LATVIA-HOLOCAUST/MARCH Latvians remember Holocaust victims at annual March for Life

Record ID: 148411

  • Title: LATVIA-HOLOCAUST/MARCH Latvians remember Holocaust victims at annual March for Life
  • Date: 3rd July 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) ORGANISER OF MARCH OF ALIVE, RABBI MENCHEM BARKAHAN, SAYING: "This route was not chosen by accident. It happened in Riga Ghetto and now we are walking through Riga Ghetto. That is the main message, not just gathering together. Unfortunately Latvia was unique back then, and fortunately for the commemoration event the Ghetto is just like this now, diffe
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Latvia
  • Country: Latvia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3DPB0UM2P4YSHD4M80Q5LGWL8
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Latvians took to the streets for Riga's annual Holocaust commemoration walk, the March for Life, on Friday (July 3).
    2015 marks the 6th time the event has been held in commemoration of the Jewish people killed during the Holocaust, with survivors, people from Jewish communities, foreign officials and senior officials taking part.
    The location and the path of the walk are also full of symbolic meaning: approximately 300 people met at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Riga, then went along the former streets of the capital's former Ghetto up to the Memorial of the Big Choral Synagogue.
    "Today we walked the path and lives of the people killed during the Holocaust, and we put ourselves next to them in our thoughts. We need to so that we do not forget our harsh past, to remember the lost and create willingness and understanding that violence and crimes against humanity, which was Holocaust, has no place in the world today," Latvian parliamentary spokesperson Inara Murniece said at the Old Jewish Cemetery.
    "This route was not chosen by accident. It happened in Riga Ghetto and now we are walking through Riga Ghetto. That is the main message, not just gathering together. Unfortunately Latvia was unique back then, and fortunately for the commemoration event the Ghetto is just like this now, different from the rest of the world. It is the same as it was then. Only the people have changed and I hope they remember and they will think about the history," the event's organiser, Menchem Barkahan, said.
    Participants lit candles and said a prayer for the lost Jewish people. Latvia's president, prime minister, historians and ambassadors laid flowers at the monument for people who saved Jewish lives.
    Many participants had personal memories of those lost. One of them, Iosif Dlin, survived Riga Ghetto. He believes that the nation has to commemorate the tragic events of the Holocaust.
    "For me this is a day of mourning, when all my relatives - mother, father, aunts and uncles were killed and now lay in Rumbula [site of WWII Nazi massacre]", Dlin said.
    "My mother was expecting me and she managed to run away to the east, to Russia, therefore she was safe. All the rest stayed here. Therefore this day is a remembrance day and the only thing I hope and ask for is that in 50 or 100 years there will still be people coming here and remembering this and know what it was all about," another participant, Doli Burin, added.
    Organisers said that there were 70,000 Latvian Jews killed during the Holocaust on Latvian territory and the flourishing community was completely destroyed, adding that another 25,000 Jews were brought from Western Europe to Latvia to be killed.
    The Memorial of the Great Choral Synagogue, the march's end, is located in the place of a synagogue that was set on fire by the Nazis on the day they entered Riga, July 4, 1941, killing thousands of Jews inside. Those who tried to escape through the windows were immediately shot.
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