Latvia: Rumbula Forest yahrzeits

A few years ago I wrote a story in the Jerusalem Post on Mitch Lieber of Chicago and his creation of Rumbula.org, a Web site dedicated to those who were massacred by the Nazi regime in the Rumbula Forest in Latvia in 1941.

Mitch, his father and grandfather had been looking for relatives for a very long time, but they assumed all of their relatives had died. Mitch had added his family name and town origin to JewishGen's Family Finder but never had a relevant hit, until the day he received a surprising e-mail from a professor at Hebrew University. The rest is, as they say, history.

He worked on the Web site as a way to honor his ancestors who were murdered, and also as a way to commemorate the discovery of surviving relatives in Israel.

The 65th anniversary of the death of the 25,000 who were killed in the forest takes place on two dates, 10th of Kislev (Nov. 30, 1941) this year was on Friday, Dec. 1, and on the 18th of Kislev (Dec. 8, 1941) will be on Saturday, Dec. 9 this year.

"May the memory of each one be for a blessing," adds Mitch. "The names of a majority of those who were killed at Rumbula Forest are not known. Jews may wish to say Kaddish for family members lost at Rumbula, or for one or more of the un-named who may have no one to say Kaddish for them."

Readers may also visit here to see what is new on the Web site.

The moral of this story: Add your family name and towns of origin to JewishGen's Family Finder. Someone out there may be looking for you right now.