February 6, 1942 to March 26, 1942

By February 6, 1942 the first orders were carried out within the Ghetto.
The elderly and the sick, those who cold not work were slaughtered by machine gunfire.

Almost weekly, until the middle of March, more arrived from all over parts of Germany, Poland, Austria and Lithuania.

At the Railroad station the unlucky were sorted and sent to Auschwitz, to the gas chambers.

On February 16, 1942, my family met a terrible fate. My father 54 years old, was torn from us and sent to the concentration camp at Silaspils, 12 kilometers from Riga. On March 26, 1942, one day before his birthday, he was taken into the woods. And shot by machine gun fire.

My mother took ill, and became severely depressed upon hearing of my father’s death.

I had to use my youthful strength in order to clean out the rooms in the ghetto of those who were shot.

On February 18, 1942, four of my friends and I were to be shot. Fortunately, we were able to save our lives, by being skilled and able to work. The next day we were sent to work in a factory. Orders were received daily. We were constantly supervised. Daily people were hanged and shot to death. This was a typical day’s activity at Riga.