As the Germans rampaged through different lands and took different territory, they conducted
huge scale killings and massacres in different lands.
Following the Wehrmacht were the Einsatzgruppen, the death squads of the SS who’s purpose
it was to solely massacre civilians and those that the Nazis deemed as undesirable.
There were hundreds of atrocities carried out under the cover of the Second World War,
and still today many of them remain untold and lie under to soil in Europe.
One series of mass executions carried out on the West Coast of Latvia following the
German occupation of the country was the Liepaja (Lee ah pai ya) massacres.
Around 5000 Jews, Roma, Communists and others were killed, and the largest site of killing
too place surrounding the town of Skede, on the dunes and the beach there.
Join us today as we look at the horrific executions of Skede Beach, remember to support our channel,
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On hot and warm summer days, local families from the popular and busy port city of Liepaja
would flock to nearby beaches to enjoy Latvia’s west coast and a day by the sea.
They would relax on the sandy seashore, and swim in the sea there as anyone would do by
the coast.
Families would sunbath, build sandcastles and would get involved in different activities
such as kayaking in the Baltic Sea.
Skede beach was one popular place for this.
But during the Second World War, the beautiful beach would become a site of great horror
for many of those people who had fond memories before the conflict of visiting the coast.
The area of Liepaja was seen as an important part of Latvia by the Germans who targeted
it.
It was where a naval base could be found and also an international port, and for the Germans
and Hitler it was seen as an important place to take control of.
The people living in the area were more likely communist too, which made Hitler more determined
to capture it.
It was planned that it would be taken early following Hitler’s wishes to take the Baltic
states, and the attack on the area was spearheaded by the German 291st Infantry Division.
The Red Army and other Soviet resistors fought bravely, and managed to prevent the Germans
entering the city, but over time they were forced back by the Germans who entered Liepaja
on the 29th June 1941.
Over the next few days, sniper fire and fighting rose up in the city, and there was much damage
caused by bombing raids and fires.
But as soon as the Germans invaded the area, they began to enact their brutal policies
of the Holocaust in Latvia, where German soldiers would massacre Sicilians.
The first killings began with 6 jews being shot in a town near Liepaja inside of a graveyard,
but after the fall of Liepaja the Germans sought after Jews and began to hunt them down
to them massacre them.
It’s believed that almost 6000 jews fell into German hands, and over the first few
days of occupation German soldiers were randomly shooting Jews.
Around 100 were killed in the sporadic early shootings, and many were massacred amongst
civilian populations inside of bomb craters, and Latvian’s were encouraged to hand over
Jews to the SS too.
The town began a site of execution with shootings taking place on the streets, and the city
hospital was raided by the Germans with many Jewish patients being torn from their beds,
and then shot alongside Jewish staff and doctors.
They shot children too, and more massacred in the town and surrounding area occurred.
The Einsatzgruppen entered the town, and took advantage of the defensive fortifications
dug by the Soviet soldiers who tried to defend the city.
In Rainis Park, in the centre of the city, the Red Army had dug a huge trench to defend
from, and in here Jews were rounded up and marched to the park and then forced in the
trenches.
They were then shot dead by the Einsatzgruppen and the SD and in this one particular massacre
it’s believed that possibly between 300 and 1400 were killed in the park killings.
But the city was placed under the command of the Kriegsmarine because of it’s port
town, and then further brutal laws were placed under the town.
The commander of the town, Stein said that for every act of sabotage against the occupying
forces, ten civilians would be shot.
They also forced all Jews to wear the yellow star on their clothes, introduced shopping
hours for Jews and curfews, barred Jews from public transport and placed further restrictions
on them.As the weeks went on and the Latvians’ lived under occupation, more shootings and
executions in Liepaja were carried out.
Jews and Communists were arrested and then tortured, and the women’s prison became
so full that women could not lie down at night because of the overcrowding.
More massacres continued in July 1941, and hundreds were being shot in ditches at a time
around the city.
Executions it was said happened on a large scale every few weeks.
Many of the executions took place around the beach area, to the south of the lighthouse
where execution squads would execute jews and communists.
But following a transfer of power within the SS in the area, the execution rate went up
significantly and executions were happening on a large scale twice a week.
Different groups of jews were being brought out and massacred.
On the 22nd July 1941, DR Hans Kawelmacher who had been placed in charge of the navies
command in Liepaja asked the SS high command for more SS men and more Nazi police to introduce
a quick solution to the Jewish problem in the region.
He wanted the cities Jews to be massacred quickly, and with this more killing took place
with the Arajs Command brought in to carry out further murders.
Over days, hundreds were killed.
It was noted near to the beach close by the naval base that, ‘The Jews were crouching
down on the ground.
They had to walk in groups of about ten to the edge of a pit.
Here they were shot by Latvian civilians.
The execution area was visited by scores of German spectators from the Navy and the Reichsbahn
[national railway].
I turned to Kügler and said in no uncertain terms that it was intolerable that shootings
were being carried out in front of spectators.’
Throughout August 1941, further killings continued, but they built up to the ‘Big Action’
that occurred between December 15th and December 17th.
The largest of the Liepaja massacres took place on three freezing cold winter days.
The Latvian Police began to arrest Jews and transport them to the Women’s prison were
they were locked into a courtyard.
Further Jews were gathered up and were taken from their homes, and it was said that 4000
of Liepaja’s jews were collected in a group.
The site of the execution was Skede Beach, which was a nearby fishing village.
The execution site was north of the city, and the beach was used as a holding point
for the victims before they were to be executed.
Inside of the dunes of the beach, a trench had been dug that ran parallel to the shore.
This huge trench was 100 metres long and 3 metres wide, and Jews were ordered to march
from the Women’s prison to the killing site.
Once they arrived at Skede Beach, they were put into a barn and then were collected in
groups of 20 at a time where they were then forced into the trench on the sand at gunpoint.
They were forced to strip completely as they got closer to the pit, and then the victims
would have peered into the trench seeing the bodies of hundreds.
They were then driven into the pit, and were then shot by firing squads who stood on the
edge.
The place which for many, a beach overlooking the Baltic Sea became a site of horror where
over 4000 were slaughtered.
Facing the Baltic Sea, the water would be their final sight before the German and Latvian
executions shot through them.
There were 3 units conducting the shooting, One German, One made up of Latvian SD men
and another unit of Latvian Police.
After the initial volley of shots was fired towards the victims, a German SD man would
climb into the trench and inspect the bodies of the 20 killed.
It anyone was still alive, he would fire a pistol into their bodies.
It was hoped by the executioners that the bodies would deeper fall into the trench following
the shot, but they even employed a kicker, who’s job it was to shove, kick and roll
the bodies into the grave.
Some of the executioners were given alcohol to make their job seemingly easier for them,
and on these cold winter days thousands were killed on Skede Beach.
It was said of the site of execution, ‘The following day I went with several members
of our unit ... to the execution area on horseback.
When we arrived at the said hills we could see the arms and legs of the executed Jews
sticking out of the inadequately filled-in grave.
After seeing this, we officers sent a written communication to our headquarters in Liepāja.
As a result of our communication the dead Jews were covered properly with sand.’
Talk of the executions spread across the country, and it was said that ‘Regret about the fate
of the Jews is constantly expressed; there are few voices to be heard which are in favor
of the elimination of the Jews.
Among other things, a rumor is abroad that the execution was filmed in order to have
material to use against the Latvian Schutzmannschaft.
This material is said to prove that Latvians and not Germans carried out the executions.’
One of the sickest parts of the executions on the beach was that they were photographed
by Richard Weiner, a man who was enlisted to document the Einsatzgruppen’s killings.
It was said that over the course of the months following the executions on Skede beach, the
executioners repeatedly went back to the beach and extended the trench until it became over
1km long.
In 1943, they went back to the beach and put chlorine over the bodies in an attempt to
hide the massacre.
The shootings on Skede Beach were the largest of the executions of Liepaja’s Jews and
inhabitants.
On the sand dunes, it was said up to 4000 jews were killed, mostly women and children.
The horrific story of the slaughter on the sand is tragically just one of many horrific
massacres carried out by the Nazi death squads that followed the Wehrmacht advances.
The beach which so many would have enjoyed before the start of the Second World War,
became a huge sight of mass murder, and the sand will forever remained tainted by the
slaughter that occurred there.
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