Reburial ceremony of the Baldone Jews at the Baldone city cemetery

On June 30, the reburial ceremony of 39 Baldone Jews, including 10 children, took place at the Baldone city cemetery. They were killed during the Holocaust in the summer of 1941 in a forest near the city. The mass grave was discovered in November 2021 thanks to local historians and board members of the Baldone Museum Juris Jeršovs and Ojars Andersons.

The ceremony was led by the rabbi of the Riga synagogue Peitav-shul Iliyohu Krumer. The reburial was attended by Juris Žilko, chairman of the Kekava Regional Council, Ineta Romanovska, deputy of the Kekava Regional Council, Dmitry Krupnikov, deputy chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities of Latvia, Ilya Lensky, director of the Museum “Jews in Latvia”, head of the Baldone Museum Anete Braufmane, the discoverers of the crime scene Juris Jeršovs and Ojars Andersons, the international search team “Legenda”, the police of the Kekava region, as well as representatives of the Riga Jewish religious community.

At the end of the ceremony, every inhabitant of Baldone placed a stone on the Jewish grave as a symbolic sign. The stones were taken from the place of execution near the Berzene River or from houses in Baldone, where Jewish families once lived.