President of the Bremen Parliament Frank Imhoff and the accompanying delegation visited the Bikernieki memorial on July 14, during the official visit to Riga.
The history of the memorial, opened in 2001, was introduced by its author architect Sergei Ryzh. Gita Umanovska, executive director of the Riga Jewish Community, spoke about the annual ceremony at the Bikernieki memorial, held by the Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, with the participation of clergypersons of major religious denominations.
In Bikernieki Forest from 1941 to 1944, 35 000 people were killed, including 12 000 Jews deported to Riga from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, as well as Latvian Jews, Nazis’ political adversaries and Soviet prisoners of war.
