Burning of the Riga synagogues

Burning of the Riga synagogues
Ruins of the Great Choral Synagogue, on Gogol Street, in Riga
Location	Riga, Latvia
Date	July 1941
Incident type	Intimidation, imprisonment, arson, mob killings, arbitrary executions, forced labor, mass murder
Perpetrators	Franz Walter Stahlecker, Viktors Arājs, Herbert Cukurs
Organizations	Nazi SS, Arajs Kommando
Memorials	At ruins of Great Choral Synagogue in Riga

The burning of the Riga synagogues occurred in 1941, during the first days of the World War II Nazi German occupation of the city of Riga, the capital and largest city in the country of Latvia. Many Jews confined in the synagogues died in the fires, and many other anti-Semitic measures were launched at the same time, ultimately followed by the murder of the vast majority of the Jews of Latvia.

The German army crossed the border in the early morning of Sunday, June 22, 1941. All along the front, the Soviet armed forces suffered a crushing defeat. On June 29, 1941, the Red Army began a disorganized withdrawal from Riga, then under German aerial bombardment. To slow the German advance, the retreating Soviets had blown up all the bridges over the Daugava river. The highest church spire in the city, St. Peter's, had been set on fire by German bombs. Some Soviet sympathizers in the city set out pails of water and gave bread to the retreating troops, but these were futile gestures amid the military disaster. On July 1, 1941, the German army entered Riga. There were about 40,000 Jews in the city at that time. The Germans were welcomed by the non-Jewish majority portion of the Latvian population of Riga.

Shortly after German troops entered the city on 1 July 1941, the Nazi occupation authorities incited Latvian nationalists to commit deadly anti-Jewish riots known as "pogroms". Within three months, more than 6,000 people were killed in Riga and the vicinity. Professionals such as lawyers, physicians and engineers in particular were targeted by the Nazis. Frida Michelson reported that they were singled out by fellow Latvian professionals from among the other Jews arrested and immediately shot. Large groups of prisoners were taken out of the Central Prison by truck to Bikernieki Forest, where they were shot. On July 2, at the instigation of the Germans, Latvian armed youths wearing red and white armbands went about the city dragging Jews out of their homes and arresting them. The Latvians assaulted a number of Jews, some so severely they died, and shot others. The same morning, all the telephones of the Jews were disconnected.

Pērkonkrusts (Thunder Cross or Swastika) was the name of the Latvian fascist party that was active in the 1930s. Members of Pērkonkrusts including, among others, Viktors Arājs and Herberts Cukurs cooperated with the Nazis in exterminating the Jews of Latvia. The university fraternities were also involved with the party. In July 1941, after the German occupation, Pērkonkrusts took over the house of the Jewish banker Schmulian, in Riga, at 19 Valdemara Street (Gorki Street under Soviet rule), to use as their headquarters. A Riga newspaper Tēvija, ("Fatherland") regularly published anti-Jewish propaganda, such as an editorial on July 11, 1941 entitled "The Jews—Source of Our Destruction".