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Mortal threat: Latvian Jews at the dawn of Nazi occupation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Daina S. Eglitis  and
Didzis Bērziņš
Daina S. Eglitis*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Didzis Bērziņš
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: dainas@gwu.edu
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Abstract

In late June 1941, Nazi Germany stormed the borders of the Soviet Union, occupying the three Baltic republics within weeks. By the end of 1941, a significant proportion of the Jewish population had been murdered by German forces and local collaborators. In the days before full Nazi occupation of the territory, Latvia's Jews confronted the question of whether to flee into the Russian interior or stay in their communities. History shows that this would be a critical choice. Testimonies and memoirs of Jewish survivors illuminate the competing motivations to leave or to remain. This article highlights the key factors that figured into these calculations and the interaction between individual agency and structural opportunities and obstacles in determining where Latvia's Jews were when Holocaust in their homeland began.

Keywords

LatviaHolocaustJewish communityWorld War IIflight decisions
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 6: Special Section: The evolution of nationhood in 20th century Europe: Lessons from the Northern Adriatic borderlands , November 2018 , pp. 1063 - 1080
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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