Liepaja Police Building or "Blue Miracle"
Infrastructure

In Liepāja, the communist occupation regime's institution, the militia, was located in a building at 19 Republikas Street, which the people of Liepāja had called the "Blue Miracle" since its construction at the beginning of the 20th century. The headquarters of the Cheka, on the other hand, was located at 19 Toma Street. Shortly after the occupation, it acquired the social designation "Red Miracle".

In the course of the investigation of the crimes of the communist regime to date, it has been established that no executions or extrajudicial executions took place directly in either the Liepāja Cheka building, i.e. the “Red Miracle”, or in the prison. All detainees who were in these places, due to the outbreak of hostilities in the territory of Latvia, starting from June 23, 1941, were transferred to prisons in Russia. This affected both detainees who were arrested for so-called “political” crimes and criminal offenders, regardless of whether the person was under investigation or had already received a sentence.

The transfer of prisoners was determined by the order No. 2455/M of the People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR Vsevolod Merkulov of June 23, 1941, which was addressed to the chiefs of the NKGB of the Latvian SSR, the Estonian SSR and several regions of the Ukrainian SSR. The reason for the shooting was terrible and tragic – it was no longer possible to transfer the prisoners to Russia, but it was not allowed to leave them alive. As a result, during the war, extrajudicial shootings of residents also took place in Liepāja, similar to the Riga Central Prison, Valmiera Prison, Valka and Rēzekne militia, and Greizā kalns near Ludza. The aforementioned crime took place in the “Blue Miracle” – the Liepāja militia building, at Republikas Street 19.