Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Documentary Film Shows Mass-killing of Jews in Latvia by Nazis

June 18, 1963
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic has produced a documentary film concerning the extermination during the Nazi occupation of 150,000 Latvian Jews, according to reports received here today.

The film is unusual in that unlike previous Soviet war films, it makes no attempt to hide cases in which the non-Jewish local population cooperated with the Nazis in carrying out their program of genocide in the Latvian capital of Riga and other cities in the Republic.

It gives names and addresses of German and Latvian war criminals still at large who took part in one of the mass killings. Among those listed are Heinrich von Lohse, who, the film says, is living in West Germany and Herbert Cukurs, a Latvian, said to be living in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Von Lohse, whose name also appears in files of known war criminals as “Loose,” served the Nazis as Reichskomissar for the Ostland and was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in 1948, but was released in 1951.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement