Online Store Contact us About us
yad vashem logo

Murder Story of Liepaja Jews in Rainis Park

Murder Site
Rainis Park
Latvia
The first murder operation took place on the first day of occupation, June 29, 1941, when the Einsaztkommando shot a group of Jews along with other Latvian activists in anti-tank ditches in Rainis Park. The killings were carried out by Einsatzkommando 1a, under the command of SS-Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Reichert. Groups of victims (according to different sources, between 33 and 150 men) that apparently comprised Jews and suspected political activists were ordered to march in line along Brivibas Street to the two ditches previously dug by the Red Army, 100 and 200 meters in length, where they were shot.

Estimates of the total number of victims varies from several dozen to about 300. The Soviet Extraordinary State Commission investigating Nazi crimes noted that (a seemingly exaggerated) 1,430 people were killed in Rainis Park.

Related Resources
ChGK Soviet Reports from Liepaja
... Around June 29-30, 1941, the German monsters carried out the mass murders of the innocent citizens. At about 5 am, the victims were placed in columns of 25-30 people and brought along the Brivibas Road to Rainis Park, where they were murdered. This continued for six to seven days. A number of trenches had already been dug in the park to defend the city: one of them was approximately 200 meters long, the second about 150 meters – both of them less than a meter wide and up to two meters deep. The Germans did not wish to dig their own pits and thus cause alarm among the residents of the city, so they used the already existing trenches. Thus, over a course of six to seven days, 1,430 people were murdered. Testimonies of a number of witnesses state that over a period of six to seven days, the sound of gunfire and the screams of the victims – “Comrades, save us!” – could be heard coming from the direction of the Park. After two to three weeks, when the stench from the Park had become overwhelming because the layer of earth covering the corpses was too thin, the Germans ordered Jewish residents to exhume the bodies, transport them in wagons and bury them outside the city. Then, in an effort to conceal their deeds, the Germans killed these Jews ....
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-93-2419 copy YVA M.33 / JM/21233; JM/21234
Rainis Park
garden
Murder Site
Latvia
56.504;21.016
Sketch of the Rainis Park murder site
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-93-2419 copy YVA M.33 / JM/21233; JM/21234