An eye-witness account of the extermination of the Jewish population of Latvia by the Germans is published in the local daily, Ny Dag, today. The report is by a Latvian journalist named Jablinskis who succeeded in fleeing to Sweden some time age.
Mass executions of Jews which began as soon as the Nazis occupied the country still continue and 700 were recently executed in the town of Salasphils, Jablinskis discloses. Few Jews remain in Riga and none in the formerly heavily Jewish-populated cities of Dvinsk, Revske, Ludza and other smaller towns, he adds.
The article gives the following chronological account of the destruction of a large part of Latvian Jewry: “Soon after the occupation of Latvia the Germans organized executions in the woods near Bigernieju between Katlakalna and Bishumizha on the Lubansk highway. The majority of the Jews in Riga were liquidated. Of the 30,000 persons living in the Riga ghetto in December, 1941, only 3,000 remained by August, 1942. All children below the age of 14 were killed. In the winter of 1941-42 Jews from Austria, Czechoslovakia, France and other occupied countries were sent to Riga and then murdered in the pine woods near Chuibe between the railroad stations at Rumbula and Alaspile. Many graves are still visible there. In all, about 80,000 were murdered near Chiube.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
