Site of massacre:

Latitude: 57.517745
Longitude: 26.702323

The Nazi troops entered Ape on 11 July 1941, and on the very same day local self–defenders killed 11 residents of Ape in the Jaši Pine Forest – among them two Jewish women – Zilya Ratut and Anna Gruzin. Soon afterwards all Jews of the town were arrested. Mass–scale murdering of Jews took place on 13 August, when all arrested Jews were taken to Krustceļa (Meža) Graveyard (approximately 3km from Ape), where the Latvian SD unit (“Arājs’ Commando”) together with local self–defenders shot them (approximately 96 Jews in total).

The victims were reinterred from the site of massacre at the Krustceļa (Meža) Cemetery in the Ape Brethren Cemetery. There is no memorial sign at the place of massacre.

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.