Riebiņi (, , , ) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in Riebiņi Parish,

Preiļi Municipality Preiļi Municipality () is a municipality in Latgale, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2000 by merging Aizkalne Parish, Preiļi Parish and Preiļi town. In 2009 it absorbed Pelēči Parish and Sauna Parish, too the administrative centre ...

in the

Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...

region of

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 ...

History

The village was a

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

, and most of the inhabitants were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. According to the census of 1897, there were 533 Jews living in the village (91% of the total population). In the beginning of the 20th century, many of the Jews left for Israel or the United States, and in 1935, Jews constituted 68% of the total population. At the end of August 1941, Latvian civil defense police (reportedly - former members of the ''

Aizsargi Aizsargi (; officially – , or LAO) was a volunteer paramilitary organization, militia with some characteristics of a military reserve force in Latvia during the interbellum period (1918–1939). The Aizsargi was created on March 30, 1919, b ...

'') arrested Jews and locked them into the synagogues. Then they were moved to Ribiniški Forest (4 km. northwest of the shtetl) and murdered there in a mass execution. There were some local inhabitants from Solutions district who took part in the massacre and several Germans who watched it.

References

Villages in Latgale Historic Jewish communities in Latvia Jewish Latvian history Holocaust locations in Latvia Populated places in Preiļi Municipality {{Latgale-geo-stub