On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on January 27, the Jewish community of Latvia organized an ecumenical prayer and the laying of flowers at the memorial in Bikernieki, Riga, commemorating people of different faiths killed during the Nazi occupation.
The prayers were led by Rabbi of the Riga Jewish Religious Community Elijohu Krumer and community member Eli Loiberg, Priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Latvia Aivars Līcis, Archpriest of the Latvian Orthodox Church Jānis Dravants and Pastor of the Matthew’s church of the Union of Baptist Churches in Latvia. The event was led by the director of the Museum “Jews in Latvia” Ilya Lensky.
The memorial ceremony was attended by foreign ambassadors, members of the Jewish community, students from the Sh. Dubnov Riga Jewish Secondary School and a group of young people from the German city of Gelsenkirchen.
In the Biķernieku forest, there is the largest mass grave of Nazi victims in Latvia. From 1941 to 1944, more than 35 thousand people were killed here, including 20 thousand Jews from Latvia, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, 5 thousand civilians, opponents of the Nazi regime and 10 thousand Soviet prisoners of war.
27.01.2025