List of massacres in Latvia

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The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Latvia (numbers may be approximate):

Massacres during the Latvian War of Independence

Name Date Location Deaths Notes
White Terror 1919 to 1920 across Latvia 3,000 to 4,000 These estimates are very fragmentary, as there is still little data from some regions such as Latgale.
Red Terror 1918 to 1920 across Latvia 1,500 to 2,000 These estimates are very fragmentary, as there is still little data from some regions such as Latgale.

Massacres during World War II

Name Date Location Deaths Notes
Liepāja massacres 1941 Liepāja and vicinity, including Priekule, Aizpute, and Grobiņa 5000+ 5,000+ Jews. as well as gypsies, communists and the mentally ill were killed in a series of mass executions, many public or semi-public, in the city of Liepāja
Daugavpils Ghetto June 26, 1941 to October 1943 Daugavpils and vicinity, including Pogulyanka (Poguļanka) Forest (sometimes called Mežciems forest). 13,000 to 16,000 Jews, mostly Latvians with some Lithuanians
Burning of the Riga synagogues July 4, 1941 Riga 400 All synagogues were destroyed and 400 Jews were killed[1][2]
Bikernieki Forest Massacres July 7, 1941 - 1944 Bikernieki Forest near Riga 30.000 - 46.000 Execution of between 30,000 and 46,000 victims of Nazism, mostly Latvian Jews
Rēzekne massacre July 1941 Rēzekne 2,500 Killings were carried out by a German SD group, which was helped by Selbstschutz men and Arajs Kommando. Beginning in July 1941 and into the fall, about 2,500 Jewish men, women and children were murdered.[3][4]
Ventspils massacre July 16-July 18, 1941 and July–August, 1941 Ventspils 1,000 Soon a poster appeared on the Kuldīga-Ventspils highway, which said that Ventspils was Judenfrei (free of Jews).
Jelgava massacres Second part of July or early August, 1941 Jelgava and vicinity Separate estimates of 1,500, 1,550, and 2,000 victims have been made. German police along with Latvian auxiliary police murdered the Jewish inhabitants of the city during a series of mass shootings
Varakļāni massacre August 4, 1941 Varakļāni 540 The Nazis forced 540 remaining Jews to dig their own graves, and then shot them to death
Rumbula massacre November 30 and December 8, 1941 Rumbula forest (near Riga) 25,000 About 24,000 Latvian Jews and 1,000 German Jews were murdered in or on the way to Rumbula forest near Riga.[5]
Audriņi massacre January 3-4, 1942 village of Audriņi, Audriņi Parish, Rēzekne Municipality 215 215 inhabitants were killed, including 51 children
Dunamunde massacre March 15-26, 1942 Daugavgrīva, Latvia 3,740 About 3,740 German, Czech, and Austrian Jews were killed by the Nazi German occupying force and local collaborationists in Biķernieki forest.

Post-war massacres

Name Date Location Deaths Notes
lecava massacre September 20, 1997 Iecava Parish, Bauska Municipality 8 Yuri Chubarov kills 7 people and injures one in a shooting, then commits suicide[6]
Gulbene kindergarten massacre February 22, 1999 Gulbene 4 19-year-old Alexander Koryakov entered a Gulbene kindergarten and hacked three girls to death with a meat cleaver. He also killed a teacher and wounded a nurse before trying to escape. After his arrest, he told police that he wanted to become famous. Koryakov was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 7, 1999.

References

  1. Liniņš, Eduards (4 July 2014). "Šī diena vēsturē. Sinagogu nodedzināšana Rīgā 1941. gada 4. jūlijā - Raksts". Public Broadcasting of Latvia (in Latvian). Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  2. Demidovs, Viktors; Kinca, Aija (4 July 2021). "Ebreju tautas genocīda upuru piemiņai – 80. gadadiena / Raksts". Public Broadcasting of Latvia (in Latvian). Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  3. "Rezekne". Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Retrieved 3 October 2023., quoting Encyclopaedia Judaica (2008)
  4. "Rezekne and the Holocaust". kehilalinks. JewishGen.org. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  5. Liniņš, Eduards (30 November 2021). "30. novembris. Ebreju masu slepkavošanas akcija Rumbulas mežā 1941. gada / LR1 - Latvijas Radio". Latvijas Radio (in Latvian). Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  6. Čučkova, Diāna (19 September 2025). "Slaktiņš kartupeļu laukā – pirms 28 gadiem notika smagākā masu slepkavība Latvijas vēsturē". Delfi (in Latvian). Retrieved 12 October 2025.