2 Killing site(s)
Aldona B., born in 1930: "When the Germans arrived in Limbaži in 1941, I was staying there with my mother, while my father remained in Riga. At that time, the Germans were seen as liberators. They set up their commandant’s office in the building directly opposite our house, so we could see what was happening there.
The Jews were being held in the basement of that building. I saw them when they were taken out to fetch water. One day, they were taken away, and after that there were no Jews left in the town. Later, I learned that they had been shot.." (Testimony N°YIU10LV, interviewed in Limbaži, on October 12, 2018)
" […] On 3–4 July 1941, the occupation authorities carried out the execution of around 30 civilian residents of Limbaži, including my own sister, Zelma Zvaigzne, as well as other people I knew [a short list follows]. They were shot and buried near Lake Lielezers, about 2 km from the town. I know about the murder of these people because I personally saw them being taken out of the detention facility and led away to be executed. At that time, I myself was also being held in this detention facility, as I had been arrested. My sister was shot as a communist who held a responsible position.
In July 1941, I also saw with my own eyes a large group of Jews being taken to their execution by the occupation authorities. All the Jews of Limbaži were confined in the Kotsen building at 3 Darza Street and in the post office building. From there, they were transported by truck to the execution site
It later became known that these Jews were shot by the German occupation authorities in the forest known as Zale Stabini (“Green Columns”), located some 11–12 km from Limbaži on the road to Riga. In the truck, by my estimation, there were about 25 Jews, including women and children." [Deposition of Avrid Karlovitch Zalite, born in 1917, given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on January 16, 1945; GARF 7021-93-102/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp.167-168]
" […] In 1941, during the German occupation, sometime in August or September, the German authorities brought a large group of Jews—about 35 to 40 people—into the Kotsen building at 3 Darzu Street in Limbaži, where I was also living at the time.
At first, we residents were told to vacate the entire building. But since it was difficult to find other apartments for us, the occupation authorities agreed that we could stay on the upper floor, while the whole lower floor would be given to the Jews. So all the residents moved upstairs, and the Jews were settled on the lower floor. They were brought in from their homes, together with their families and their belongings.
At the beginning, the Jews lived in the building without guards. Later, guards were posted to watch the lower floor and to prevent the Jews from communicating with the rest of the residents. From what I could observe, during this time the occupation authorities used the Jews for all kinds of work, both in Limbaži and outside the town.
The Jews were held in our building for two or three weeks. Then, around September 1941, one morning—around 10 or 11 o’clock—they were loaded onto trucks and taken away in the direction of Riga. When this happened, I was at work and did not see it myself. When I returned home around five in the afternoon, the Jews were no longer there.
In front of the building, there was a truck and a car. The Germans were loading onto the truck the belongings the Jews had left behind—furniture and other items—and taking them away.
One or two days later, rumors spread in the town that the Jews from the Kotsen building had been taken by truck to a forest along the Limbaži–Riga road, about 11–12 kilometers from Limbaži, and shot there, at a place called Zale Stabini (“Green Columns”). It was said that they were buried there as well. I have never been to that place myself, so I cannot say for certain.
The group of Jews held in the Kotsen building was the last one, because some Jews had already been taken away earlier. There were eight children among the Jews who had been kept in our building." [Deposition of Ernest Yanovich Dirikis, born in 1910, given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on January 17, 1945; GARF 7021-93-102/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp.174-175]
" […] When German troops occupied Limbaži, mass arrests of civilian Soviet residents from the town and the surrounding area began. During July 1941, more than 200 people were arrested in the town and, on the orders of the occupying military authorities, were shot in Vilbaku Forest. They were buried there, at the site. The shootings were directed by a fascist punitive officer, Lieutenant Shvede.
On his orders, more than 30 Jews were arrested in Limbaži. Among them were people I knew personally: the Kotsen family; Maksis and his wife; the Belinsky family—husband, wife, and children; and a mute Jew whose surname I did not know, who worked as a blacksmith in the town. He too was arrested by the German executioners and shot on the way to Valmiera.
The bodies of the Jews who were shot lay in ditches along the Valmiera road, about three kilometers from the town. I do not know where they were later buried." [Deposition of Hermanis Teodorovich Rabe, born in 1895, given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on February 11, 1945; GARF 7021-93-102/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp.178-179]
Limbaži is a town in northern Latvia, located approximately 90 km (56 mi) northeast of Riga. Jews began settling in Limbaži in the 1860s. By 1881, the town had 254 Jewish residents, representing about 14 percent of the total population. Over the following decades, this number declined significantly, particularly during the First World War, after which only 95 Jews remained. According to the 1935 census, Limbaži counted 100 Jewish residents, or roughly 3.5 percent of its population.
Limbaži was home to a Jewish ritual bath (mikveh) and a prayer house. The Jewish community was primarily engaged in commerce and various artisanal trades, operating 9 of the town’s 139 commercial establishments. Jewish residents sold ready-made clothing, hats, shoes, watches and clocks, as well as horses and leather goods.
In 1940, the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union marked a turning point for the town’s inhabitants, with the nationalization of private businesses and the closure of communal institutions, including those of the Jewish community.
The exact number of Jews who remained in Limbaži on the eve of the German invasion is unknown. However, according to the testimony of Aldona B., born in 1930 and interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, several Jewish families were still living in the town at that time. Only ten Jews are reported to have managed to evacuate before the arrival of German forces.
After the launch of Operation Barbarossa and the withdrawal of Red Army troops from Limbaži, the town came under the control of Latvian National Partisans. On July 5, 1941, they established a Self-Defense squad and a Latvian command unit, several days before the arrival of German forces on July 10, 1941.
During this interim period, the new authorities began persecuting individuals suspected of loyalty to the Soviet regime. A number of Soviet activists, together with three Jews—Nisson Faiva Levin, Wulf Leiba Levin, and Lazar Kainer—were arrested. In total, around 30 people were taken to the shore of Lake Lielezers, where they were shot. After the war, the victims’ remains were reburied on Kezberu Hill in Limbaži, where a memorial stands today.
The remaining Jewish residents of Limbaži were arrested shortly thereafter and confined in two separate locations, according to Soviet archival sources: a residential building at 3 Darza Street and the Post Office building on Burtnieku Street. According to the testimony of Aldona B., born in 1930 and interviewed by Yahad, the Post Office building had been converted during the occupation into the German Commandant’s Office and Gendarmerie.
Jewish detainees were forbidden from communicating with non-Jewish residents or using the sidewalks. They were subjected to forced labor, which included burying the bodies of people killed during the initial fighting.
The majority of the Jewish population of Limbaži was murdered during two Aktionen carried out in July 1941 on the orders of German authorities based in Valmiera. The first Aktion took place between July 15 and 20, 1941, when a group of approximately 35–40 Jews was taken to a forest about 1 km from the crossroads known as Zaļie Stabiņi, near Lādezers, and shot.
The second Aktion occurred around July 20, 1941, when 33 Jews were shot in Vilbaku Forest, located 3–4 km from Limbaži. Today, a memorial stands along the highway not far from the killing site in Vilbaku Forest, bearing the inscription: “In this forest, in the summer of 1941, fascists shot Soviet citizens.”
In addition, several Jews from Limbaži were transferred to Valmiera, while between 10 and 12 Jews were shot in Vidriži in September 1941.
After the destruction of the Jewish community of Limbaži, the victims’ belongings were looted, and some of their clothing was sold.
For further information on the murder of Jews from Limbaži in Lādezers (Zaļie Stabiņi) and Vidriži, please refer to the corresponding profiles.
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