A search typically is conducted by family name. As there are different spellings of the family names (the sources are in Latvian, Russian, German and English), one version of the spelling (the German) was used. To make the search easier, all family names can be found on a list of surnames. You can sort results by given name, family name, matriname or maiden name. To narrow your search results use filters.
You can also find a person by given name, date of birth and death (year only) and fate (please, see below).
The given names are given according to German spelling, e.g., Zalman=Salman, Yacob=Jacob, Ber=Behr, etc.
These dates are taken from official sources - birth records, passports, passport books. They differ considerably from the data in The Central Database of Shoah Victims Names and documents of the Extraordinary Commission, therefore other criteria should be used to identify the person - name, the patronymics, place of birth etc. If two dates of birth are known - according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the Gregorian calendar is used (new-style).
The birth place for persons born before 1918-1919 is stated according to the historical name: Rezhitsa, Lutzin, Dunaburg, Dvinsk, and after 1919 - according to the modern name. The date 1919 is very approximate as the renaming of towns was completed by that time but the exact date for each place was intentionally not specified. If the historical name of a place did not differ phonetically from the new one, we have left only the new name for each period of time, e.g. Preili, Griva, Piltene etc.
For the majority of Latvian Jews the date of death is 1941. The extermination of the Jewish population in small villages and towns was finished in summer - fall of 1941. Since the documents of the Extraordinary Commission show dates of death which differ considerably from the dates established by the Holocaust researchers, we prefer to state only the year. If the date of death coincides with the date of the mass murder of Jews, it is mentioned.
The date 1941 for Riga means the person was killed during one of the actions on November 30th or December 8th. If there is no documentary proof, only the year is stated. If the date of death (as documented in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Victims Database) does not conform to historical facts e.g. if they state 1939 for Riga and 1943 for small places where it is known that the Jewish population was already eliminated by Autumn of 1941, then the date of death is metnioned with a question mark “1941?”.
The place of death in most cases is the same as the place of the prewar and war residence of the person. Some of the Jewish inhabitants of the Daugavpils district came to the Daugavpils ghetto, families fled from Bauska and Tukums to Riga which became the place where they were killed. However the documents of the Extraordinary Commission do not take this into consideration since they were compiled on the grounds of testimony and recollection containing some inaccuracy in indicating the place of death.
The documentarily proven place of residence is stated. There may be additional places and the search is enabled by each of them. If the persons lived in small villages, the word village - „pag.” is indicated only in those cases where the name of the village is identical to the name of town, e.g., Krustpils and Krustpils pag., Grobiņa and Grobiņas pag. The district where the place was situated is not stated.
The fate is mentioned as following:
- Deported- deported on June 14, 1941.
- Killed - if the documentary source confirming this fact is available.
- Killed? - probably killed. This term is used when the evidence is less strong.
- Committed suicide - the way it was done is not disclosed.
- Fled - fled to USSR after start of war.
- Fled? - probably fled to USSR
- Ghetto - was in the ghetto. If the war residence was Riga and ghetto is stated in the column „Fate”, it means the person was in the Riga ghetto. If the war residence was Daugavpils and ghetto is stated in the column „Fate”, it means the Daugavpils ghetto. If the war residence did not coincide with the place of the ghetto, it is stated in which ghetto the person was interred, e.g. the prewar and war residence was Kraslava but the person was in the Daugavpils ghetto.
- Ghetto? - probably was in the ghetto.
- Hidden - went into hiding or was hidden by somebody.
- Red Army - fought in the Red Army, which in many cases meant fled to USSR and participated in warfare basically in the Latvian Division.
- Kaiserwald, Stutthof, Buchenwald etc. - was in one or more of these camps.
- Survived - if the documentarily or personal evidence is available.
- Survived? - probably survived. If the information is contradictory and not proven documentarily.
- Torfwerk - worked at the peat factory and was still alive in 1942-1943.
The dates 1942-1944 are noted here for people who were in the Daugavpils ghetto or the Riga ghetto and who worked in peat factories (Torfwerk) whilst still being prisoners of the ghetto. These dates also include persons deported to concentration camps Stutthof, Buchenwald etc, in the autumn of 1944.
The citizenship of non-Latvian citizens is stated. This subject was not researched intentionally but where it was stated, we left it since it shows the structure of the Jewish population in Latvia in June of 1941 and includes Jews from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany etc, who found a home in Latvia when escaping from the Nazi regime.
Half-Jew - could live outside the ghetto and was exempt from many anti-Jewish measures.