Latvia: Rumbula website update

Rumbula.org creator Mitch Lieber of Chicago writes that his educational web site about Jewish Latvia with extensive material about the Holocaust has been updated.

Three generations of his family had unsuccessfully searched for relatives, until Lieber finally connected with his grandfather's brother's family in Israel. He had entered his name and town into JewishGen's Family Finder and his Israeli cousins finally found him. The site grew out of this miraculous reunion several years ago and honors family members massacred in the Rumbula Forest.

Rumbula and Skede 66th Yahrzeits: 27,800 Jews perished at Riga's Rumbula Forest on two days: 10 Kislev (November 29, 1941) was November 20; 18 Kislev (December 8, 1941) is November 28. For those murdered at Skede, near Liepaja, the yahrzeit is 25-27 Kislev (December 15-17, 1941) which will be December 5-7, 2008.

According to Lieber, the names of the majority killed at Rumbula are unknown. There's a link to the database listing names of those killed at Skede and in Liepaja: Liepaja - The Holocaust at Names of Victims and Survivors, which offers the database of victims and survivors of Liepaja, the Liepaja Jewish cemetery burials (1909-1941), a brief history of the Holocaust in Liepaja and how the name list was created.

Fifth World Reunion of Latvian Jewry
The Fifth World Reunion of Latvian Jewry is next week in Israel. It is hosted by the Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel in co-operation with The Jewish Survivors of Latvia in the U.S. and other organizations.

See What's New for additions to the site, such as:

*Photo: Rauchvarger School Classmates 1937 and their fates in Riga

*Virtual tour: 2006 Rumbula Commemoration Ceremony, Rumbula Forest Memorial.

*Monument to Latvians who sheltered Jews

*Virtual tour: Jews in a Changing World Conference, Riga, September 2006.

*Virtual tour: Jewish Survivors of Latvia annual meeting, New York, November 2006.

For recent books about Latvia Jewry, click Read More About It.