The three deputy mayors with the German ambassador to Latvia, Christian Heldt.
Delegation from Rheine gained impressive insights in Riga (Latvia)
RIGA/RHEINE. Bikernieki – a beautiful pine forest in a recreational area on the outskirts of Riga. Birds chirp, walkers enjoy the peace and clean air. However, a monument that looks like a chapel and many hundreds of granite stones set into the ground remind us of the cruel history of this place. Eighty-one years ago, tens of thousands of Jews were shot here by soldiers of the Nazi Arajs command and “disposed of” in pits. The Memorial Day, which was supposed to commemorate the beginning of the Latvian Holocaust, was actually scheduled for last year. Because of the pandemic, it had to be postponed to 2022.
The invitation was extended by the German Riga Committee. An alliance of cities that has made it its task to commemorate the deportation and murder of the Jews. Also from Rheine 15 Jews were murdered in Riga. They had been taken to the Baltic States in December 1941 with the so-called “Bielefeld Transport” – together with 390 Jews from the Münsterland. The list of 39 towns in Münsterland from which people of Jewish faith were systematically forced into the wagons ranges from Ahaus to Wolbeck. Around two dozen towns from Münsterland have joined the Riga Committee since 2001, and the town of Rheine since 2015.
“History doesn’t just pass by. You deal with German history in a completely different way when you have been to this place,” said the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Latvia, Christian Heldt, on the occasion of the commemoration ceremony. After all, the Nazi atrocities were followed by the Soviet occupation.
And again, the nearby Skirotava station, where the wagons with the deported Jews arrived in 1941 and 1942, gained sad notoriety: this time, the trains left from there for Siberia.
“These were very deep traumas. The history is still very deeply present in people’s minds here,” Heldt continued. And that’s why, he said, since Feb. 24, the start of the Russian military incursion into Ukraine, “nothing has been the same.” “The Latvians, the Estonians and also the Lithuanians say to themselves: that could be us, too,” the ambassador reported. Since gaining independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he said, a dull underlying feeling has prevailed without. Heldt literally said, “There is a deep sense of vulnerability here.”
The war in Ukraine was also a dominant theme during a conversation with Riga Mayor Martins Stakis. “My heart bleeds. Ukraine is fighting for us,” said the personable 43-year-old, who had previously been a state secretary in the Defense Ministry. 100 new refugees arrive every day, he said. And hybrid warfare is also a concern: “The Russians’ propaganda is doing its dirty job – day after day.”
The Rita Committee delegation took part in the official commemoration of Latvia’s Holocaust Remembrance Day on July 4. There, among others, Latvian President Egils Levits, Speaker of Parliament Inara Murciene and Minister of Defense Artis Pabriks spoke.All of them pointed out the importance of remembering the cruel event – and as “a kind of immunization against the re-entry of this thought,” as the Israeli ambassador called it.
From November 3 to 5, a symposium of the Riga Committee will take place in Rheine. It will also deal with forms of commemoration and the involvement of young people. Deputy Mayor Fabian Lenz invited the member site of the Riga Committee to Rheine at a reception hosted by the German Embassy in the traditional Gildenhaus.
On the subject: Riga Committee
The German Riga Committee was founded in the year 2000 in Berlin under the patronage of Federal President Johannes Rau as a memory-cultural city federation. Its members include the cities of Brno, Prague, Riga, Vienna and Terezín. Its task: to commemorate the more than 25,000 Jews who were deported from their cities in 1941 and 1942 and who were mostly murdered in the forests of Bikernieki. Winfried Nachwei, a former member of the Bundestag from Münster, who together with some other researchers had come across the “Blood Trail of National Socialism in Riga” in 1989, was very involved. Today, more than 70 cities belong to the committee.
Statement of the three deputy mayors Birgitt Overesch, Karl-Heinz Brauer and Fabian Lenz:
“Together with about 50 other members of the Riga Committee, we have been very intensively engaged in these days with the history of the persecution of the Jews during the Nazi era, with the three times occupation of Latvia in the 20th century, as well as with the current situation of Latvia with the Ukraine war.
The exchange between the hosts from Latvia and the German and Austrian delegations was very intensive and very valuable.
We took away many ideas for the remembrance work in Rheine and for our work as a member of the Riga Committee. But we also saw how much still needs to be done.
The trip has once again made us more aware of remembrance work, and we look forward to seeing many of the fellow travelers again at the Riga Symposium in Rheine in November to continue working on the common themes.”