1 Killing site(s)
Aldona B., born in 1930: "And then, one day, the Jews who were being held in the basement of the commandant’s office in Limbaži were gone. After that, rumors started to spread that they had been shot. People talked about it a lot in the town. You know how it is in a small town, people talk. They said it happened at a place called Zaļie Stabiņi, near Lādezers. There were two places where the Germans carried out the shootings: Zaļie Stabiņi and Vilbaku priedes. I don’t know whether any Latvians were involved. I find it hard to believe that a Latvian could raise his hand to shoot people he knew. It must have been the Germans who did the shooting. I don’t know what kind of unit it was—maybe some kind of Sonderkommando, something like that." (Testimony N°YIU10LV, interviewed in Limbaži, on October 12, 2018)
" […] In 1941, toward the end of July or the beginning of August, shortly after the German occupation of Limbaži, the occupation authorities gathered all the Jews of the town and housed them in separate buildings. Some were placed in the post office premises on Bourtneku Street; others were housed in the Kotsen building at 3 Darza Street, where my husband and I also had our apartment. In our building at 3 Darza Street, approximately 50–60 Jews were housed. These were entire families, including women, elderly people, and children. They were held there for two or three weeks. At the beginning of August 1941, all the Jews, including women, children, and elderly people, were taken out of the building, loaded onto trucks, and transported elsewhere. I did not know where they were taken. The next day, I heard that all the Jews from the Kotsen building at 3 Darza Street had been taken to the forest known as ‘Zale Stabini’ [Zaļie Stabiņi meaning ‘Green Columns’] and shot there. They were transported from the above-mentioned building in two or three trucks. At the moment of their departure, I heard very loud crying, sobbing, and the Jews’ terrible screams." [Deposition of Hermanis Velta Avgustovna, born in 1919, given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on January 17, 1945; GARF 7021-93-102/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; pp.172-173]
Lādezers is located approximately 11 km (6.8 mi) south of Limbaži. While no information is currently available regarding a Jewish presence in Lādezers itself, the nearby town of Limbaži was home to a small Jewish community prior to the Second World War.
Limbaži and its surrounding area, including Lādezers, were occupied by German troops on July 10, 1941.
Between July 15 and 20, 1941, on the orders of German authorities based in Valmiera, a group of approximately 35–40 Jews from Limbaži was murdered. Some sources estimate that the number of victims may have been higher, ranging from 60 to 80. The victims were transported by truck from Limbaži to a crossroads known as Zaļie Stabiņi, near Lādezers. From there, they were driven approximately one kilometer into the forest in Nabe parish, in the direction of Riga, where they were shot with explosive bullets and buried at the site.
After the war, a monument commemorating the Jews of Limbaži was erected. The inscription reads: “In memory of the Jews of Limbaži who were killed by Nazis and their self-defense supporters in this forest in July 1941.” The monument, however, is not located at the actual killing site but approximately 1 km away, near the bus stop at the Zaļie Stabiņi crossroads.
For further information on the murder of Jews from Limbaži, please refer to the corresponding profile.
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