Location of the monument:

Latitude: 57.317261
Longitude: 22.601960

The beginning of July 1941, when the Nazi troops entered Valdemārpils, was the onset of imposing restrictions upon Jews – expropriation, order to wear the yellow circle, etc. Approximately 50–60 Jewish men of the town, who were capable of work, were sent to Mežgravas (approximately 5 km from Valdemārpils) to dig peat, where they were shot on 7 August. The remaining Jews were arrested at the end of July and placed in buildings on Kr. Valdemārs Street, from where on 26 July self–defenders from Talsi took them to a forest near Jaunciems–Kaltene road and shot them (approximately 70 Jews).

In 2007 the Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia erected a memorial stone on the site of massacre in Mežgravas (approximately 100 – 150 m from Medņi Farmstead, it bears an inscription in Latvian: “In this forest on 7 August 1941 German Nazis and their supporters killed 56 Jews”.

 Further reading

• Meler M. Jewish Latvia: Sites to Remember. Tel-Aviv: Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel, 2013.
• Ezergailis A. The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941-1944: The Missing Center. Riga: The Historical Institute of Latvia; Washington, DC: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996.

Search for the related names of Jews at http://names.lu.lv.