From 1939 to 1945 the Nazi German Government was responsible for an era of terror in Europe. Men and women under the banner of Nazism committed horrible crimes against fellow human beings. One group that was singled out to receive the brunt of Nazi hatred was European Jews. From the beginning of the war in 1939 until its end in 1945, over six million Jewish men, women and children lost their lives. One of the areas to first experience the totality of Hitler’s "final solution" for the Jews was the Baltic countries. In a sense the Holocaust, that is the destruction of European Jews, started in the Baltics. It was there that Hitler’s executioners began their first actions of mass genocide.

The factors contributing to the Holocaust in the Baltics are a complex web of politics, propaganda and prejudice. With the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 the fate of the Baltic Jews was sealed. Coming under Soviet rule in 1940, the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were classified as enemy territories by the Germans. One year later the Germans violated their treaty with Russia and invaded these countries. Because of this brief period of Soviet control, the German propaganda machine was able to manipulate the feelings of anti-communism and nationalism in the non-Jewish Baltic populations. In Lithuania in particular, and Latvia and Estonia to some extent, there was also an already existing foundation of anti-Semitism. The Germans were able to use these feelings in certain segments of the local population to incite them into collaboration with their anti-Jewish policies. One of the significant aspects of the Holocaust in the Baltics is the fact that the Germans were able to solicit executioners from the local population. Prior to the German invasion of Russia, Jews in other German occupied countries were being ghettoized and murdered, but not to the extent and with the swiftness that happened in the Baltic countries.

Jews have occupied the region of the Baltic countries since the fourteenth century. The primary concentration of the Jewish population was in the cities, Daugavpils, Vilnius and Riga in particular. In 1388 Duke Vytautas of Lithuania granted to Jews the right to practice their religion and to engage in commerce. In this environment the Jewish community was allowed to flourish. Again, in the sixteenth century while Lithuania was a Grand Duchy of Poland, Jews were invited to settle in this region and enjoyed a period of relative autonomy. Lithuanian Jews became the leaders of Talmudic scholarship and Vilnius enjoyed the title of "the Jerusalem of Lithuania" (Berdichevsky, p.72). Zionism grew as Jews embraced their culture and Yiddish language. Although the largest concentration of Jews was in the cities, many Jews lived in rural communities called "shtetls".

From the late twelfth century to 1561 the Latvian and Estonian regions were known as the Livonian Confederation. This confederation was controlled by a German elite comprised of Roman Catholic clergy, merchants and knights. The Livonian Order of the German Teutonic Knights forbade Jews from establishing communities in their region. However, individual Jews were living Riga as found in business documents dating from 1536. In 1561, Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible) defeated the German Order and the Livonian Confederation came to an end. With its demise, new lands were made available to Jews. The first Jewish settlements were in the lands closest to Lithuania with its already well established Jewish communities. Because of the strong power base of German merchants in Riga, they were able to obstruct Jews from living there until the mid-nineteenth century. In 1840 the laws which restricted Jewish residence were lifted, and by 1881 there were over 33,000 Jews living in Riga. It was difficult for Jews to attain to the higher positions in government and city affairs.

The Jews in Latvia were divided by the influences of Poland and Russia in the east and south, and by the Germans in the west. In the Jewish communities of the east, a strong Hasidic culture developed. In Riga and the west, Jews were more impacted culturally by German society. In Latvia and Lithuania Jews did not assimilate into the native populations. In rural Latvia, Jews lived within their own communities. In the cities, for the most part, Jews stayed within the confines of either the Hebrew or Yiddish speaking communities until the Hebrew language was forbidden usage in 1940 by the occupying Soviet regime.

When the territory which is now Lithuania was annexed to Russia in 1795, restrictions were enacted against Jewish autonomy. There was a continual increase in discrimination and pogroms (violent actions taken against the Jews either with or without government sanction) emanating from the Czar’s command. However, even during this time Jewish culture continued to thrive. By the end of the nineteenth century there were approximately 260,000 Jews in Lithuania.

The twentieth century began with the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania under Russian subjugation. The turn of the century was an important time of emerging nationalism for all these peoples. In all countries, Jews were important contributors to their respective nation’s pursuit of independence. In the years that followed WWI the Baltic states were able to achieve their goal of independence. As a part of their quest to be a part of the League of Nations, the Lithuanian government granted its minorities full rights as citizens. For the Jews, this meant representation in government with six members in the Lithuanian Constitutional Diet. There was also a Jewish National Council in Lithuania which served as a governing body to the autonomous Jewish community. This council was responsible for electing a Jewish leader to serve in the national government as the Minister for Jewish Affairs. This time of freedom allowed Jews to achieve high ranks within the government, the military, and the police. In 1924 the Ministry of Jewish Affairs was abolished. This was due to an increasing sentiment among non-Jews that the status of Jewish autonomy ran counter to the establishment of a Lithuanian people and identity. The competition that developed between Jews and native Balts strengthened the roots of anti-Semitism that existed in the background of the non-Jewish community.

In Latvia, the course following independence was quite similar to that of Lithuania. The Latvian constitution guaranteed minority rights, and each minority group, including the Jews, was given the right to exist as an autonomous entity within the republic. This decree was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, autonomy enabled a proliferation of Jewish thought and culture, but on the other hand, it increased the isolation between Jew and non-Jew. Within the parliament of the Latvian Republic (the Saeima) there was Jewish representation. Jews played an important role in helping the fledgling nation to obtain economic stability after the enormous losses of WWI. In trade and commerce, Jews made up 48% of the work force. In the industrial sector 28% of the workers were Jews (Ezergails, p.66).

Very few Jews migrated into Estonia. There were, at the time of Soviet occupation in 1940, approximately 2000 Estonian Jews. In Estonia, Jews held jobs in trading, public service, and as artisans, laborers, professionals, owners of real-estate and factories, and as religious leaders in the Jewish community. There were no Jews in Estonian Government and very few served as military officers in the Estonian army (Ezergails, p.66).

During the later years of Baltic independence, economics and politics became an important tool in the hands of anti-Semites. Because of their autonomous status, Jewish culture and thought ran a course separate from that of their non-Jewish neighbors. Jewish children were brought up with a solid educational foundation. In pre-WWII Latvia there were 10 Jewish high schools. The national education system in Lithuania was slow to develop, thus the local population was hindered in competing with the Jews, Poles and Germans who had concentrated on education within their communities. With the migration to the cities by the rural population, this education gap increased the division between Jews and non-Jews. With urbanization came a new middle class which saw the Jews as a threat to the job positions that non-Jews desired. Prior to WWII, one of the most anti-Semitic groups in Lithuania was the Lithuanian Businessmen’s Association, which proposed a boycott of Jewish business (Lieven, p.145).

In Lithuania, the Catholic church contributed to anti-Semitism in Lithuanian society. Catholic priests were the literary scholars of their age. Their works prior to 1914 were strongly anti-Semitic, taking certain folk beliefs and cementing them within literary tradition. Even within some literature of secular society, Jewish stereotypes and images can be found. Within the realms of Lithuanian folklore the devil was portrayed as a clown, a German and as a Jew. In Latvian Literature and folksongs there were many references to Jews, but they were depicted more as objects of curiosity.

Evidence of anti-Semitism can be found during the time of Latvia’s struggle for independence. The fascist movement that sprung up in the late 1920s created an environment conducive to those elements in society which espoused anti-Semitism. In Latvia, the leading anti-Semitic group was the Perkonkrusts (Thundercross). This right-wing organization was strongly nationalistic, and their racist attitudes were all inclusive towards any Latvian minority. Their anti-Semitic ideology was embraced amongst some members of the intelligentsia and in particular, student members of fraternities. Select members of this group did embrace Nazism, and were involved in the actions taken against the Jews. The Perkonkrusts were also anti-Baltic German, so they were not prime targets of Nazi recruiters.

With the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, the Baltic countries were assigned to Russia, and in 1940 Soviet forces moved into the region. Although some Jews embraced the facets of Communism, Jews were not the flag waving greeters of the Soviets that the Nazi propaganda machine portrayed. Instead, Jewish educational and cultural activities were shut down and squelched by the Soviets.

Approximately 5000 Latvian Jews were deported to Siberia during the one year of Soviet occupation. Jews did not acquire increased participation in the Soviet administration of Latvia, and they did not have control of the Soviet Checka. Accusations regarding Jewish complicity with the Bolsheviks were often over exaggerated. There were some members of the Jewish community that adhered to the ideas of Bolshevism. The Nazis used them as examples of Jewish complicity in the terror perpetrated on the native Latvian population by the Soviets. This connection was broadened by the Nazis to implicate all Jews.

In Estonia, the Jewish community was cut off from the Jewish communities in Latvia and Lithuania because of travel restrictions enforced by the Soviets. The Jews who did embrace the Socialist system were for a time given the opportunity to work within the government. This was short-lived. With the invasion by Germany many of these people were deported to Siberia along with other Estonians. It is estimated that 500 Jews suffered this fate despite any allegiance they may have given to the Soviet government initially.

The Soviet incursion into Lithuania was the beginning of the end for the Jewish communities. The Soviets set about to eradicate any opposition. Some of their targets were Zionists, Jewish education, Jewish businesses and Jewish religion. Approximately 7000 Lithuanian Jews were deported to Russia. 57% of Jewish businesses were Sovietized and 83% of all businesses that were nationalized were Jewish. Jewish landowners lost more of their farms relative to their non-Jewish counterparts. Jewish shopkeepers were strangled out by taxes and restrictions on merchandise. Culturally, the use of Hebrew was outlawed. Yiddish, which was considered a more proletarian language, was allowed to continue. Hebrew departments at the universities were closed and replaced by Yiddish ones. Enrollment restrictions on the Jews were eased and many Jews were able to attend university. In the business sector, Jews were allowed to attain managerial positions in businesses that had previously restricted hiring Jews. This too, increased the tension between Jews and non-Jews. Proportionately, more Jews were deported to Siberian labor camps and remote parts of Russia than other sectors of Lithuanian society. This fact seemed to be ignored by Lithuanians who equated Jews with the Bolshevik raids on the Lithuanian population. Jews as a group suffered the brunt of antagonism towards the committees that were involved in the roundups and deportations of Lithuanians.

On June 22, 1941 the Germans began Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. Because of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, the Baltic countries were considered a part of Russia. On the basis of centuries of German habitation in these countries, Hitler felt that Germany had a right to these lands. His plans were embraced by a number of Baltic Germans who had fled to Germany at the time of the Soviet occupation. These people now returned as administrators and proponents of the Nazi government. Baltic Germans had long been one of the elite populations of the Baltics. Under Communism, their assets were confiscated. The Nazi propaganda machine was very skillful at equating the losses of the native population suffered under Communism with the concept of "Jewish Bolshevism". This equation was a powerful tool in feeding the anti-Semitism of the non-Jewish peoples.

With the invasion of the Baltics, the Nazis reconfigured the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the area of Belarus into the region of Ostland. It was the intention of the Nazi government to use the Baltics as their main area of mass genocide. Consequently, Jews from countries outside the Baltics were shipped there to be exterminated, especially during the first years of the war. On August 15, 1941 Itinrich Lohse, the Reich Commissar of the Ostland region issued an edict requiring Jews to wear yellow badges on both their fronts and backs. Jews were not to walk on the pavement, use public transportation, or own a car, radio or other property. Jews were not allowed to use public parks or playgrounds or visit theaters, movies, libraries or museums. Food for those in the ghettos was limited to surplus from the native population.

Right from the first days of the invasion the Nazi program of extermination was stepped up. Prior to the invasion of the Baltics, no mass extermination was enacted on such an all encompassing scale. In Lithuania, before the Nazis arrived, there were at least 40 pogroms in as many Jewish communities. These pogroms were perpetrated by the local populace against the Jews. Women were raped and Rabbis tortured. (Levin, p.333)In Kaunas, Col. J. Bobelis of the Lithuanian army issued a statement that condemned the Jews as the enemies of both the Germans and the Lithuanians. At his instigation gangs sought out Jews to murder and torture. On June 25, 1941 1,200 Jewish men, women and children in the Kaunas suburb of Slobodka were pitilessly massacred. According to Dov Levin the perpetrators of these crimes called themselves Lithuanian partisans. Over the next several nights 2,300 more Lithuanian Jews suffered the same fate.

The Germans had established mobile killing units called Einsatzgruppen. One of these units, Einsatzgruppe A, was assigned the Baltic detail. As a part of the German invasion this group was responsible for the extermination of the Baltic Jews. The common method used in extermination of the Baltic Jews was execution by gunshot. Between July and August 1941, the majority of Jews in rural Lithuania were murdered. In the cities, Jews were murdered and forced into ghettos. Those who survived the initial days of the invasion were later murdered between the months of September and November of 1941. A small number of Jews were spared to be used as forced labor. In Kaunas, on October 28, 1941, the action known as the "Great Aktion" took place, when 10,000 Jews were sent to their deaths. By the end of December 1941 approximately 180,000 Jews had been massacred. Also included in this number were Jews from other parts of Europe who had sought refuge in Lithuania, but instead were trapped by the Nazi invasion.

Jews in Latvia became Nazi victims within days of Nazi occupation. As in Lithuania, Latvian Jews fell into the hands of the German Einsatzgruppe A, led by General Walter Stahlecker. Under his supervision, a group of Latvian citizens known as the Arajs Kommando aided in the mass genocide of Latvian Jews. The killing of the Jews occurred in two phases. The first phase was between July and October 1941, where the rural population was liquidated. The second phase was the extermination of the Jews in the cities from November to December 1941. Of the approximately 66,000 Jews in Latvia at the time of the Nazi invasion, there were as many as 59,000 that were killed in 1941. The remaining Jews were sent to ghettos to be used as slave labor. Ultimately, these Jews were transported to Germany in 1944. Of those, most perished there. The largest action taken against Latvian Jews occurred on November 30 and December 8, 1941. 25,000 Jews from Riga were murdered in an action that came to known as Rumbula, named for the railway station nearby.

Of the approximately 4,300 Jews in Estonia prior to the war, between 1,500 and 2,000 were entrapped by the Nazis. These Jews also met their death at the hands of the German Einsatzgruppe. Estonia was declared "Jew free" by that group.

There were only about 25,000 Jewish survivors of the war in Latvia. 18,000 of these survived by fleeing into central Russia. 5,000 were able to flee elsewhere, while there were only around 200 who survived by being hidden by gentiles. Other Jews survived by joining the partisans or the Red Army forces, most notably the Latvian Strelki 130 Corp.

In Lithuania, there were approximately 17,000 Jewish survivors. Approximately 1000 Jews were rescued by the non-Jewish population. 10,000 were members of the partisans, 1,600 joined the Lithuanian Rifle division of the Red Army of which about half were Jews, and 2,000 participated in the war as soldiers in other Soviet forces or the Polish forces. 2,000 others survived as resistance fighters in the labor camps and Ghettos. The Catholic church in Lithuania forbade help to the Jews, and in fact, members of the clergy sent Hitler a congratulatory note on the event of the invasion (Levin, p.334)

Why were the Baltic Jews the first target of mass genocide? Baltic Jews were an easily identifiable group because of their centuries of autonomy within the Baltic nations. Hitler’s plans, ultimately, included the subjugation of all non-German Baltic peoples and the appropriation of Baltic lands for Germans. Besides the Jews, the Nazis also targeted members of the native populations. Anyone who did not fit with their concept of racial or ideological purity was slated for extermination. The Jews were easy first targets. The use of propaganda equating Jews with Bolshevism gave the Nazis the "justifiable" reason for their actions and enabled them to commit their crimes without inciting negative repercussions amongst the non-Jewish Balts. Basically, in the Baltic countries the Nazis discovered that they could get away with their horrific crimes. Amongst the thousands of individual tragedies is also the tragedy of the loss of the thriving Jewish culture that was present in the Baltics.

Because of the second occupation of Soviet forces in 1944, many of the issues regarding the Holocaust were never addressed in the Baltics. Other non-Soviet countries have examined the Holocaust as a part of their history, but in the Baltic countries the freedom needed to critically examine the issues did not exist. Historical research was filtered through communist ideology and made to fit within that perspective. There are many questions and statics yet to be researched, particularly in regard to pre-existing anti-Semitism and the culpability of persons both German and Baltic.

1. Ezergails, Andrew. The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944, The Missing Center, Riga Model Printing House, Latvia 1996.
Well written, documented historical treatment of the Holocaust in Latvia with excellent breakdown of topics.

2.Levin, Dov. Lithuania, The World Reacts to the Holocaust, Edited by, David S. Wyman, Project director, Charles H. Rozenzveig, John Hopkins University Press, London 1996.
A country by country synopsis of the Holocaust. Each topic is written an expert in that particular area.

3.Lieven, Antol. The Baltic Revolution, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the Path to Independence, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1993.
Information of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Insights into pre-existing anti-Semitic sentiment. Re-examines memory in relation to Soviet propaganda.

4. Berdichevsky, Norman. The Baltic Revival and Zionism, Lituanus, The Lithuanian Quarterly, Vol 38, No. 2, 1992.
Good information on Zionism in the Baltic and the Jewish involvement in communist organizations which fed the anti-Semitism in the local populations.

5. http://www.wisenthal.com/children/bisi.htm "Children of the Holocaust"
These are several biographies of children in both Latvia and Lithuania that deal with their specific experiences. The articles give brief historical information as to what was occurring in the country at the same time.

6. http://www1.jewishgen.org/shtetlinks/shkudvil.html "Shkudvil: The Propp Ancestral Shtetl in Lithuania"
Traces the lives of survivors of the Propp family. Gives details of the events in the Shtetl of Shkudvil in Lithuania after Nazi occupation. This article gives details of the "Einsatzgruppen" missions, which were the mobile exterminationgroups. There are also lists of mass burial sites of members of this Shtetl.

7. http://www.ort.org/jpr/AWR_web/Europe/lithuania.htm
"Anti Semitism World Report 1997: Lithuania"
Gives historical background into anti Semitism in Lithuania.

8. http://www1.jewishgen.org/latvia/latvia_bibliog.html
"Latvia Sig Bibliography"
A bibliography and synopsis of Books in translation that deal with the Holocaust in Latvia. Good as a resource for textual research.