, they took refuge in the forest and survived on whatever they could find. At one point, one of the brothers, Menke, was arrested by policemen who beat him and left him for dead in a ditch. A Latvian man named Stukle Kazimirs [according to other sources, a man named Vitolins], who was on his way to Kurmēni, found the boy [Menke] and took him with him. His family nursed him back to health, hid him, and allowed him to work on their farm. I visited this farm after the war. When the Soviet army arrived, Menke settled in Riga and sent a letter. He was asked to write this letter explaining that he had been hidden during the war so that he could obtain documents and leave for Israel. The original of this letter is now in the museum, but I made some copies for myself." (Testimony N°YIU163LV, interviewed in Gostiņi, on October 1, 2022)
"On July 31, 1941, I saw about 100 young Jewish men from Gostiņi, equipped with shovels, being taken away in the direction of Krustpils. On August 1, 1941, about 460 Jews, young and old, who were able to walk on their own, were taken to the "Kaķīši" marshes. In addition, young children and elderly people were transported there in truck that made trips back and forth all day long. This truck was filled to the brim. I couldn't say how many trucks there were. I saw all this because I was assigned to [collect? keep? illegible] the clothes of the Jews that remained at a place mentioned above." [Deposition of Andrei Andreievich Mednik given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on January 22, 1945; GARF 7021-93-2400/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; p.174]
Gostiņi, now part of the town of Pļaviņas, is a locality situated about 19 km northwest of Jēkabpils. The settlement of Gostiņi was established by Jews in the early 19th century, and by 1847, there were 192 Jewish residents living there. Its Yiddish name was Dankere, while its German name was Trentelberg. Until 1933, it was known as Glazmanka, its Russian name, but after obtaining town status, it was renamed Gostiņi.
By 1897, the number of Jews recorded as living there had increased to 1,976. Until the early 20th century, Gostiņi was an important commercial and economic center in the region, known for its Jewish craftsmen and merchants. During the First World War, many local Jews were forced into exile, as the village was located in the warfront zone. During the interwar period, a number of these Jewish refugees were able to return home, and in 1920 there were 544 Jewish residents, comprising 61% of the total population.
The Jewish community of Gostiņi was primarily engaged in commerce, handicrafts, and the service sector, operating 90 businesses and 70 small-scale industrial enterprises, including fishing, timber-rafting, and manufacturing. The Westerman tannery was the largest enterprise, known for its production of belts and sole leather. The town was home to 220 residential houses, four synagogues, a Jewish cemetery, a cheder, a Jewish school, a drama troupe, and a Bialik club. In 1935, when 504 Jews lived in Gostiņi, comprising 54% of the total population, Shaya Honoch Barkan became the rabbi of the town.
During this period, local Jews were active in the social and political life of the town, with many participating in the Bund and Zionist movements. In 1940, following the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union, Jewish community organizations and institutions were dissolved, and private businesses were nationalized.
Several Jewish families managed to evacuate Gostiņi after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, but around 60 Jewish families remained in the town on June 28, 1941, when it was occupied by German troops. Immediately afterward, a Self-Defense squad made up of 18 former Latvian policemen and Aizsargi members was established in the town. The school principal, Pēteris Reinfelds, became the head of the squad.
In early July 1941, the Jews of Gostiņi, around 300 people in total, were gathered in the town’s market square, where Reinfelds delivered a speech accusing the Jews of acting against the Latvian nation. Afterward, all the Jews were locked up in two synagogues, and one member from each Jewish family was allowed to return home to gather some belongings and food. During this procedure, Jewish valuables were confiscated and homes were locked up. Then, all the Jews were relocated to a designated area near the bridge over the Aiviekste River, where a ghetto was established. The victims remained in the ghetto for over two weeks under the guard of members of the Self-Defense squad. During this time, they were subjected to various types of forced labor, including agricultural work and clearing ruins in Pļaviņas.
On July 31, 1941 (or August 1, 1941, according to other sources), the Gostiņi ghetto was liquidated. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad, the ghetto inmates were gathered on the football field, where speeches were delivered by a German officer and Principal Reinfelds. Then, under the pretext of forced labor, the Jews were taken to the killing site in the Kaķīši marshes, located about 10 km away. Most of the victims were escorted there on foot by members of the Self-Defense squad, while the elderly and infirm were transported by vehicles. By that time, the Jews of Krustpils and Pļaviņas had also been gathered at the killing site. Upon arrival, a number of Jews were ordered to dig a pit; however, according to Soviet archives, the pit had already been dug the day before by requisitioned Jewish men. The victims—up to 1,700 people in total, including between 242 and 300 Jews from Gostiņi—were then shot by a unit of the Arājs Kommando and local Self-Defense squad members. After the killing, the pit was filled in by local residents, and the victims’ belongings were divided among the perpetrators.
In 1958, the victims’ remains were exhumed from the Kaķīši marshes and reburied in the Jewish cemetery in Asote.
Two Jews from Gostiņi, the Lat brothers, Motke and Menke, managed to survive the shooting, but only Menke survived the war, with the help of a Latvian family.
In 2005–2006, during restoration work at the Jewish cemetery of Gostiņi, a common grave of 14 Jewish adolescents from Gostiņi was discovered at the edge of the cemetery by a group of young people from Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, led by priest Klaus Peter Rex. These victims, who had been subjected to forced labor as shepherds, were initially spared during the Aktion at Kaķīši marshes and murdered in late autumn or early winter, after the cattle had been returned to the cowsheds. In 2006, a memorial was erected at the site by the Council of Jewish Communities in Latvia.
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