1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Ivars M., born in 1933: "Before the war, Dobele had a large Jewish community. The Jewish residents were spread throughout the town and did not live in a single neighborhood. Many owned shops and stores, and most worked as merchants. During the German occupation, I heard about the persecution of the Jews. After the war, I no longer saw any Jewish people in the streets of Dobele." (Testimony N°YIU71LV, interviewed in Kandava, on September 2, 2021)
"[…] In early July 1941, while riding my bicycle down the main street of Dobele, I saw a group of arrested Jewish residents being escorted from their workplace to the old school in Dobele, where all Jewish citizens were being held under guard. Among those escorting the group, I recognized a Schutzmann, a local resident of Dobele, who later fled with the Germans during their retreat.
On July 12 or 13, 1941, I was working at the Lielbērze sanatorium. Around 10 a.m., a blacksmith arrived to shoe a horse. The smithy stood right beside the road leading from Dobele toward Saldus. At that time, three vehicles were approaching from the direction of Dobele. The first was a passenger car carrying two German soldiers, with two mounted machine guns. Behind it came two trucks filled with people—men, women, and children. Armed Schutzmänner stood at the corners of the trucks. The civilians were clearly of Jewish nationality. It was impossible to recognize the faces of the Schutzmänner, as the vehicles were moving quickly.
When they passed the sanatorium and drove about a kilometer into the forest, we soon heard bursts of gunfire from automatic weapons and rifles. About an hour later, all three vehicles returned in the direction of Dobele. The trucks were now empty, with only the Schutzmänner remaining—two in each vehicle.
The next day, while working in a field near the same forest, my brother and I went to see what had happened. There, we found a freshly filled-in pit about five meters long. Spent bullet casings were scattered on the ground, and bloodstains were visible in the sand.
A few days later, three Schutzmänner arrived at the sanatorium in a truck. They took away a sick Jewish woman who had been receiving treatment there. She was from Riga. The men drove her toward Annas Muižpils in the Tukums district, where she was shot in the forest. […] " [Deposition of Albert Janovich Tamsons, born in 1908, given to the State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK) on Juin 28, 1945; GARF 7021-93-2410/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M; p.296]
Dobele is situated approximately 62 km (39 mi) southwest of Riga. The town’s Jewish community dates back to the second half of the 19th century. According to the 1897 Russian Empire census, Dobele was inhabited by 240 Jewish residents, making up 13.3% of the total population. The town was also home to a Jewish cemetery and a synagogue, which was built in 1904.
In 1915, during the First World War, the Jewish population declined sharply due to the deportation of Jews from Courland by order of the Russian authorities. By 1918, only 25 Jewish residents remained in Dobele. However, by 1935, the community had partly recovered, numbering 72 individuals, or 2.9% of the town’s population.
Jewish residents of Dobele lived dispersed throughout the town rather than concentrated in a single neighborhood. Many owned shops and small businesses, and most were engaged in commerce and trade.
The exact number of Jews living in Dobele on the eve of the German occupation is unknown. However, according to Ivars M., born in 1933 and interviewed by Yahad, a significant Jewish community still existed in the town at that time.
Dobele was occupied by German troops at the beginning of July 1941. By that time, a Latvian Self-Defense squad, composed of former policemen and members of the Aizsargi, had already been organized in the town.
On July 4, 1941, all Jewish residents of Dobele were ordered to report to the local elementary school by midnight on July 5, under the pretext of labor duties. They were permitted to bring only a limited amount of food and money. According to archival sources, 48 individuals—18 men, 17 women, and 13 children—were gathered in the school, which was subsequently turned into a temporary ghetto. They were held there under guard for more than a week and forced to perform physically demanding labor, including cleaning the railway station. Additionally, ten Jews were sent to work on the farm of Miervaldis Beitlers, a member of the Latvian Self-Defense squad.
On the morning of July 12 or 13, 1941, the Jewish detainees from the Dobele ghetto were loaded onto two trucks and transported to the Lielbērze Forest, approximately 1 kilometer from the Lielbērze sanatorium, where they were shot and buried. The Aktion was carried out by a German SD unit from Jelgava, assisted by members of the local Latvian Self-Defense squad. That same day, Jews from the Annenieki parish (Tukums region), along with a Jewish woman from the Lielbērze sanatorium, were also brought to the same forest and murdered.
According to Alida Krauze, 39 people were killed at this site. However, the Extraordinary State Commission reported a total of 49 victims. The higher number recorded in the Soviet archives may include ten Jews from Dobele who had been working on the Miervaldis Beitlers farm. These individuals were taken by German forces and members of the Self-Defense to the Pakaishskii Forest, where they were forced to dig a pit and were executed and buried on the same day as the other Jews.
After the destruction of the Jewish community in Dobele, the town’s synagogue was burned down.
In 1950, the Jewish survivors from Dobele transferred the remains of those murdered in the Lielbērze Forest to the New Jewish Cemetery in Rīga, where a red granite monument was erected in their memory. It is dedicated to the Jews of Dobele who were brutally murdered by the Nazis. The original killing site in the Lielbērze Forest remains unmarked, aside from a small symbolic sign placed on one of the trees.
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