Šķēde is a suburban settlement near

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see #Names and toponymy, other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Planning Region, Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after R ...

, Latvia, in Medze Parish,

South Kurzeme Municipality South Kurzeme Municipality ( lv, Dienvidkurzemes novads) is one of the 35 municipalities established in Latvia in 2021. It surrounds Liepāja, Latvia's third largest city. Its first elected municipal council will take office on 1 July 2021. Its sea ...

. It is located on the north border of the city. Šķēde was the biggest

dacha A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

in Latvia in the time of the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian SSR), also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was a federated republic within the Soviet Union, and formally one of its 16 (later 15) constituent republics. The Latvian Soviet Socialist Rep ...

. One of Šķēde's notable features is its street names, which are known as "lines" and numbered from 1 to 18. Typical Šķēde addresses may thus appear as: ''Šķēde 1-15-2''. Until 2005, the main Liepāja

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

was located near Šķēde.Kurzemes Vārds, 03.02.2005

History

Šķēde is also known for the Nazi

Liepāja massacres The Liepāja massacres were a series of mass executions, many public or semi-public, in and near the city of Liepāja (german: Libau), on the west coast of Latvia in 1941 after the German occupation of Latvia. The main perpetrators were detachme ...

in 1941. The main perpetrators were detachments of the Einsatzgruppen, the Sicherheitsdienst (or SD), the

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction w ...

and Latvian auxiliary police and militia forces. Wehrmacht and German naval forces also participated in the shootings. In addition to Jewish men, women and children (c.5,000), the Germans and their Latvian collaborators also killed Roma (c.100), communists, the mentally ill (c. 30) and so-called "hostages". In memory of this event, a memorial stone has been installed in the dunes near the settlement.

References

Populated places in Latvia Holocaust locations in Latvia South Kurzeme Municipality Courland {{courland-geo-stub