Location of the monument:

Latitude: 55.920282
Longitude: 26.482071

The Nazi troops entered Daugavpils on 26 June 1941 and already on the first days of occupation launched the campaign to exterminate the Jews of Daugavpils. Pursuant to an order of 15 July 1941 all Jews had to move to the ghetto – a fortification on the left bank of the Daugava River. The majority of those imprisoned in the ghetto were Jews from Daugavpils; however, later a couple of thousand Jews from towns and rural areas in the vicinity were driven here – from Krāslava, Grīva, Višķi, Indra, Kārsava, Dagda, Ilūkste district and other places (also from Lithuania). In total approximately 15 000 to 20 000 Jews were placed in the ghetto, of which less than 100 persons survived.

On 8–9 November 1941, as the result of regular selection in the ghetto, 1134 Jews, children among them, were sent to Mežciems and shot.

In 1967, on the site of mass murder, close to the Mežciems Station a memorial obelisk was erected. In 1974 a memorial stone was placed, its inscription in Russian sates: “In this place on 8–9.11 1941 German fascists shot 2000 civilians – children and adults”.

 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.