Free access.
After the State Extraordinary Commission of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic completed its work, the original documents were sent to the State Extraordinary Commission of the USSR in Moscow, while Latvia received copies of these documents.
285 files
5 printed finding aids (numbers 26-30) are available at the reading room. Finding aids 1a, 1-24, 24a, 25 are kept at the State Archives of Latvia.
Ārkārtēja komisija lvva
Organization of the Commission’s work, including information about staff, reports, collection of information; lists of victims on Latvian territory, including Abrene district, Aizpute district, and Aizpute city; list of Jews killed in 1941 in Bauska district, Valmiera district, Ventspils district and Ventspils city, Valka district, Daugavpils district and Daugavpils city; list of Jews killed in Livani, Dagda, Jekabpils district, Jelgava district, Liepaja district, Ludza district, Liepaja district, and Liepaja city; lists of Jews killed in 1941 in Riga district and Riga city; list of Jews killed in 1941 in Talsi district, Tukums district, Cesis district; List of persons returned from Germany camps and work places and related questionnaires; lists of fascist criminals who participated in mass killing, based on testimonies of eyewitnesses (covers all Latvian territory); lists of collaborates. Reports to the Riga Registry Office about the death (killing) cases; reports of the Riga Central prison about death of prisoners; list of Riga ghetto inmates, including information about their occupations; diary of orders and instructions for the Riga ghetto guards. Lists of deceased musicians and intellectuals. Prisoners of war in Salaspils concentration camp and escapes; prisoners of war in the Liepaja camp, including information about camp condition and lists of deceased persons; killings of prisoners of war in Rezekne district; prisoners of war camp in Rauna civil parish, conditions in camp, killings in camp. References about civil inhabitants and prisoners of war in Salaspils. Lists of persons arrested and kept in Citadele (1944) and children from Russia in Salaspils. Plan of Salapils and Mezaparks concentration camps; plans of Rumbula, Bikernieki, and Dreilini forests. Photos of German fascist atrocities, including mass killings in Liepaja Shkede, exhumation of bodies, albums of destructions in cities, including Rezekne, Lielaja, Priekule, Daugavpils, and Jelgava, as well as Kaiserwald camp, Salaspils camp; pictures of Bikernieki forest exhumation, Salaspils mass graves, baracks and inside of Mezaparks, Central prison with Jewish belongings, photos of Dvinsk camp for prisoners of war; drawings of situation of mass graves, photos of mass graves of prisoners of war. Documents and lists of Jews driven to Riga from Vilnius, list of foreign Jews transported to Riga (list contains very little information). Investigation of crimes; inspection of burial places of children in Salaspils; annihilation of children taken to Latvian territory from Russia; conditions in Salaspils; sterilization of women in Riga in 1942; Strasdenhof concentration camp; list of children in orphanages in Riga in 1944; inspection of dead bodies found in Bikernieki forest, Salaspils; Old and New Jewish cemetery, Bishu muiza – 549 bodies found, annihilation of prisoners of war and civilians in Dreilini forest; statistics about persons sent to Germany for work; interrogation protocols for investigation of fascist atrocity (1945); SS Hygiene Institute, Zoological Institute in Kleisti – including information about use of Jews for experiments with lice and vivisection; burial places of these Jews. Mass killings in Rezekne district, 1941-1943; killing of inhabitants of Audrini vilage (1942); prisoners of war, children from Russia taken to Rezekne district, forced labour sending to Germany . Mass killings in Madone district, 1941-1943; concentration camp in Madone for political prisoners; mass killings in Ludza district, 1941-1943, and in Liepaja district, Saldus, Dobele, Dundaga, Grobina, Liepaja, Abrene district, Aizpute district, Bauska district, Valka district; execution of mental ill in Strenci, 1941, and in Valmiera district, Ventspils district, Daugavpils district; inspection of dead bodies (1027 in total) found in Daugavpils. Daugavpils – rules and conditions in Kraslava, Talsi-Tukums district, Cesis district. Address Bureau – references about whereabouts of persons in 1945 searches for relatives. Interrogation of Latvians working in Warsaw ghetto. Information about Jews sent to Treblinka, confiscation of Jewish property, forced labour, reimbursement payment s. Investigation of crimes in Lithuania, Kaunas, Vilnius; Kaunas IX Fort, Pogegen.
Files are arranged according to the inventories.
USHMM RG-18.002M (Latvian Central State Historical Archive (Rīga) records)
[See part of fond of the Latvijas PSR Ārkārtējā republikāniskā komisija ( VĀK) under Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva Latvijas Valsts arhīvs]
A. Ezergailis. *The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941-1944: the Missing Center.* Riga The Historical institute of Latvia [in association with The United State Holocaust Memorial Museum], 1996, 465 p. Anita Kugler. *Scherwitz: Der jüdische SS-Offizier* Cologne, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2004, 758 p. A. Angrik, P. Klein. *The Final Solution in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, 1941-1944.* New-York, Berghahn Books, 2009, 515 p. Katrin Reichelt. *Lettland unter deutscher Besatzung 1941–1944. Der lettische Anteil am Holocaust.* Metropol-Verlag Verlag, Berlin, 2011, 428 p.
No other documents expected.
Entry added on August 4, 2014 by Rita Bogdanova based on finding aids available at the repository.
Physical condition of documents - satisfactory.