The Great Choral Synagogue (, ) on Gogoļa iela (

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

Street) was the largest synagogue in Riga, until it was burned down on 4 July 1941. The synagogue was designed in 1868 by architect Paul von Hardenack and the building was completed in 1871. The architecture consisted of several different styles, however,

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

was the dominant style. The synagogue was famous throughout the city for its cantors and its choir. The synagogue was burned down on 4 July 1941 after the Nazi German occupation of Riga. There are reports that 20 Jews were locked in the basement. Historian Bernhard Press states that some of the victims were Lithuanian Jews who had taken refuge there.Press, ''The Murder of the Jews in Latvia'', at page 46 Gertrude Schneider identifies the victims as mostly women and children. Frida Michelson, a Latvian Jew who had been working near

Jelgava Jelgava (; german: Mitau, ; see also other names) is a state city in central Latvia about southwest of Riga with 55,972 inhabitants (2019). It is the largest town in the region of Zemgale (Semigalia). Jelgava was the capital of the united Du ...

in a forced labor detail when the synagogue was burned, reported that she was told by a friend (who had heard it from someone else) that the halls and the backyard of the Choral Synagogue were filled with refugees from Lithuania. Perkonkrusts and "other Latvian hangers-on" surrounded the building, trapped the people inside, and set it on fire.

Andrew Ezergailis Andrew Ezergailis ( lv, Andrievs Ezergailis; born 10 December 1930 in Rite Parish, died 22 January 2022 in Ithaca, New York) was a Professor of History at Ithaca College, known for his research into the 20th-century history of Latvia, particular ...

does not find it credible that Jews were locked in the Great Choral Synagogue before it was set on fire. Ezergailis does acknowledge that there could have been 300 Lithuanian refugees in the synagogue before the fire was set. He postulates however that they would have been killed before the synagogue was set on fire. The destruction of the synagogue was filmed by the Germans and later became part of a Wehrmacht newsreel, with the following narration: "The synagogue in Riga, which had been spared by the

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

commissars in their work of destruction, went up in flames a few hours later." After the war, the remains of the burnt-out synagogue were demolished by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

authorities and the area was turned into a public square, with the first commemorative stone marking a Star of David being placed at the location only in 1988. After the restoration of Latvia's independence, a memorial designed by Latvian architect Sergejs Rižs in the shape of the synagogue walls with built-in archaeological remains of the original building found at the site, was erected on the grounds in 1993. In 2007 a memorial to

Jānis Lipke Jānis Lipke (also Žanis and Jan Lipke; 1 February 1900, Mitau – 14 May 1987, Riga) was a Latvian rescuer of Jews in Riga in World War II from the Holocaust in Latvia. Lipke, a dock worker in the port of Riga, was determined to help save La ...

and others who had saved Jews from the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

was unveiled next to the 1993 memorial. The memorial commemorates all those, who helped save more than 400 Jews from certain death.

References

External links

Great Choral Synagogue on LiveRīga.com (Riga tourism portal)
{{Coord, 56, 56, 32.71, N, 24, 7, 34.79, E, region:LV-RIX_type:landmark, display=title Former synagogues in Latvia Synagogues completed in 1871 Synagogues in Riga Synagogues destroyed by Nazi Germany

See also

References

External links