The Holocaust II WW2
The Holocaust (Greek holos - all, no remnants; burned in caustics) - the mass extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories during World War II. The process of mass extermination of the Jews began with the Polish occupation. With the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the active phase of the Holocaust began. The Nazi secret so-called "final solution to the Jewish question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage) was intended to kill all Jews living in the USSR. In the second half of the 1930s, 93,479 Jews lived in Latvia (1935). The majority of German, Austrian, Hungarian and Czechoslovak Jews deported here during the war were also killed in Latvia. Genocide was also directed against the Roma and the mentally ill in Latvia. The Holocaust is the largest mass crime committed against the civilian population in the history of Latvia - approximately 73,000 Latvian Jews and 16,000 foreign Jews perished during the Nazi occupation.
The implementation of the Holocaust in German-occupied Latvia was initially carried out by the German security police and the SD special unit Einsatzgruppe A, the largest of the four such einzac groups. It was led by SS Brigadier General and Police Major General Walter Stahlecker. At first, various restrictions and prohibitions were introduced, followed by the registration of Jews, who were required to wear the symbol of Judaism, the six-pointed Star of David. The Jews were confiscated from their property, followed by their isolation and eventual murder. The first murders took place on June 23, 1941 in Grobiņa. The German military and civilian authorities needed to establish their power and involve the local population in the killings. They took place in all settlements with a small Jewish population. The main perpetrators of the killings were specially formed SD units under the leadership of Viktors Arājs and Mārtiņš Vagulāns.
Judas cult buildings - synagogues - were burned down. the second half of the choral synagogue on Gogoļa Street. On August 23, a ghetto was established in the suburbs of Moscow, healing 29,602 people. 14,000 ghettos were placed in the Daugavpils ghetto, and several thousand in the Liepaja ghetto. On November 30 and December 8, 1941, about 25,000 Jews brought from Latvia and 1,000 from Germany were killed under his leadership in Rumbula. Some 6,000 Jews were forced to live after the Rumbula massacre. In 1944, the survivors were deported to camps in Germany. The German Nazi occupation authorities also carried out genocide against members of the Latvian Roma (Roma) and the mentally ill. Approximately 2,000 Roma were killed in several Latvian cities, in psychiatric hospitals in Riga, Daugavpils, Liepaja, Strenči, etc. - approximately 2,327 people.
More information sources
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Related stories
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Three fragments of the stories of different people's memories have been deliberately chosen, which allows us to look more closely at the Holocaust crime from different points of view.
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