Latvian Central State Historical Archive (Rīga) records
Extent and Medium
2,398 files, JPEG
39 microfilm reels, 16 mm
Archival History
Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
Acquisition
Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The Generalkommissariat in Rīga, the Reichskommissariat für das Ostland, the Latvian Legion, the Wehrmachtsbefehlhaber Ostland, and other occupation and collaboration agencies in occupied Latvia created the records during World War II. The Soviet (Red Army) captured the records at the end of the war and later deposited them in the Latvian Central State Historical Archive in Rīga, Latvia. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received selected files from the archives in Rīga in 1992, and addtional records in 2009, and 2010.
Scope and Content
These records contain information about the concentration of Latvian Jews in ghettos; the persecution of Jews and of Roma and Sinti; the mass killing of Jews; the confiscation of Jewish property; the utilization of Jewish labor; the coerced sterilization of Jews; guidelines for handling the Jewish question in the occupied East; the monitoring of groups including religious groups, Jews, and Roma and Sinti; mixed marriages; school attendance by Jews and Mischlinge; the activities of partisans; collaboration by Latvians; and the activities of various police forces. Included are situation and activity reports from Gebietskommissare including those of Riga, Daugavpils, Liebau, and Jelgava and Ortskommandature including those of Rezekne, Rossiten, and Riga; maps showing “judenfrei” areas and Salaspils and Valmiera camps; Organisation Todt; as well as information about the ghettos in Riga, Liebau, Kaunas, and other localities; the activities of the 25th Latvian Schutzmannschaftsbataillon in Latvia and Weissruthenien (Byelorussia); the Arajs Kommando; concentration camps in Salaspils and Valmiera; the large-scale anti-partisan operations “Winterzauber” and “Heinrich;” the Extraordinary Commission to Investigate German-Fascist Crimes Committed on Soviet Territory; and the Orthodox church in the Baltic region.
System of Arrangement
Arrangement is thematic
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
People
- Rosenberg, Alfred, 1893-1946.
Corporate Bodies
- Rīga (Latvia). Generalkommissar
- Germany. Reichskommissariat für das Ostland
- SS (Organization)
- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel Sicherheitspolizei
Subjects
- Police--Latvia.
- Romani Genocide, 1939-1945.
- World War, 1939-1945--Confiscations and contributions--Latvia.
- Latvia--History--German occupation, 1941-1944.
- Communism--Latvia.
- World War, 1939-1945--Collaborationists.
- Prisoners of war--Soviet Union.
- Guerrillas--Latvia.
- Jews--Latvia.
- Christians--Latvia.
Genre
- Document
Copies
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum holds copies of Holocaust-relevant archives from Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs