This name became a symbol of the brutal attitude of the Nazis towards captured children.
During the three years of the camp’s existence (1941–1944), according to various sources, about one hundred thousand people died in Salaspils, seven thousand of them were children.
The place from which you never return
This camp was built by captured Jews in 1941 on the territory of a former Latvian training ground 18 kilometers from Riga near the village of the same name. According to documents, initially “Salaspils” (German: Kurtenhof) was called an “educational labor” camp, and not a concentration camp.
The area was of impressive size, fenced with barbed wire, and was built up with hastily constructed wooden barracks. Each was designed for 200-300 people, but often there were from 500 to 1000 people in one room.
Initially, Jews deported from Germany to Latvia were doomed to death in the camp, but since 1942, “undesirables” from a variety of countries were sent here: France, Germany, Austria, and the Soviet Union.
The Salaspils camp also became notorious because it was here that the Nazis took blood from innocent children for the needs of the army and abused young prisoners in every possible way.
Full donors for the Reich
New prisoners were brought in regularly. They were forced to strip naked and sent to the so-called bathhouse. You had to walk half a kilometer through the mud, and then wash yourself in ice water. After this, those who arrived were placed in barracks and all their belongings were taken away.
There were no names, surnames, or titles - only serial numbers. Many died almost immediately; those who managed to survive after several days of captivity and torture were “sorted.”
Children were separated from their parents. If the mothers were not given back, the guards took the babies by force. There were terrible screams and screams. Many women went crazy; some of them were placed in the hospital, and some were shot on the spot.
Infants and children under six years of age were sent to a special barracks, where they died of hunger and disease. The Nazis experimented on older prisoners: they injected poisons, performed operations without anesthesia, took blood from children, which was transferred to hospitals for wounded soldiers of the German army. Many children became “full donors” - their blood was taken from them until they died.
Considering that the prisoners were practically not fed: a piece of bread and a gruel made from vegetable waste, the number of child deaths amounted to hundreds per day. The corpses, like garbage, were taken out in huge baskets and burned in the crematorium ovens or dumped in disposal pits.
Covering my tracks
In August 1944, before the arrival Soviet troops, in an attempt to erase traces of the atrocities, the Nazis burned down many barracks. The surviving prisoners were taken to the Stutthof concentration camp, and German prisoners of war were kept on the territory of Salaspils until October 1946.
After the liberation of Riga from the Nazis, the commission to investigate Nazi atrocities discovered 652 children's corpses in the camp. Mass graves and human remains were also found: ribs, hip bones, teeth.
One of the most terrible photographs, clearly illustrating the events of that time, is the “Salaspils Madonna”, the corpse of a woman hugging dead baby. It was established that they were buried alive.
The truth hurts my eyes
Only in 1967, the Salaspils memorial complex was erected on the site of the camp, which still exists today. Many famous Russian and Latvian sculptors and architects worked on the ensemble, including Ernst Neizvestny. The road to Salaspils begins with a massive concrete slab, the inscription on which reads: “Behind these walls the earth groans.”
Further on a small field rise symbolic figures with “speaking” names: “Unbroken”, “Humiliated”, “Oath”, “Mother”. On both sides of the road there are barracks with iron bars, where people bring flowers, children's toys and sweets, and on the black marble wall, notches measure the days spent by innocents in the “death camp.”
Today, some Latvian historians blasphemously call the Salaspils camp “educational-labor” and “socially useful,” refusing to acknowledge the atrocities that occurred near Riga during the Second World War.
In 2015, an exhibition dedicated to the victims of Salaspils was banned in Latvia. Officials considered that such an event would harm the country's image. As a result, the exhibition “Stolen Childhood. Victims of the Holocaust through the eyes of juvenile prisoners Nazi concentration camp Salaspils" was held at the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Paris.
In 2017, a scandal also occurred at the press conference “Salaspils camp, history and memory”. One of the speakers tried to express his original point of view on historical events, but received severe rebuff from the participants. “It hurts to hear how today you are trying to forget about the past. We cannot allow such terrible events to happen again. God forbid you experience something like this,” one of the women who managed to survive in Salaspils addressed the speaker.
3.8 (76.25%) 32 votesWomen captured by the Germans. How the Nazis abused captured Soviet women
Second World War rolled through humanity like a skating rink. Millions of dead and many more crippled lives and destinies. All the warring parties did truly monstrous things, justifying everything by war.
Carefully! The material presented in this selection may seem unpleasant or intimidating.
Of course, the Nazis were especially distinguished in this regard, and this does not even take into account the Holocaust. There are many documented and outright fictional stories about what German soldiers did.
One of the high-ranking German officers recalled the briefings they received. It is interesting that there was only one order regarding female soldiers: “Shoot.”
Most did just that, but among the dead they often find the bodies of women in the uniform of the Red Army - soldiers, nurses or orderlies, on whose bodies there were traces of cruel torture.
Residents of the village of Smagleevka, for example, say that when they had the Nazis, they found a seriously wounded girl. And despite everything, they dragged her onto the road, stripped her and shot her.
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But before her death, she was tortured for a long time for pleasure. Her entire body was turned into a bloody mess. The Nazis did much the same with female partisans. Before execution, they could be stripped naked and kept in the cold for a long time.
Women servicemen of the Red Army captured by the Germans, part 1
Of course, the captives were constantly raped.
Women servicemen of the Red Army captured by the Finns and Germans, part 2. Jewish women
And if the highest German ranks were forbidden to have intimate relations with captives, then ordinary rank and file had more freedom in this matter.
And if the girl did not die after the whole company had used her, then she was simply shot.
The situation in the concentration camps was even worse. Unless the girl was lucky and one of senior officials camp took her to his place as a servant. Although this did not save much from rape.
In this regard, the most cruel place was camp No. 337. There, prisoners were kept naked for hours in the cold, hundreds of people were put into barracks at a time, and anyone who could not do the work was immediately killed. About 700 prisoners of war were exterminated in Stalag every day.
Women were subjected to the same torture as men, if not much worse. In terms of torture, the Spanish Inquisition could envy the Nazis.
Soviet soldiers knew exactly what was happening in the concentration camps and the risks of captivity. Therefore, no one wanted or intended to give up. They fought to the end, until death; she was the only winner in those terrible years.
Happy memory to all those who died in the war...
Riga Central Prison, located at the address: Riga, Matveevskaya street, which during the Nazi occupation of Latvia was a “death factory”, where the Nazi invaders and their accomplices in the person of Latvian fascists through mass executions, starvation, beatings and tens of thousands of peaceful Soviet citizens and Soviet prisoners of war were systematically and methodically destroyed by inhuman treatment.
Only for 1941–1942. In the Central Prison, over 50,000 civilian Soviet citizens died from hunger, epidemic diseases and mass executions.
Riga Central Prison, consisting of 4 buildings, is designed to accommodate no more than 2000 people. arrested. During the period of the Nazi occupation, on average, up to 7,000 people were constantly kept in prison.
According to far from complete data for the time of the Nazi occupation of Riga, from July. From 1941 to October 1944, over 160 thousand civilians and Soviet prisoners of war passed through the Central Prison, of which 60 thousand people. 30 thousand people were shot by the Germans. died from hunger and epidemic diseases, beatings and torture during interrogations. A significant number of Soviet people were driven away by the Germans to hard labor in Germany and deported to various camps /mainly to Salaspilsky/, where also for the most part different methods destroyed by the Nazi invaders. In addition, an uncountable significant number of Soviet citizens were killed in the Emergency Prison and the dungeons of the Gestapo and Prefecture.
CONTENT MODEThe prisoners' daily food ration consisted of 150-200 grams of bread, half made from sawdust, and 0.5 liters of soup made from various refuse and herbs.
Interrogations of prisoners were carried out by German and Latvian investigators right in the prison in the second building below and in the office of the first building of the prison. During interrogations, prisoners were systematically beaten and tortured. All kinds of torture and torment were used, such as: they beat him in the face with a whip, burned his hands and feet with fire; they put needles under their fingernails, tortured them in electric chairs, knocked out their teeth, gouged out their eyes, and other methods of vandalism.
“I arrived at the Central Prison on August 18, 1941, there was a terrible famine, the prisoner was given 200 grams of bread a day, and on Sundays - 150 grams. and one liter of gruel, cooked from various herbs without fat and meat.
An average of 35 people died from hunger every day. This continued until April 1942. In addition, many people died from typhus. Interrogations of prisoners were carried out right in prison. In the second building below and in the office of the first building of the prison. For interrogation, 200 people were lined up in the corridor, facing the wall. The prisoners were interrogated and beaten day and night. From the beatings and torture there were continuous screams, moans and screams.
There were numerous tortures: they put him naked on a bench, and the police danced on them, the prisoners, in their boots. They personally shoved the barrel of a revolver into my mouth, ordered me to clench my teeth, and then forcefully tore the barrel of the revolver out of my mouth along with my teeth. They put him naked on a bench, two stood on his shoulders and legs, and the third beat him. They burned their fingernails with fire. They hit me in the face with a whip. Women were stripped naked, forced to dance and sing, stabbed with needles, and even had rubber sticks inserted into their vaginas.
The investigators also used such bullying: they invited the prisoner to sit down, offered to take a cigarette from the cigarette case, and when the prisoner extended his hand for the cigarette, the investigator immediately slammed the cigarette case in such a way that the skin and nails of the prisoner who took the cigarette were cut off from his hand.
Apparently, there was a special device for this in the lid of the cigarette case. There were numerous beatings and bullying. They also did it so that the guards burst into the cells and asked the prisoners: “What are you complaining about?” When they answered “coldly”, then after that 9 people each. They were called into the corridor from the cell, beaten with rubber truncheons, and then asked: “It’s warm now, well, goodbye.” I was personally interrogated 11 times, of which seven times I was beaten until I bled, as a result of which my teeth were knocked out and I lost my health.”
/From the testimony of b. prisoner of the Riga Central Prison Trifonov Y.Ya. from 16/XI-44 l. No. 129/
“In the Riga prison we were kept in crowded cells. The prisoners stood on their feet, for example, in the fourth building in cell No. 6, where I was, instead of 20 people. 86 people were detained. prisoners. The same situation was in other cells. In prison they were given 190 grams of bread and 1/2 liter of soup per day, but Jews were given only half of this portion.
In prison, during interrogations, German interrogators and their Latvian henchmen beat the prisoners severely; They beat me with rubber whips, benches, revolvers, they stuck the barrel of a revolver in my mouth, and they hit me on the head with a bench. Many died from these beatings when they returned to their cells, and many were killed at the point of interrogation.
German investigators were especially atrocious.”
/ From the testimony of the witness. b. prisoner Lauks R.Ya. from 21/X-44 l. No. 11 rev.-12/
“Being arrested in the Riga Central Prison from June 2, 1943 to August 16, 1943 in the first building, I was a living witness to how, when calling for interrogation, investigators beat political prisoners with rubber batons, and when the person being beaten during interrogation fell, losing consciousness, he they poured water and continued the interrogation, and after that the dying man was taken to another place, where he died, and the corpses were taken out of the prison. The beating of prisoners during interrogations was brutal.
/From the testimony of b. prisoner Zaraikin S.E. from 22/X-44 l. No. 15–16/
“During my stay in the Central Prison of Riga from October 1, 1941 to May 18, 1942, I and other prisoners were kept on a starvation diet. They were given 180 grams of bread per day, mixed with various surrogates, with a bitter taste. In addition, they gave 1/2 liter of soup per day, cooked without meat and fat along with various herbs. The guards also beat me mercilessly every day. Drunken guards came into the cell and beat him with rubber truncheons, so that after that the person could not get up for three days. During interrogations, investigators in prison beat me terribly and knocked out my teeth. Women were especially brutally dealt with. So, for example, one gr. In 1942, the city of Riga Janson Anna was summoned for questioning by a German investigator. They put her on the sofa, sat on her head and legs, and first beat her with a rubber stick, and then shoved her into her vagina, and they brought her, all bloody, to the cell, and then a few days later they shot her.”
/From the testimony of b. prisoner Laugalaitis K.A. from 2/XI-44 l. No. 25, 26/
Typical testimony about the regime in the Central Riga Prison is given by lawyer K.G. Munkevich, who spent 14 months in prison, i.e. from 12/IX-42 to 10/XI-43
Munkevich showed:
“In the Central Prison, those arrested in the distribution cells had to sleep on bare boards without anything. After being distributed among the cells, everyone was given a bag with some incredibly dusty debris and something similar to a former blanket and nothing else. It was forbidden to have your own pillow, sheet, etc. The prisoner's premises - the cells were not heated, the asphalt floor was cold, the windows had broken glass and no second frames. In winter, suffering from dampness and cold. The bunks are full of bedbugs, and the bags and blankets are richly populated with lice. They let me go to the restroom to recover
2 times a day – morning and afternoon for 15 minutes. In the restrooms there are only two seats; prisoners cannot perform their natural needs within 15 minutes. To do this we had to use only a bucket.
In the Central Prison, food was given to prisoners
3 times a day - morning, lunch, evening. They gave 300 grams of bread a day, in the morning a warm brown liquid - like half a liter of coffee per person without sugar, for lunch a liter of “soup” - also a liquid “brew” with traces of cereals, potatoes and something else. 2 times a week the soup was made from silage, which is given to livestock. In this “soup” there were all sorts of garbage and objects, often boot soles, shoe soles (German), pieces of wood, etc. Only those who had no offerings from their relatives and, out of hunger, ate indiscriminately, no matter what they gave, risked eating this soup. These were Russians, not Riga residents, and prisoners. It was impossible to live on prison rations. Sooner or later, depending on the strength of the body, death from exhaustion /hunger/ is inevitable. Prison clothes - trousers, jacket, old, torn, wool, half-woolen and linen, linen - shirts and underpants - linen, almost unwashed. In view of this, lice and other insects and diseases from contamination of linen from patients.
Prisoners who had no offerings from their relatives ate all sorts of garbage, even from the prison's waste pits, such as bones, rotten potatoes, potato peels, moldy bread.
There were cases when a hungry prisoner swallowed a dead mouse lying on the path. There were cases when hungry people tore up the grass in the yard while walking and ate it.
When interrogating prisoners, the so-called stick system and other “cultural” German techniques were used on a large scale. The general mass of prisoners, especially Russians suspected of communism or sympathizing with communism, were beaten and tortured using techniques and methods in which a person can generally be tortured and tortured. To be called in for interrogation means to be beaten, flogged, with teeth knocked out and jaws broken.
The usual technique of the interrogator was to offer the prisoner a cigarette, and as soon as he extended his hand for the cigarette, he received a strong fist in the face, where it hit him, in the eye, on the nose, on the cheekbones and jaws, then special special methods of torture followed, such as:
1. At the same time, the interrogated person was stunned with blows to the jaw and the back of the head. They forced him to bend over, tied his hands to his back, took the prisoner's head between his legs and beat him on the soft rear parts of the tortured person with a rubber stick.
2. They forced the prisoner to strip his legs naked and then beat the soles of the feet of the lying prisoner with a rubber stick. I saw prisoners with beaten black soles of their feet, backs, rear soft part, chest, arms above the hand to the shoulder.
3. They forced the prisoner to stretch both arms forward and slowly squat almost to his heels, and so slowly rise a countless number of times until exhaustion. The exhausted and weakened prisoner was encouraged by blows with a rubber stick, a fist in the back of the head, in the face, etc.
4. Some young investigators reached the point of sadism in their torture, trampling their defenseless victim’s stomach with their feet until the unfortunate man released feces and other secretions, forcing the tortured person to eat. They set fire to the skin on the neck and face, especially of women, with a lit cigarette.
5. There were often cases of rape of women by investigators during interrogations and by “guards” of solitary confinement cells.
6. According to the stories of the prisoner Pokulis /shot on 5/V-1943/, the following technique was also practiced - they hung the prisoner upside down, which, they say, is very painful, and kept the victim in this position until he signed the required confession. If the victim lost consciousness, then she was lowered from the suspension until she woke up, then the technique was repeated. Those who stubbornly did not confess to the confessions required of him were hung up and beaten with a rubber stick in all parts of the body until he either confessed or turned into a half-corpse.
7. They also resorted to mass beatings of prisoners in the cells - for this they drugged the lower guards, the guards, who then burst into the cells and whipped the prisoners indiscriminately with a rubber stack, as anyone, and God forbid they protest or resist, then it is unlikely to be more alive . Now they will attach a case of resistance to the prison authorities, which in turn entailed executions.
8. Those who were more resilient and persistent were made “obedient” with the help of a special punishment cell in a draft with bread and water on different terms. The prisoner, lightly dressed, and sometimes only in his underwear, was placed in a punishment cell where one could only stand, in an unbearable draft; prisoner Anton Yablonsky, who was in prison on the same case with me and was shot on May 5, 1944, was kept in such a punishment cell 2 weeks to wrest a confession from him. After a 2-week stay in the punishment cell, Yablonsky was brought to the workers’ building in my ward, barely dragging his feet. The actor of the Riga Russian drama Boris Kuzmich Perov, who was shot in October 1943, lost the ability to use his legs for more than a month after one interrogation, and we carried him to the restroom in our arms.”
/Testimony of witness Munkevich K.G. from 10/XI-44 l. No. 91–98/
The inhumane regime in the Riga Central Prison and the torture of imprisoned Soviet citizens by guards and investigators during interrogations is confirmed by the following interrogated former prisoners of the Riga Central Prison: Jacobson M.Ya. l. No. 20–21, Viba E.Ya. l. No. 86, Ragozin N.A. l. No. 116, Engelis I. l. No. 118, Kuzmin F.V. l. No. 121, Bukovsky D.V. l. No. 152–156, Borshan O.F. l. No. 159–161, Ozolin Ekabs l. No. 166, Tselinsh L.I. l. No. 168, Yakobson Yu.Ya. l. No. 171, Markov K.R. l. house No. 143–174, Purins F. l. house No. 175, Olinsh E. l. No. 179–180, Zegelis F. l. No. 185–186, Walfried P. l. No. 192, Ozolin E. l. No. 214a-215.
Similar testimony about the regime in the Central Riga Prison and the torture and torture of prisoners by German fascist monsters is given by interrogated persons from among the former. during the German occupation, the guards of the Central Riga Prison and other employees of this prison.
Thus, the former warden of the Riga Central Prison Liukrastins testified during interrogation on 5/XI-44:
“All the cells were overcrowded. In large cells, where at most 32 people could be accommodated, 100 or more were imprisoned. Thus, the prisoners had nowhere to lie, the air was unbearable.
What the prisoners were fed cannot be called food. The soup, if you can call it that, consisted of water with some leaves.
The Germans interrogated us in 2 rooms in the 1st building on the 1st floor.
During interrogations, those arrested were forced to sit and stand up to 100 times. In addition, they, completely starved, were beaten with dog sticks and boxing gloves.”
/L. No. 72/
Former warden of the Riga Central Prison Usans D.S., questioned as a witness. showed:
“Under normal conditions, up to 25 people can be kept in one large cell, but then there were from 100 to 150 people. I was a supervisor in the 2nd building, on the second floor. Prisoners for interrogation were taken to the first floor, where they waited their turn to meet the investigators. 14 cameras were used for interrogations. During interrogations, investigators were usually drunk and subjected to beatings with rubber truncheons. When the investigators beat them, they gathered in groups of five or six. The groans and screams of the prisoners could be heard throughout the corridor, even on the third floor. The Germans, who interrogated them in a separate cell near the administrative building, where “Do not disturb!” was written on the door, beat the prisoners with thin-tipped leather whips and boxer mittens. They forced me to squat and stand up 100–150 times. In the cells where interrogations were carried out, there were traces of blows and blood on the walls. A certain Radzins, who was in the service of the SD, beat the prisoners especially brutally.”
/Testimony of Usans D.S. from 5/XI-44 l. No. 65/
The above testimony is confirmed by the following interrogated former employees of the Riga Central Prison: b. guards Kairov A.F. l. No. 5758, Upritis Y.Yu. l. No. 68–69, b. prison paramedic Yankovsky R.B.l. No. 76–80, car. prison Shenter V.P. l. No. 197–198, b. the valuables accountant is concluded. Berg V.F. l. No. 200.
A significant number of civilian Soviet citizens arrested during the Nazi occupation of Riga were “processed” at the Gestapo premises or in the mountain prefectures before being imprisoned in the Riga Central Prison. Rigi. Here, that is, in the Gestapo and prefectures, the Germans and their accomplices, the Latvian fascists, also resorted to all sorts of tortures and torments of those arrested.
Peaceful Soviet citizens who have been in the dungeons and basements of the Gestapo and prefectures show:
“On January 2, 1942, three agents of the Latvian political police arrested me from my bed, sick. One was called Skubish. At night I was sent to the prefecture and placed in a general cell. There on the naked, terrible dirty floor There were about 25 arrested. Once a day we were fed soup made from rotten entrails / intestines, lungs /, which stank terribly. Bread was given out one slice per day, about 150 grams. All the men had beards. Lice, fleas, and bedbugs bit us day and night.
This chamber was considered a collective chamber. Ten to fifteen people were taken from it to prison and to the Salaspils camp to be shot. Since the prison and camps were overcrowded, we lived in this gathering room for two or five months. I spent five and a half weeks there without a bar of soap, without undressing at night. The air was terrible.
Activist Alexandra Zhilvinskaya had been sitting there since July. She was pregnant when she was arrested. During interrogations, she was beaten and trampled underfoot so much that she went into premature labor. She was losing blood without the help of a doctor back in January.
At this time they poisoned and shot completely for the Germans safe people. For example, I met a 16-year-old boy, a pioneer leader, who was brought from the village in January. and he remained in prison until July. This boy was beaten so much that he could neither stand /beat on his heels/, nor sit, nor lie down. There was blood all over his back and blood was oozing from his stockings. He could only stand on his knees or lying on his stomach, but he was not allowed to lie down during the day.”
/Message from journalist Vera Vanag dated 29/X-44. No. 33–34/
“I was arrested and kept in prison because I was a member of the Ministry of Defense and there was a portrait of Comrade at home. Stalin, and for the fact that I doubted the correctness of the Nazi propaganda, when the Germans published in newspapers photographs of citizens allegedly tortured by the Red Army with cut off noses, torn off nails and similar atrocities. I stated that the Red Army is not involved in these matters. I spent 7 days in the Gestapo on Rainis Boulevard, in the Central Riga Prison, cell No. 6, first building, from October 10, 1943 in the Salaspils camp.
About being in the Gestapo, I can say that during interrogation the Germans there mercilessly mutilated Soviet people, for example: Firsova Melania, 20 years old, Russian, was sitting with me in cell No. 1. She was accused of helping prisoners. When she was taken for interrogation from September 8 to 12, 1943, one day she returned from the interrogation all beaten, her whole head was bleeding, blood was flowing from her nose, her lips were swollen. In this cell on the walls I read the following inscriptions: “When these brutes are finished, they beat me unconscious. Anya”, “I have a death sentence, and I’m only 18 years old. Dzidra." These inscriptions were also on the boards where the prisoners lay.”
/Message by Viba E.Ya. l. No. 86/
“I was personally arrested at the end of July 1944 by two Latvian political police officers who tried to make the most of the arrest. At first they wanted to take me in panties, and it took a lot of effort to persuade them to let me wear trousers.
We walked on foot to the prefecture premises, where the Latvian political police were located on the 3rd floor. I was placed in a common cell, filled to such an extent with people that only the especially privileged could lie down, while almost everyone else could only sit crouched. The heat and stuffiness was unbearable, and most sat in just their pants, even taking off their shirts in order to at least slightly relieve themselves. They fed us a piece of bread a day and water. Prisoners were called upstairs for questioning from time to time and mostly returned beaten. One young man, accused of being a Komsomol member, had a tumor under his eyes, after a beating, the size of an apple. When summoned for interrogation, the person summoned usually quickly grabbed and put on a jacket or something similar in order to ease the pain from blows with a rubber truncheon, a common interrogation weapon for both Germans and Latvian assistants. They beat me not only on the back, but also on the stomach. Jews and Jewish women were stripped naked. Drunken interrogators sprayed them with water cannons, forced them to copulate, and when one of the Jews insisted that he was physically unable to do this, he was forced to lick the woman’s genitals. In the same cell with me were the opera singer Priedniek-Kavara, the choreographer Leopaitis (he was beaten during interrogation), the clown Kono, and the famous surgeon Joseph. A few days before my arrest, he was beaten in his cell, where drunken Germans came and demanded that the Communists and Jews be pointed out to them. The prisoners made the excuse that all the communists had already been shot, and they could not hide the only Jew. The Germans ordered him / Joseph / to stand against the wall and began to aim their revolvers at him, first lowering them, then raising them again. This moral torture was stopped by one resourceful prisoner, who prayed that his belongings would not be smeared with blood during the execution. The Germans then stopped the “execution” and began beating Joseph, knocking him to the floor. They kicked me in the stomach."
/From a message from Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Latvian State University Bukovsky D.V. from 17/XI-44 l. No. 2–3/
“Before I was put in prison, I was [taken] to the Gestapo, Rainisa Boulevard, No. 6, beaten until unconscious, two people punched me on the head at once, they beat me so much that my whole head was blue, then, when I fell, they trampled on me with their feet . During the period when the German fascists arrested me, all my property from the apartment was looted, and I am now left without any property.”
/From message b. prisoner of the Riga Central Prison gr. Tselinsh L.I. from 21/XI-44 l. No. 168/
During interrogation, a number of victims and witnesses testify about torture and abuse of arrested Soviet citizens by German fascists in the Gestapo and Prefectures, such as: Yust D.S. l. No. 85, Munkevich K.G. l. No. 87–90, Abramtsev I.V. l. No. 117, Ozolin Ekabe l. house No. 166, Olinsh E. l. No. 179, Zegelis F. l. No. 185, Walfried Prieda l. No. 192.
MASS SHOOTINGSFrom a survey of former prisoners of the Riga Central Prison, b. warders and other employees of this prison and eyewitnesses established that for the period from July. 1941 to September. In 1944, the Nazi invaders of civilians and Soviet prisoners of war shot more than 60,000 people from the Riga Central Prison alone.
At the same time, from the statements of the Gestapo workers themselves, it is clear that since July. 1941 to October 1, 1943, 88,000 civilian Soviet citizens were shot from all Riga prisons and dungeons, including 1,300 people. students of the Latvian State University /without Jews/.
Considering that the vast majority of those executed passed through the Riga Central Prison, therefore the figure of 60,000 people. of those shot should be considered an underestimate, since, in all likelihood, much more were shot than was established by witness testimony.
On this issue, questioned as a witness, Mr. Bielis E.Ya. showed:
“From the beginning of the occupation of Riga, the Germans immediately began to carry out mass repressions against the residents of Riga. Large masses of residents: Latvians, Poles, Russians, Jews were arrested and shot through the dungeons of the Gestapo and Riga prisons. In November 1943 I was in a hairdresser on the street. Krasnoarmeiskaya, no. 41, and there was a conversation about how Soviet newspapers supposedly wrote that the Germans shot about 300 thousand people in Riga. Refuting this, one of the Gestapo workers who was sitting there stated that on October 1, 1943, not 300 thousand, but only 88,000 people were shot in Riga through all places of detention: Latvians, Russians, Poles. But this count does not include Jews, because they, as a nation that is subject to extermination, are given a special count. He did not say how many Jews were shot.”
/Testimony of Bielis E.Ya. from 7/XII-44 l. No. 220/ob./
The most massive executions of prisoners from the Riga Central Prison are as follows:
“During the month of July. In 1941, 400–500 people were taken daily from the Central Prison to be executed in the Bikiernek Forest.
Thus, during the month of July. In 1941, 12–15 thousand peaceful Soviet citizens were shot, among whom were up to 10 thousand Jews.”
/Testimony of former paramedic of the Riga Central Prison R.B. Yankovsky from 6/XI-44 l. No. 76 rev./
“During the period from August 18, 1941 to September 25, 1942, at least 20,000 people were taken from the Central Riga Prison for execution in the Bikiernek, Rumbula, and Salaspil forests, of which the following large executions took place: in mid-March. 1942 – 263 people; April month 1942 – 260 people; May 5, 1942 – 180 people; July 13, 1942 – 150 people; in September 1942 – 136 people.”
/Testimony of former prisoner of the Riga Central Prison Trifonov Y.Ya. from 17/XI-44 l. No. 130 rev./
Since August 1942 to May In 1943, on average, at least 100 people were taken from the Central Riga Prison to be executed. Thus, during this period at least 25–30 thousand were shot.
The largest executions during this period: 2/IX-42 - 232 people; 1/VII-43 – 152 people.
Throughout 1943, an average of 80 people were taken out for execution from the Central Prison twice a month. Thus, during the above-mentioned time, at least 2000 people were shot.
In August - September months. 1944 3,000 people were taken from the Central Prison to be executed.
The bulk of the imprisoned civilian Soviet citizens were taken from the Riga Central Prison to be shot in the Bikiernek forest. Some were shot in the Dreyli, Rumbula, and Salaspil forests.
Executions were practiced by the Nazi invaders directly on the territory of the Riga Central Prison near the 4th building. So, in the fall of 1941, 9 people were shot there. per day, in the winter of 1941 - 13 people. in a day.
In addition to executions on the territory of the prison in the 5th building, the Germans organized the hanging of prisoners.
Thus, during the period from 18/VIII-41 to 25/IX-42, more than 200 Soviet citizens were hanged in the 5th building of the Central Prison.
The following interrogated witnesses and applicants testify about the mass executions of civilians in the Riga Central Prison by the Nazi invaders and the number of those executed: Lauks R.Ya. l. No. 11–12; Zaraikin S.E. l. No. 15 ob.; Yakobson M.Ya. l. house No. 21; Kairov A.F. l. No. 58, Usans D.S. l. No. 60–61; Tsiritis Y.Yu. l. house No. 65; Liukrastins E.V. l. house No. 68; Yankovsky R.B. l. No. 103, Abramtsev I.V. l. house No. 117; Trifonov Ya.Ya. l. No. 129–131; Bukovsky D.V. l. house No. 158; Tselinsh L.I. l. No. 168, Markov K.A. l. No. 173, Zegelis F. l. No. 186, Bielis E.Ya. l. No. 220, Milters R.P. l. No. 223.
MORTALITY FROM HUNGER, EPIDEMICS AND TORTURINGThe exceptionally high mortality rate of civilian prisoners in the Riga Central Prison was due to hunger, epidemic diseases, mainly typhus, and torture by Nazi executioners during interrogations.
On average, 30–35 people died from hunger per day, and 20–30 people died from typhoid. and dozens of people after being tortured during interrogations. Thus, during the period of occupation of Riga by the Nazi invaders, 20–30 thousand people were killed.
So, for the period from June. until August 1943, fascist German executioners beat 50 people to death in only one cell during interrogation.
Interrogated b. prisoners and employees of the Central Riga show:
“In the winter of 1942 there was typhus in prison. 20–30 people died. in a day".
“In prison, during interrogations, German and Latvian investigators beat the prisoners severely. From these beatings, many returned to the cells and died, and many were killed at the point of interrogation.”
/Testimony of Lauks R.Ya. from 20/X-44 l. No. 11 rev.-12/
“The beating of prisoners during interrogations was brutal. In the cell where I was, that is, out of 100 people. during the period of my stay in prison, in 2 months and a half, more than 50 did not return from interrogations. All of them died during interrogations.”
/Testimony of Zaraikin S.E. from 22/X-44 l. No. 15 rev./
“An average of 35 people died from hunger every day. This continued until April. 1942. In addition, a lot of people also died from typhus.”
/Testimony of Trifonov Ya.Ya. from 16/XI-44 l. No. 129/
BURIAL PLACES“About December. 1941 Typhoid and dysentery spread. There were 48 of us in the cell, only two of whom were healthy. Paramedic Yankovsky was drunk every day. I didn’t refer him to a doctor. If they asked for medicine, he answered that there was no need to get involved with the communists. During our illness, we were fed rotten cabbage, where we found nails, matches, cigarette butts, and sand. 25–30 people died every day. Approximately 4,500 people died in December and January 1941/42.”
The executed Soviet citizens from the Riga Central Prison were buried at the place of execution, i.e. those who were taken to the Bikiernek forest, Rumbula forest, Salaspil forest /near the concentration camp/ and other places for execution.
They were buried there and then burned in the summer of 1944. Those shot on the territory of the Riga Central Prison and those who died from hunger, epidemics and torture were buried in the Matveevsky cemetery near the prison, where there are graves with an area of 500 m2. 100 m width.
HIP INTO GERMAN SLAVERYThe fascist German invaders sent the most physically fit prisoners to hard labor in Germany. It has not been established how many prisoners were stolen from Riga prisons. It is known that in early May
In 1942, 400 people were sent from the Central Prison. to hard labor in Germany.
44 witnesses were interviewed in the case.
AUTHORIZED NKVD of the LSSR and the Chechen Republic
(signature)
Beginning Dept. NKGB LSSR captain
/signature/
GA RF. F. 7021. Op. 93. D.17. L. 244–248. Script. Typescript.
