Kaiserwald concentration camp

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Coordinates: 56°59′49″N 24°07′53″E / 56.99694°N 24.13139°E / 56.99694; 24.13139

Concentration camps in Reichskommissariat Ostland. The concentration camps are marked with a black square.

Kaiserwald was a Nazi German concentration camp near the Riga suburb of Mežaparks in Latvia.

Kaiserwald was built in March, 1943, during the period that the German army occupied Latvia. The first inmates of the camp were several hundred convicts from Germany.

Following the liquidation of the Riga, Liepaja and Daugavpils (Dvinsk) ghettos in June, 1943, the remainder of the Jews of Latvia, along with most of the survivors of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, were deported to Kaiserwald.

In early 1944, a number of smaller camps around Riga were brought under the jurisdiction of the Kaiserwald camp.

Following the occupation of Hungary by the Germans, Hungarian Jews were sent to Kaiserwald, as were a number of Jews from Łódź, in Poland. By March 1944, there were 11,878 inmates in the camp and its subsidiaries, 6,182 males and 5,696 females, of whom only 95 were gentiles.

[edit] Use of the inmates

Unlike Auschwitz or Treblinka, Kaiserwald was not an extermination camp, and the inmates were put to work by large German companies, notably Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft, which used a large number of female slaves from Kaiserwald in the production of electrical goods, like batteries.

[edit] Evacuation

On August 6, 1944, as the Red Army advanced westwards and entered Latvia, the Germans began to evacuate the inmates of Kaiserwald to Stutthof, in Poland. Those who were not thought to be able to survive the trip from Latvia to Poland were shot.

All Jews in Kaiserwald who had ever been convicted of any offense, no matter how minor, were executed just prior to the evacuation, as were all Jews under 18 or over 30. By September, 1944, all the inmates of Kaiserwald had been moved to Stutthof.

The Red Army liberated the camp on October 13, 1944.

[edit] See also

• List of Nazi-German concentration camps

[edit] External links

• Helen Rodak-Izso - "The Last Chance to Remember"
• Museum of Tolerance - Kaiserwald

v • d • e The Holocaust in Latvia Crimes Burning of the Riga synagogues · Dünamünde Action • Jelgava • Pogulianski • Rumbula • Liepāja (Šķēde) Nazi murders of women and children on the beach at Liepaja, Latvia, December 15, 1941 Victims Jewish people of Latvia • Gypsies • Simon Dubnow • Else Hirsch Perpetrators Alois Brunner • Rudolf Batz • Fritz Dietrich • Otto-Heinrich Drechsler • Erich Ehrlinger • Friedrich Jeckeln • Heinz Jost • Konrāds Kalējs • Wolfgang Kügler • Rudolf Lange • Hinrich Lohse • Hans-Adolf Prützmann • Martin Sandberger • Alfred Rosenberg • Edward Roschmann • Rudolf Seck  • Franz Stahlecker • Eduard Strauch Nazi occupation and organizations Einsatzgruppen • Reichskommissariat Ostland • Rollkommando Hamann Collaborators and Nazi sympathizers Viktors Arājs • Arajs Kommando • Herberts Cukurs • Latvian Auxiliary Police • Schutzmannschaft Ghettos and camps Daugavpils ghetto • Jungfernhof concentration camp • Kaiserwald concentration camp • Riga ghetto • Salaspils concentration camp Documentation Generalplan Ost • Jäger Report War crimes investigations and trials Einsatzgruppen Trial • Extraordinary (Soviet) State Commission Righteous among the Nations Jānis Lipke • Roberts Sedols Related articles The Holocaust • Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany