2 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Jānis O., born in 1936: "Before the war, Jews, Roma, Poles, Lithuanians, and Latvians lived in Tukums. The town was religiously diverse—Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians all had their own places of worship. The Jewish community was large and well integrated. There was no separate Jewish quarter; people lived side by side in harmony and maintained good relations. Jews in Tukums worked in various professions, including as engineers, butchers, and merchants. A synagogue stood in the center of town; it was later converted into a sports hall. The Roma community was settled and mainly worked with horses." (Testimony N°YIU102LV, interviewed in Saldus, on September 11, 2021)
"The German perpetrators did not limit themselves to mistreatment and torture. Near Lake Valgums, 10 km from Tukums, they carried out a mass extermination of Soviet citizens. Between July 1941 and June 1942, about 2,500 people were killed there and buried in ten large mass graves, each 2–3 meters deep. […]
According to local residents who were eyewitnesses, the exterminations of civilians near Lake Valgums were carried out regularly throughout the entire period of occupation.
When questioned about the exterminations of civilians in Tukums, Sturmans Avgust Yanovich, a driver who had transported condemned persons several times to the execution site near Lake Valgums, testified as follows: "A few days after the arrival of the Germans in Tukums, about 500 Jews, including women, children, and the elderly, were locked in the synagogue on Elizavetinskaya Street [Elizabetes iela], then taken by truck to the Milzkalne volost and shot in the forest near Lake Valgums. By order of the German Kommandant of the town, I had to, as a driver using my own truck, transport civilians to the execution site eight times. In September 1941, I transported Jewish families on three occasions, about 100 people in total; I also transported political prisoners from the Tukums prison five times. In 1942, the Germans began to exterminate the Roma. They were shot at the same place. According to my own estimates, more than 1,500 people were executed in the pits that I know of."
Another driver, Alksnis Yanis Yanovich, who took part in transporting the condemned to the place of extermination, gave the following testimony: "In October 1941, by order of the head of the insurance company, I took the assistant to the chief of police, Uert, to Lake Valgums, where the Germans and Latvian Schutzmänner under his command shot Latvian prisoners. In June 1942, when I was working as a truck driver, I had to take Roma families to Lake Valgums. In my truck, I transported about 20 people. In total, 12 trucks were used to bring the victims there. That night, more than 200 Roma were shot."
Another driver, Dreja Edouard Krichianovich, who had taken part in transporting Roma families to the execution site in June 1941, was questioned about the shooting of the Roma and testified as follows: "In June 1942, all 20 trucks in the town were requisitioned. That night, in those trucks, 300 Roma were taken to the killing site and shot."
Shootings also took place near Vecmoku-muiža [Vecmoku Manor], Vecmoku volost, where a pit measuring 2.5 m by 1.5 m was discovered next to the hamlet of Vilksali, as well as another pit measuring 2.5 m by 1.8 m located in the same volost, along with additional pits found in other locations." [Act drawn by State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK), on July 10, 1945; GARF 7021-93-134/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp. 8-11]
"As a driver responsible for transporting civilians to the site of the mass shooting, I had to go to Lake Valgums eight times, where I witnessed the bloody extermination carried out by the German executioners. It is not easy to describe this scene: the drunken Schutzmänner brought their victims to the edge of the pit and shot them without mercy, even though there were children and even babies among those condemned. The Jewish women who were standing and whom the Schutzmänner forced toward the pits screamed loudly—along with their children—begging their executioners for mercy. When Jewish families were shot, they were brought to the edge of a pit in groups of six. The Jews stood facing the pit, and the Schutzmänner, who stood about 50 meters behind them, shot them in the back of the head with rifles." [Interrogation report of the detainee Sturmans Avgust Yanovich given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on Juny 4, 1945; GARF 7021-93-134/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp.28-29]
Tukums is located about 63 km (39 miles) west of Riga. The Jewish community in the town was established around 1765, around the same time as the founding of the Jewish cemetery. By 1850, Tukums had 2,887 Jewish residents—nearly half the population. The 1897 census recorded 2,561 Jews (about 34%), and by 1910 the town had a Jewish boys’ school and a Talmud Torah. The First World War and Tsarist deportations caused a sharp decline, leaving only 597 Jews by 1920. The community later grew slightly, reaching 953 people in 1935, about 12% of the town’s population.
The Jewish community of Tukums played a central role in the town’s economic and social life. Most Jews were engaged in commerce and artisanal trades, operating shops that sold textiles, shoes, pastries, perfumes, underwear, hardware, hats, office supplies, and groceries, as well as running butcher shops and other small businesses. The town held two market days each week and ten annual fairs. Jewish entrepreneurs also owned a mill, a bookstore with a printing house, and a distillery. Several Jewish doctors, dentists, and a pharmacist served the local population. Religious and community life was well developed, with two synagogues, a Jewish school, and several cultural and social organizations, including the Maccabi sports society, the local branch of the Union of Jewish Craftsmen in Latvia, a Jewish mortgage and savings bank, a Zionist youth association, and the Latvian Society for Aiding the Colonization of Palestine.
In 1940, Tukums was annexed by the Soviet Union, and in 1941, shortly before the German invasion, many people across Latvia were deported to Siberia. At that time, Tukums was a multicultural town where Jews lived alongside Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, and Roma. Only a small number of Jews managed to evacuate, while the majority—about 500 people—remained in the town when it was occupied by German forces.
Tukums was occupied by German troops on July 1, 1941. Immediately afterward, a new administration was established, including the formation of a Latvian Self-Defense squad composed of former policemen, military personnel, and members of the Aizsargi and the Pērkonkrusts organization. Over the following days, the new authorities staged a “trial” targeting prominent members of the local Jewish intelligentsia. Accused of collaborating with the Communists and assisting in the deportation of Latvian citizens to Siberia, several Jews were taken to a forest in the Vecmokas area, about 10 kilometers from the town, where they were killed by the local Self-Defenders. Today, a monument stands at the site to commemorate the victims.
In early July 1941, the remaining Jews of Tukums—estimated at around 500 according to Soviet archives, or approximately 300 according to other sources—were ordered to gather with their valuables at the synagogue on Elizavetinskaya Street. There, they were registered, their possessions were confiscated by the district police, and lists of detainees were handed over to the German field command.
The Jews were held in the synagogue under the guard of the local Self-Defenders for about a week. In mid-July 1941, they were loaded onto trucks in groups of twenty and taken to an area near Lake Valgums, about 13 km from the town, where old bunkers, dating from 1914–1915, were located. There, the victims were shot in groups by the local Self-Defenders and buried in pre-dug pits.
Mass killings of Latvians and Roma continued at the same site for approximately a year. According to Soviet archives, between July 1941 and June 1942, more than 2,500 people were shot and buried in eight to ten large mass graves, each two to three meters deep.
In the mid-1950s, a monument was erected at the killing site near Lake Valgums by the local Jewish community. Rabbi Levi Lichtenstein of Tukums, whose remains were identified among the victims, was reburied in the Tukums Jewish Cemetery.
¿Tiene información adicional con respecto a un pueblo que le gustaría compartir con Yahad?
Por favor contáctenos a contact@yahadinunum.org
o llamando a Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17