Dünaburg Ghetto

The Germans occupied Daugavpils (german Dünaburg) at the end of June 1941, and promptly imposed anti-Jewish legislations against the city’s approximately 12,000 Jews. About 1,000 Jews were killed in pogroms during the first week of the occupation. In late July 1941, the Nazis established a Jewish ghetto in a part of the Daugavpils fort called the citadel. This part was separated from rest of the fort by Daugava River. Daugavpil’s ghetto differed from other ghettos because no Jewish council was established or the Jews were used as slave labour. The ghetto was more of a temporary repository for Jews from Daugavpils and nearby villages. The ghetto was immediately overcrowded and without adequate sanitary facilities, the lack of both food and medicines contributed to the situation becoming critical. Already at the end of July, Nazis conducted a selection of Jews sixty years or older. These were promised to be relocated in another place but were instead murdered in a forest area called Pogulanka. In early and mid-August, thousands more Jews were murdered due to overcrowding. A further 11,000 Jews were murdered in Pogulanka in November. After that massacre, about 1,500 Jews remained in the ghetto and the were forced into slave labor. In May 1942, the ghetto was liquidated and the remaining 1500 Jews were murdered and a few forced into slave labour. In October 1943, the remaining Jews were transferred to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Riga.