The first murder operation took place on the first day of occupation, June 29, 1941, when the Einsaztkommando shot a group of Jews along with other Latvian activists in anti-tank ditches in Rainis Park. The killings were carried out by Einsatzkommando 1a, under the command of SS-Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Reichert. Groups of victims (according to different sources, between 33 and 150 men) that apparently comprised Jews and suspected political activists were ordered to march in line along Brivibas Street to the two ditches previously dug by the Red Army, 100 and 200 meters in length, where they were shot. Estimates of the total number of victims varies from several dozen to about 300. The Soviet Extraordinary State Commission investigating Nazi crimes noted that (a seemingly exaggerated) 1,430 people were killed in Rainis Park.

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The dunes near the lighthouse, situated south of the city, served as one of the murder sites. At the beginning of July 1941, the Germans killed some groups of political prisoners and Jews there. Most of them were brought to the dunes from the Women’s Prison in Tilzas Street, which had become a jail for political prisoners, male and female, and a transit station for Jews destined for the murder sites. On July 8-10, 1941, mass murder operations were carried out by the Teilkommando 2 of Einsatzkommando A headed by Erhard Grauel, probably with the assistance of the Arajs Commando. Each day, at least 100 Jews were shot. The Jewish men snatched from the streets and their houses and Jewish prisoners from the Women’s Prison were brought to the site by truck in groups of twenty. They were forced to enter the pit – measuring four by fifteen meters – in groups of ten, where they were shot with bolt-action rifles from the edge of the embankment. At first, the marksmen were told to divide the Jews between them, one aiming at the head, the other at the heart. Later, the order was for both gunmen to aim at the head. After a round of killings, German officers armed with machine guns entered the pit to examine the victims, and if any signs of life were found, they delivered “insurance” shots.

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The murders in the dunes at Skede on the Baltic shore, some fifteen kilometers north of the city and about a kilometer from the road towards the sea, began as early as July 1941. Some 200 Jews were murdered there. During a three-day massacre on December 15-17, 1941, German and Latvian units killed 2,749 Jews, more than half of Liepaja’s Jewish population. Preparations for the operation began some days before. On December 13, 1941, Liepaja Police Chief Obersturmbannfuehrer Fritz Diedrich placed an announcement in the Latvian newspaper Kurzemes Vards stating that Jews were forbidden to leave their living quarters on Monday, December 15, and Tuesday, December 16. On the night of December 13, Latvian police forces began to arrest Liepaja’s Jews not yet concentrated in the ghetto. The victims were brought to the Women’s Prison, where Jews of all ages were crammed into the courtyard. The Jews were ordered to stand with their faces towards the wall, and warned not to move or look around for relatives or at the watchmen. Some were transported to Skede on the evening of the following day and crowded into a barn (a wooden structure, described also as a garage). In the early morning of December 15, a column of victims was driven from Liepaja by Latvian policemen, under the supervision of the German SD, to the same barn in Skede where Jews from the prison had been taken. They were taken in groups of twenty to a site forty to fifty meters from a deep ditch dug in the dunes nearby, parallel to the shore. The ditch was about three meters wide and 100 meters long. There they were forced to lie face down on the ground. Groups of ten were then ordered to stand up and, apart from the children, to undress, at first to their underwear and then, when taken near the ditch, completely. They were shot by a German unit, the Latvian SD Platoon headed by Lt. Peteris Galins, and a Latvian Schutzmannschaften team. During the murder operation, the Jews were placed along the side of the ditch nearest the sea, facing the water. The killing squad was positioned across the ditch, with two marksmen shooting at the same victim. Children who could walk were treated as adults, but babies were held by their mothers and killed with them. A “kicker” rolled in those corpses that did not fall directly into the ditch. After each volley, a German SD man stepped into the ditch to inspect the bodies and finish off anyone who showed signs of life. The clothes were piled up in heaps and taken away by German military trucks. During the murder operation, Strott and another officer, Erich Handke, took pictures with a Minox, and senior Wehrmacht and navy officers visited the site. The murder operations in Skede continued until December 1942. On February 15, 1942, the Germans planned to murder 500 Jews in Skede. However, on the way to the murder site a group of 22 Jews pounced on the drunken Latvian guards and managed to escape. In 1943, chlorine was poured over the corpses.

More information: Yad Vashem