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Liepāja Massacres
The Liepāja massacres were a series of mass executions, many public or semi-public, in and near the city of Liepāja (), on the west coast of Latvia in 1941 after the German occupation of Latvia. The main perpetrators were detachments of the ''Einsatzgruppen'', the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), the ''Ordnungspolizei'' (ORPO), and Latvian auxiliary police and militia forces. Heer soldiers and German naval personnel were present during shootings. In addition to Jewish men, women and children (), the Germans and their Latvian collaborators also killed Roma (c.100), communists, the mentally ill (c. 30) and so-called "hostages".Ezergailis 1996, pp. 286-7. In contrast to most other Holocaust murders in Latvia, the killings at Liepāja were done in open places. About 5,000 of the 5,700 Jews trapped in Liepāja were shot, most of them in 1941. The killings occurred at a variety of places within and outside of the city, including Rainis Park in the city center, and areas near the harbor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liepāja
Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-free port. In the 19th and early 20th century, it was a favourite place for sea-bathers and travellers, with the town boasting a fine park, many pretty gardens and a theatre. Liepāja is however known throughout Latvia as the "City where the wind is born", likely because of the constant sea breeze. A song of the same name () was composed by Imants Kalniņš and has become the anthem of the city. Its reputation as the windiest city in Latvia was strengthened with the construction of the largest wind farm in the nation (33 Enercon wind turbines) nearby. Liepāja is chosen as the European Capital of Culture in 2027. Names and toponymy The name is derived from the Livonian language, Livonian word ''Liiv,'' which means "sand" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massacre
A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a Loanword, loan of a French term for "butchery" or "carnage". Other terms with overlapping scope include war crime, pogrom, mass killing, mass murder, and extrajudicial killing. Etymology ''Massacre'' derives from late 16th century Middle French word ''macacre'' meaning "slaughterhouse" or "butchery". Further origins are dubious, though the word may be related to Latin ''macellum'' "provisions store, butcher shop". The Middle French word ''macecr'' "butchery, carnage" is first recorded in the late 11th century. Its primary use remained the context of animal slaughter (in hunting terminology referring to the head of a stag) well into the 18th century. The use of ''macecre'' "butchery" of the mass killing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker (10 October 1900 – 23 March 1942) was commander of the SS security forces (''Sicherheitspolizei'' (SiPo) and the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) for the ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' in 1941–42. Stahlecker commanded ''Einsatzgruppe A'', the most murderous of the four ''Einsatzgruppen'' (death squads during the Holocaust) active in German-occupied Eastern Europe. He was fatally wounded in action by Soviet partisans and was replaced by Heinz Jost. Early life Stahlecker was born into a wealthy family in Sternenfels, Germany on 10 October 1900. He was the second of three sons of the pastor and director of studies Eugen Stahlecker and his wife Anna Zaiser. He served in the military from 21 September to 7 December 1918. From 1919 to 1920 Stahlecker was a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund and the Organisation Consul. He studied at the University of Tübingen, where he obtained a doctorate of law in 1927. On 14 October 1932, he married Luis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yellow Badge
The yellow badge, also known as the yellow patch, the Jewish badge, or the yellow star (, ), was an accessory that Jews were required to wear in certain non-Jewish societies throughout history. A Jew's ethno-religious identity, which would be denoted by the badge, would help to mark them as an outsider. Legislation that mandated Jewish subjects to wear such items has been documented in some Middle Eastern caliphates and in some European kingdoms during the medieval period and the early modern period. The most recent usage of yellow badges was during World War II, when Jews living in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe were ordered to wear a yellow Star of David to keep their Jewish identity disclosed to the public in the years leading up to the Holocaust. History Muslim world The practice of wearing special clothing or markings to distinguish Jews and other non-Muslims ( dhimmis) in Muslim-dominated countries seems to have been introduced in the Umayyad Caliphate by Caliph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurzemes Vārds
(from ) is a Latvian regional newspaper published in Liepāja, Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t .... The first issue was published on November 27, 1918. The newspaper is issued five times a week from Monday to Friday. During the Soviet occupation of Latvia the newspaper was renamed to "Komunists" (from ), regaining the name Kurzemes Vārds on April 13, 1990. The average circulation of the newspaper is 8800 copies. A Russian language version of the same name, ''Курземес Вардс'', is issued four times a week. References Newspapers published in Latvia {{Latvia-newspaper-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obersturmbannführer
__NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party ( NSDAP) which was used by the SA (''Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ' was junior to the rank of '' Standartenführer'', and was equivalent to the military rank of ''Oberstleutnant'' ( lieutenant colonel) in the German Army. As the SA expanded, the rank of ''Ostubaf'' was created in May 1933 to provide a rank above '' Sturmbannführer''; likewise, the ''Ostubaf'' was an SS rank. The ' rank insignia was composed of four silver pips and a black stripe on a silver background, all elements are centered in the left wing of the collar of the tunic of an SS or of an SA uniform. The rank also was worn on the shoulder boards of an ''Oberstleutnant'' and was the highest rank in the SS and the SA to display SS unit insignia on the collar wing opposite the rank insignia. Various Waffen-SS units composed of foreign recruits ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonderkommando 1a
(, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the implementation of the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish question" () in territories conquered by Nazi Germany, and were involved in the murder of much of the intelligentsia and cultural elite of Poland, including members of the Catholic priesthood. Almost all of the people they murdered were civilians, beginning with the intelligentsia and swiftly progressing to Soviet political commissars, Jews, and Romani people, as well as actual or alleged partisans throughout Eastern Europe. Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler and the supervision of SS- Reinhard Heydrich, the operated in territories occupied by the ''Wehrmacht'' (German armed forces) following the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz concentration camp#Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka extermination camp, Treblinka, Belzec extermination camp, Belzec, Sobibor extermination camp, Sobibor, and Chełmno extermination camp, Chełmno in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term ''Holocaust'' is sometimes used to include the murder and persecution of Victims of Nazi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army (which embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces alongside the Soviet Navy) was renamed the "Soviet Army". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army. The Red Army provided the largest land warfare, ground force in the Allies of World War II, Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its Soviet invasion of Manchuria, invasion of Manchuria assisted the un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encyclopedia Of Camps And Ghettos, 1933–1945
''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945'' is a seven-part encyclopedia series that explores the history of the concentration camps, ghettos, forced-labor camps, and other sites of detention, persecution, or state-sponsored murder run by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers in Europe and Africa. The series is produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and published by Indiana University Press. Research began in 2000; the first volume was published in 2009; and the final volume is slated for publication in 2025. Along with entries on individual sites, the encyclopedias also contain scholarly overviews for historical context. The project attracted media attention when its editors announced in 2013 that the series would cover more than 42,500 sites, eight times more than expected. The first two volumes in the series, covering the Nazi concentration camps and Nazi ghettos, received a positive response from both scholars and survivors. Multiple scholars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
