Partisan Dugout Shelter of Veseta and “White Cross” Memorial Site
Memorial site

The Veseta Partisan Dugout and the “White Cross” memorial site are located in the Veseta floodplain swamp. After the Second World War, the so-called Pārups Group was ope rating in Vietalva. Rihards Pārups (1914–1946) was the leader of the group. During the Second World War, he was a sergeant of the 15th Latvian Division of the German Army. He participated in national partisan operations in the vicinity of Jēkabpils and Madona. During its short existence, Pārups Group took part in more than 20 armed clashes with the units of the Ministry of the Interior of the time. The Colonel Kotov of Cheka, in his report to his superiors in Riga, indicated that, as a result of the activities of the group, the Soviet authorities in the Jēkabpils and Madona districts were paralysed. National partisans led by Pārups found and destroyed several de portation lists, thus saving the lives of multiple people. Unable to destroy the national partisan unit in open combat, the leadership of the Soviet Security Committee infiltrated four members of the Cheka special force into the group. On the night of 2 July 1946, these agents shot ten partisans of the unit, including Rihards Pārups. The burial place of the fallen is unknown, but a commemorative plaque has been erected at the Brothers’ Cemetery in Riga to commemorate them. The “White Cross” memorial site is situated next to Veseta Partisans Dugout. It is a 3-metre-high white cross with a plaque inscribed with the names of partisans who fell on 2 July 1946.