Things to do in Kurzeme Region, Latvia: The Best Points of Interest & Landmarks

Reviewed By Hawk470 - Baltimore, United States

In the infamy that is the World War II Holocaust, the execution of thousands of Jewish women and children in the Skede dunes outside of Liepaja, Latvia in December 1941 by the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators, often with spectators watching, is perhaps the most well-documented. Photographs and film, along with eye-witness testimony, tell the story of horrific, cold-blooded slaughter at a personal level. These are unique individuals, people like you and me, being led to trenches dug into the beach and shot. Nearly all of pre-War Liepaja Jewish population of 9,000 along with many thousands more Roma, Latvian civilians and Soviet prisoners of war were murdered in and around Liepaja. In a few short months, in 1941, the heirs to the 150 year history of the Liepaja Jewish community were snuffed out. Located just inland from those dunes, a short drive from the city center, you will find a magnificent memorial to the murdered and the righteous few who saved some of the remnant. The memorial to the murdered, dedicated in 2005, takes the form of a stone menorah (Jewish candelabra) lying down on the beach. Along the walk in from the parking area, stone pillars commemorate the 26 Non-Jews of Liepaja recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” and the 135 in all of Latvia for having risked their lives and those of their relatives to save Jews during the Holocaust. At the entrance and along the path you will find inscribed stones in several languages describing the atrocities and the creation of the memorial. Just beyond the top of the menorah and the stones with Hebrew inscriptions representing the lit candles, you will see a small dune crowned by beach grass and beyond that the sand, the wind, and the waves rolling as they did during those dark, December days and as they had for millennia before and decades since. Nearby, you will also find an earlier Soviet-era memorial for the Soviet prisoners of war murdered there. We visited on an appropriately overcast autumn day when the winds for which Liepaja in known (“The City Where The Wind Is Born”) swept in with a chilling, light rain. Walking along the path of the Righteous and within and around the stone arms of the menorah, pelted by the rain, the range of what humans are capable of became frighteningly clear.