Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:05:11.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mortal threat: Latvian Jews at the dawn of Nazi occupation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Daina S. Eglitis  and
Didzis Bērziņš
Daina S. Eglitis*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Didzis Bērziņš
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In late June 1941, Nazi Germany stormed the borders of the Soviet Union, occupying the three Baltic republics within weeks. By the end of 1941, a significant proportion of the Jewish population had been murdered by German forces and local collaborators. In the days before full Nazi occupation of the territory, Latvia's Jews confronted the question of whether to flee into the Russian interior or stay in their communities. History shows that this would be a critical choice. Testimonies and memoirs of Jewish survivors illuminate the competing motivations to leave or to remain. This article highlights the key factors that figured into these calculations and the interaction between individual agency and structural opportunities and obstacles in determining where Latvia's Jews were when Holocaust in their homeland began.

Keywords

LatviaHolocaustJewish communityWorld War IIflight decisions
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 6: Special Section: The evolution of nationhood in 20th century Europe: Lessons from the Northern Adriatic borderlands , November 2018 , pp. 1063 - 1080
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitch, Maja. 2002. To Forgive … But Not Forget: Maja's Story. Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell.Google Scholar
Adler, Eliyana. 2014. “Hrubieszów at the Crossroads: Polish Jews Navigate the German and Soviet Occupations.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 28 (1): 1–30.Google Scholar
Aichers, R. 1937. “Kā klājas Vācijas žīdiem?” Jaunākās ziņas December 31: 15.Google Scholar
Altschuler, Mordichai. 1994. “Escape and Evacuation of Soviet Jews at the Time of the Nazi Invasion: Policies and Realities.” In The Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941–1945, edited by Dobroszycki, Lucjan and Gurock, Jeffrey S., 77–104. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Amosova, Svetlana, ed. 2013. Utrachennoe sosedstvo: Evrei v kulturnoi pamiati zhitelei Latgalii. Materiali ekspeditsii 2011–2012. Moscow: Centr nautsnih rabotnikov i prepodovatelej iudaiki “Shefer”; Riga: Museum of Jews in Latvia.Google Scholar
Anders, Edward. 2010. Amidst Latvians During the Holocaust. Riga: Occupation Museum Association of Latvia.Google Scholar
Bartov, Omer. 2011. “Wartime Lies and Other Testimonies: Jewish-Christian Relations in Buczacz, 1939–1944.” East European Politics and Societies 25 (3): 486–511.Google Scholar
Bergmanis, Aleksandrs. 2011. Zemcilvēka piezīmes. Riga: Latvijas ebreju kopiena; muzejs “Ebreji Latvijā”.Google Scholar
Bleiere, Daina. 2009. “Latvijas sovjetizācijas sākumposms. Ebreju loma. 1940. gada jūnijs – 1941. gada jūlijs.” In Latvijas ebreji un padomju vara. 1928–1953, edited by Dribins, Leo, 116–152. Riga: Latvijas Universitātes Filozofijas un sociologijas institūts.Google Scholar
Bolin, Per. 2012. Between National and Academic Agendas: Ethnic Policies and “National Disciplines” at the University of Latvia, 1919–1940. Huddinge: Södertörns högskola.Google Scholar
zeme, Brīvā. 1938. “Minchenes žīdiem 48 stundās jāatstāj Vācija.” November 11: 6.Google Scholar
Dubson, Vadim. 1999. “On the Problem of the Evacuation of Soviet Jews in 1941 (New Archival Sources).” Jews in Eastern Europe 3 (40): 37.Google Scholar
Ērglis, Dzintars. 2005. “A Few Episodes of the Holocaust in Krustpils.” In The Hidden and Forbidden History of Latvia Under Soviet and Nazi Occupation 1940–1991: Symposium of the Commission of the Historians of Latvia, Volume 14, edited by Nollendorfs, Valters and Oberländer, Erwin, 175–187. Riga: Latvijas vēstures instituta apgāds.Google Scholar
Feigin, Gerta. 2006. Years of Endurance. Riga: Self-published.Google Scholar
Freimane, Valentīna. 2010. Ar dievu, Atlantīda. Riga: Atena.Google Scholar
Geissbuhler, Simon. 2014. “'He Spoke Yiddish Like a Jew': Neighbors' Contribution to the Mass Killing of Jews in Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, July 1941.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 28 (3): 430–449.Google Scholar
Gross, Jan. 2001. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kaganovitch, Albert. 2010. “Jewish Refugees and Soviet Authorities During World War II.” Yad Vashem Studies 38 (2): 85–121.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Marian. 1998. Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lasmanis, Uldis. 2008. “Holocaust in the Town of Jēkabpils.” In Holokausta Pētniecības Problēmas Latvijā, Latvijas vēsturnieku komisijas raksti, 23. sējums, edited by Ērglis, Dzintars, 260–286. Riga: Latvijas vēstures instituta apgāds.Google Scholar
Levin, Dov. 1975. “The Jews and the Sovietisation of Latvia, 1940–41.” Soviet Jewish Affairs 5 (1): 39–56.Google Scholar
Levin, Dov. 1990a. “The Fateful Decision: The Flight of Jews into the Soviet Interior in the Summer of 1941.” Yad Vashem Studies XX: 115–142.Google Scholar
Levin, Dov. 1990b. “On the Relations Between the Baltic Peoples and Their Jewish Neighbors Before, During and After World War II.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 5(1): 53–66.Google Scholar
Levin, Dov. 1991. “The Sovietization of the Baltics and the Jews, 1940–1941.” Soviet Jewish Affairs 21 (1): 53–58.Google Scholar
Levin, Dov. 1995. The Lesser of Two Evils: Eastern European Jewry Under Soviet Rule, 1939–1941. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.Google Scholar
Lumans, Valdis. 2006. Latvia in World War II. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Manley, Rebecca. 2009. To the Tashkent Station: Evacuation and Survival in the Soviet Union at War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Max. 2010. Churbn Lettland: The Destruction of Jews in Latvia. Konstanz: Hartung-Gorre Verlag.Google Scholar
Michelson, Frida. 1979. I Survived Rumbuli. New York: Holocaust Library.Google Scholar
Ratz, Jack. 2004. Endless Miracles. New York: Shengold.Google Scholar
Ročko, Josifs. 2008. “No Daugavpils holokausta vestures.” In Holokausta izpētes problēmas Latvijā, edited by Caune, Andris, Stranga, Aivars and Vestermanis, Margers, 213–239. Riga: Latvijas vēstures instituta apgāds.Google Scholar
Scheinker, Arkadius. 2010. Shoah in Riga: The Story of a Jewish Family. Philadelphia, PA: Kopel.Google Scholar
Shternshis, Anna. 2014. “Between Life and Death: Why Some Soviet Jews Decided to Leave and Others to Stay in 1941.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 15 (3): 477–504.Google Scholar
Snyder, Timothy. 2015. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. New York: Tim Duggan Books.Google Scholar
Šteimanis, Josifs. 2002. History of Latvian Jews. Revised and edited by Anders, Edward. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs.Google Scholar
Stranga, Aivars. 1997. Ebreji un diktatūras Baltijā (1926.-1940.). Rīga: N.I.M.S.Google Scholar
Stranga, Aivars. 2005. “The Holocaust in Occupied Latvia: 1941–1945.” In The Hidden and Forbidden History of Latvia Under Soviet and Nazi Occupation 1940–1991: Symposium of the Commission of the Historians of Latvia, Volume 14, edited by Nollendorfs, Valters and Oberländer, Erwin, 161–174. Riga: Latvijas vestures instituta apgāds.Google Scholar
Stranga, Aivars. 2008. Ebreji Baltijā: no ienākšanas pirmsākumiem līdz holokaustam, 14. gadsimts-1945. gads. Riga: žurnāla Latvijas Vesture fonds.Google Scholar
Stranga, Aivars. 2009. “Latvijas okupācija 1940. gada 17. jūnijā un ebreji.” In Latvijas ebreji un padomju vara. 1928–1953, edited by Dribiņš, Leo, 69–115. Riga: Latvijas Universitātes Filozofijas un sociology as institūts.Google Scholar
Tomsone, Lolita, and Tīrons, Uldis. 2017. “Eju tumšā mežā kā mājās” [interview with M. Vestermanis]. Rīgas laiks, Accessed January 5, 2017. https://www.rigaslaiks.lv/zurnals/sarunas/eju-tumsa-meza-ka-majas-18802.Google Scholar
Tseitlin, Shmuel. 1989. Dokumentalnaia istoria evreiev Riigii. Israel: Self-published.Google Scholar
Volkovičs, Boriss. 2008. “Ebreji Latvijā starp diviem pasaules kariem (Ievadlekcija).” In Ebreju iznīcināšana Latvijā 1941–1945. Lekciju cikls, edited by Barkahan, Menahen, 5–31. Riga: Biedrība “Šamir”.Google Scholar
Vulfsons, Mavriks. 1998. Nationality Latvian? No, Jewish. Cards on the Table. Riga: Jumava.Google Scholar