- Title: Latvians commemorate victims of WWII massacre of Jews
- Date: 1st December 2016
- Summary: RIGA, LATVIA (NOVEMBER 30, 2016) (REUTERS) PEOPLE GATHERING AT FREEDOM MONUMENT PEOPLE PLACING CANDLES AT FREEDOM MONUMENT HANDS LIGHTING CANDLE WOMAN PLACING CANDLE CANDLES PEOPLE PLACING CANDLES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORGANIZER OF COMMEMORATIVE EVENT, LOLITA TOMSONE, SAYING: "It's 75 years since (the) Rumbula massacre. And because these people who were brutally killed, mercilessly, innocent people from Riga, from Latvia. They were part of Latvia, they were of Latvia, they were part of this society that built independent Latvia. So that's why we decided that there is not enough only with the event in Rumbula, also because it is workday and not everyone can come, and to basically organise something at the core of Riga, the heart of Riga and Latvia, and that's Freedom Monument, and it's the same freedom that also Jews who lived in Latvia fight for." CANDLES HANDS LIGHTING CANDLE MAN PLACING CANDLE CANDLES VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PLACING CANDLES CANDLES PEOPLE PLACING CANDLES AT FREEDOM MONUMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Latvian) SURVIVOR OF HOLOCAUST, LEO DRIBINS SAYING: "I am very glad that such event has finally come. And here at the Freedom monument the democratic Latvian society demonstrates its attitude towards the Holocaust and that a democratic Latvian society associates itself with Jews in their pain and memories, that they admit Jews as a concurrent part of Latvia's nation." FAMILY WITH CHILD PLACING CANDLES CANDLES GIRL WITH CANDLE MOTHER WITH GIRL LIGHTING CANDLE (SOUNDBITE) (Latvian) HISTORIAN, KASPARS ZELLIS SAYING: "We know very well that nobody even then in 1941 believed that it could happen in Latvia, nobody believed that it could happen in Germany. This is the phenomenon - if such tragedies have once happened and we do not learn from them, then they have a tendency to repeat. In the world there are many examples, which testify it, for instance genocides in Africa or genocide that went on in the territory of former Yugoslavia and so on." WOMAN PLACING CANDLE CANDLES CANDLES AT FREEDOM MONUMENT PEOPLE AT FREEDOM MONUMENT
- Embargoed: 16th December 2016 10:41
- Keywords: Latvia Holocaust Rumbula massacre
- Location: RIGA, LATVIA
- City: RIGA, LATVIA
- Country: Latvia
- Reuters ID: LVA0015B1YFJT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Latvians lit candles in central Riga on Wednesday (November 30) to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the largest mass murder of Jews in Latvia during World War Two.
They met at the Freedom monument in the town's centre to demonstrate solidarity with victims of the so-called Rumbula massacre, one of the most deadly mass-murder operations of the Holocaust outside of the death camps.
On two days during World War Two, November 30 and December 8, 1941, 25 thousand Latvian Jews, mostly women, children and elderly, were marched from the Riga ghetto and murdered in the Rumbula forests on the outskirts of the city.
Latvians only recently began to come to terms with the Holocaust, which was kept taboo under communist rule due to participation of some local forces functioning under the Nazi regime, such as Latvian police who guarded the victims of the Rumbula massacre, or members of the Arajs Kommando who participated in the killings.
Wednesday's event was an attempt to bring together as many Latvians as possible in a popular and accessible location, rather than travel outside of the city, where official commemorations were held on the site of the killings.
"[W]e decided that there is not enough only with the event in Rumbula, also because it is workday and not everyone can come, and to basically organise something at the core of Riga, the heart of Riga and Latvia, and that's Freedom Monument, and it's the same freedom that also Jews who lived in Latvia fight for," said the event's organizer, Lolita Tomsone.
The commemorative event with candles placed by volunteers in the centre of Riga marks a turning point in the attitude of Latvians towards the Holocaust and embraces the fact that murdered Jews were an integral part of the society.
"I am very glad that such event has finally come. And here at the Freedom monument the democratic Latvian society demonstrates its attitude towards the Holocaust and that a democratic Latvian society associates itself with Jews in their pain and memories, that they admit Jews as a concurrent part of Latvia's nation," said Holocaust survivor, Leo Dribins. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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