Metadata : Autobiographies of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Latvia
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Museum “Jews in Latvia”
- Holding institution (official language):
- Muzejs “Ebreji Latvijā”
- Postal address:
- Skolas iela 6, Rīga, LV-1010
- Phone number:
- +371 6728 3484
- Web address:
- http://www.jewishmuseum.lv/
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Museum “Jews in Latvia”
- Holding institution (official language):
- Muzejs “Ebreji Latvijā”
- Postal address:
- Skolas iela 6, Rīga, LV-1010
- Phone number:
- +371 6728 3484
- Web address:
- http://www.jewishmuseum.lv/
- Title:
- Autobiographies of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Latvia
- Title (official language):
- Holokaustā izdzīvojušo Latvijas ebreju autobiogrāfijas
- Date(s):
- 1985/1995
- Date note:
- Late 1980s-early 1990s
- Language:
- Russian
- Latvian
- German
- English
- Extent:
- about 100 autobiographies
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- A collection of about 100 autobiographies of Jewish Holocaust survivors in Latvia was compiled in the museum “Jews in Latvia” in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During these years, people confined to the ghetto could receive state benefits. For this, it was necessary to write their brief biography. These autobiographies are handwritten or typed; on average, each autobiography is 2-3 pages. In it, a person usually tells when and where they were born, their family details, how they were interned in the ghetto, what happened there, how they managed to survive, where they worked after the war and at that time. Among these autobiographies there is, for example, the story of a journalist Semyon Shpungin, who was put into the Daugavpils ghetto at the age of 12, but managed to escape. When Semyon was caught on the border with Poland, he was returned to Daugavpils but he was able to convince the German police that he was a refugee from Bryansk and that his father was Tatar and his mother was Russian. Semyon Shpungin describes these events in detail in his memoirs. The museum collection also contains the autobiography of Mendel Bash, the famous composer, conductor, and professor of the Latvian Academy of Music. He managed to survive in the Riga ghetto "Lenta". These documents facilitate the study of the history of the Holocaust in Latvia, the family history of Latvian Jews, and the history of the crimes of the Nazis.
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Nazi troops occupied Latvia in early July 1941. There are more than 200 sites in Latvia where mass executions of Jews were carried out during the Second World War. More than 70,000 Latvian Jews as well as Jews deported from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other European countries were exterminated here. The occupation authorities created ghettos in Riga, Daugavpils and Liepaja, as well as a number of concentration camps, in particular Salaspils, Jungfernhof and Kaiserwald. Historians believe that there are approximately 300-1000 Latvian Jews who survived the Holocaust in addition to those who were in the Soviet army or who were evacuated.
- Access points: locations:
- Daugavpils
- Riga
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova
- Title:
- Autobiographies of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Latvia
- Title (official language):
- Holokaustā izdzīvojušo Latvijas ebreju autobiogrāfijas
- Date(s):
- 1985/1995
- Date note:
- Late 1980s-early 1990s
- Language:
- Russian
- Latvian
- German
- English
- Extent:
- about 100 autobiographies
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- A collection of about 100 autobiographies of Jewish Holocaust survivors in Latvia was compiled in the museum “Jews in Latvia” in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During these years, people confined to the ghetto could receive state benefits. For this, it was necessary to write their brief biography. These autobiographies are handwritten or typed; on average, each autobiography is 2-3 pages. In it, a person usually tells when and where they were born, their family details, how they were interned in the ghetto, what happened there, how they managed to survive, where they worked after the war and at that time. Among these autobiographies there is, for example, the story of a journalist Semyon Shpungin, who was put into the Daugavpils ghetto at the age of 12, but managed to escape. When Semyon was caught on the border with Poland, he was returned to Daugavpils but he was able to convince the German police that he was a refugee from Bryansk and that his father was Tatar and his mother was Russian. Semyon Shpungin describes these events in detail in his memoirs. The museum collection also contains the autobiography of Mendel Bash, the famous composer, conductor, and professor of the Latvian Academy of Music. He managed to survive in the Riga ghetto "Lenta". These documents facilitate the study of the history of the Holocaust in Latvia, the family history of Latvian Jews, and the history of the crimes of the Nazis.
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Nazi troops occupied Latvia in early July 1941. There are more than 200 sites in Latvia where mass executions of Jews were carried out during the Second World War. More than 70,000 Latvian Jews as well as Jews deported from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other European countries were exterminated here. The occupation authorities created ghettos in Riga, Daugavpils and Liepaja, as well as a number of concentration camps, in particular Salaspils, Jungfernhof and Kaiserwald. Historians believe that there are approximately 300-1000 Latvian Jews who survived the Holocaust in addition to those who were in the Soviet army or who were evacuated.
- Access points: locations:
- Daugavpils
- Riga
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova
