Riga Ghetto Museum
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There will be the Riga Ghetto Museum in Riga
The event, that occurred on the February 2nd, 2010 in the Council of Riga, was important as for the Jews community of Latvia and descendants of Latvian Jews, who live all over the world, as for all others, for whom the memory, history and culture are important – the vice-mayor of Riga Ainars Slesers and Chairman of the Jewish community „Shamir” Rabbi Menachem Barkahan signed a protocol of intentions on foundation of the Riga Ghetto Museum.
The area of the Riga Ghetto is almost unique in Europe, because it has not undergone any architectural changes within last sixty years. There are still small wooden houses with woodcarving shutters (the suburb of Moscow, Russian merchants and poor Jewish families once settled here), the roads are paved with cobblestones, but in the courtyards rusty sinks are still hanging. Not all the residents of that area know what have happened here in 1941.
But tourists, who walk in suburb and try to find out where their relatives spend the last months of their life, know about that. More than 70 000 Latvian Jews were killed during the Holocaust, 20 000 Jews from Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary passed through the Riga Ghetto.
The Riga Ghetto Museum will be located in the historical part of the city, behind the Central Market, not far from the culture center „Spikeri”, in the building with total area of more than 1 000 square meters and with large courtyard. The way to the ghetto area is only 5 minutes walk. This district belongs to the development priorities of the Riga’s Council, but now the movies about the Second World War could be film here without any difficulty, the district has its own atmosphere.
The exposition will be arranged both on two floors of the building (the second one will be built from light materials, so that not to destroy the historical composition of the district) and also in the yard. The courtyard will be piched with block-stones from the central street of the Riga Ghetto - the Ludzas Street. Visitors will get to the courtyard through the wagon in which the Jews were brought to Riga from Western Europe – not the cattle wagon, but the passenger and comfortable one, because passengers as though were carried not to be killed, but to live and to work.
The house from the Ghetto area will be moved to the courtyard that will be covered with a transparent roof. Visitors could get acquainted with life of the inhabitants of the Ghetto. The furnishing of the house will be based on the memoirs of survivors of the Ghetto –
The house from the Ghetto area will be moved to the courtyard that will be covered with a transparent roof. Visitors could get acquainted with life of the inhabitants of the Ghetto. The furnishing of the house will be based on the memoirs of survivors of the Ghetto –
E. Rivosh, A. Bergman, G. Friedman and others. The exposition that will be placed in the courtyard will reproduce the atmosphere of that time.
The artifacts from the life of the Ghetto and the multimedia devices through which a visitor will get a full picture of the life and history of the Riga Ghetto will be arranged in the rooms of the museum.
Due to the fact that the society “Shamir” is being engaged in research of the history of Jews in Latvia for many years, museum visitors will have access to various databases, i.e. children who were killed in the territory of Latvia, Jews, who survived during the Holocaust and who lived in Latvia after the war, the Ghetto house registers and others.
Rooms for seminars, a library and a hall for cultural activities will be located on the second floor of the museum. Authors will organize educational and cultural activities, seminars, concerts, as well as the basic exposition of the museum.
It is impossible to implement such project without international support. The society “Shamir” will seek the support in international funds and private donors. The concept of the exposition will be made with the help of leading museums and researching centers worldwide. But one of the sources of the exhibits may be descendants of the Latvian Jews, who are living all over the world now.
George Lansmanis an adviser of the vice-mayor of Riga, made the first contribution to the Riga Ghetto Museum exhibition. He gifted the precious relic of his family – the album of his grandfather, who was being hidden from Nazis by grandmother and mother of George in Miera Street 40 from the 1st July 1941 to October 1944.
- Nazis lived on the second and third floors of the building, - recalled Lansmanis. – Maybe that is why no one occurred to look for Jews at this address...
