Kaiserwald (Ķeizarmežs, Mežaparks, Kaizervalde) was a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Sarkandaugava and Mežaparks neighborhoods of Riga, the capital of Latvia. It originally served the function of a collective assembly point distributing Jewish labourers for the German Army to a number of surrounding satellite workcamps. When the SS took command they transformed Kaiserwald into a concentration camp with approval from Reichskommissariat Ostland. At its highpoint the camp had 12,000 Jewish enforced labourers. 50% of these were women. Most were German Jews, but a notable minority were survivors from the liquidated Jewish communities of Vilnius and Kaunas in neighbouring Lithuania.
Kaiserwald was established by the SS in March 1943 during a time when the war began to turn against the Germans. On 21 June RFSS Heinrich Himmler issued a command in which he insisted upon an acceleration of the 'Final Solution.' Jews were to be 'cleared' from all the Ghettos with the able bodied being sent to concentration camps and the unfit, elderly and children being earmarked for liquidation.
This turn around in events was to a huge disadvantage to the German Army that had previously been responsible for Jews in Riga. The Jews had been working in satellite camps producing wares and textiles for the Army. The families of the labourers were quartered in the Riga Ghetto. This, too, had come under the authority of the German Army. The labourers were awarded the rites of passage. They could pass in and out of the Ghetto to their places of work. At the end of the working day they could return to their families. This degree of moderation came brutally to an end when the SS took over. The first inmates of the camp were several hundred convicts from Germany.
The liquidation of the ghettos In conformity with Himmler's decree the liquidation of the Riga Ghetto was to be carried out along with that of the Liepāja and Daugavpils (Dvinsk) ghettos. The operation began in June 1943. There hadn't been such an example of radicalization since the summer of 1941. Latvia, for instance, had had a pre-war Jewish population of 70,000,Matthäus, Jürgen. 1997. Lettland in: Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus. Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml, Hermann Weiß. München p.568 the majority of which, however, was murdered by the employment of Einsatzgruppe A. Even the German Army had been implicated in this crime. After a period of relative stability throughout 1942 Himmler raised the stakes again in early mid-1943 in his determination to radicalize the 'Final Solution.'
As a result, the period of relative consolidation in the Ghettos throughout Latvia and neighbouring Lithuania, whereby even some cultural activities alongside enforced labour occurred, came to an abrupt end in early mid-1943. The Ghettos, including that of Riga, were earmarked for destruction.
The elderly, the unfit and children were to be shot. The able-bodied, both male and female and some juveniles would be sent to Kaiserwald Concentration Camp while the remainder of the Jews surviving the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto would be deported to Kaiserwald.
The Riga Ghetto consisted of 8,000 Jews. Although conditions under the German Army had been marginally better than to be expected under the SS there was at least the opportunity for the labourers to be with their families after a day's work. The rites of passage and the intermingling of Life between the satellite workcamps and the Ghetto were to receive a rude awakening.
The SS began their operation in June 1943. Himmler placed his most able SS-general Bach-Zelewski to coordinate measures and to redirect all able-bodied Jewish male and female labourers from the satellite camps to be incarcerated in Kaiserwald.Cesarani, David. 2016. Endlösung der Juden: 1933-1948. Propyläen, p. 760. He was to do this by any means at his disposal, but the complexity of the satellite camp system run by the Army and the uneven distribution of Jewish workers meant the SS couldn't be as quick as their motives intended.
The operation in Riga lasted some months for the SS had to employ deception techniques to entice the returning labourers from the satellite camps that nothing would happen to their families in the Ghetto. In neighbouring Lithuania in the Ghettos of Vilnius (or Vilna) and Kaunas it was far easier for the SS to extinguish the Jewish communities there. As these were already located within the perimeter of an enclosed Ghetto the SS with the help of the Lithuanian auxiliary police ('Hilfspolizei') could deal with the Ghetto population in one fell swoop.
Amidst grotesque manipulation and false promises the events in Vilna took a terrible course. Most of the Ghetto inhabitants if they hadn't died from illness and disease already were placed on LKW trucks, often provided by the German Army, and taken to Ponary (in Lithuanian: Paneriai) where they were massacred. The corpses were left in mass graves. A Jewish Arbeitskommando had to burn some of the bodies on burning pyres before disposing of the remains. An estimated 70,000-100,000 Jews from the Vilna Ghetto perished in this way.Benz, Wolfgang. 1997. Ponary litauisch Paneriai in: Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus. Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml, Hermann Weiß. München, p. 649
A few thousand able-bodied survivors from the Vilna Ghetto were transported to Kaiserwald. In keeping with Himmler's outlook the SS brought all the surviving Jews from all the extinguished Ghettos to the Kaiserwald Concentration Camp. The pattern of destruction that affected Vilna touched Kaunas, Liepāja and Dvinsk and other Ghettos. There was nothing left of the Ghetto communities.
Even Białystok in north-eastern Poland, renowned for producing wares and textiles for the German Army, was liquidated with most of its Ghetto Community being gassed in Treblinka. All this was in keeping with the radicalised momentum of the 'Final Solution.' Himmler's intention, following the liquidation of all the Ghettos, was to have the surviving able-bodied Jews gradually undermined and destroyed through another murderous concept. In place of Ghettoization there was to be Vernichtung durch Arbeit ('Extermination through Work').
Inhumane work conditions
Josef Katz, a Jew deported from Lübeck to Riga in December 1941 along with his family relatives and others of the Jewish community, noted the changes he was exposed to.Katz, Josef. Erinnerungen eines Überlebenden: cited by David Cesarani. Endlösung Das Schicksal der Juden 1933-1948: Propyläen, p. 760 At first he was engaged with other Jews in farm work seeing to the growing and harvesting of root crops. Another of his duties was unloading the barges along the banks of the river Düna upon which Riga lies. The work was strenuous but manageable and remained under the jurisdiction of the German Army.
It was rumoured how Himmler never wanted to see Jews settled in Riga. The SS had previously no interest in establishing either a Ghetto or a concentration camp there.Cesarani, David. 2016. Endlösung: Das Schicksal der Juden 1933-1948. Propylan, p. 760 The initiative to employ the Jews fell to the Army. It was felt by the High Command (OKW) that Jews could be more usefully employed working in textiles, wares and agriculture. This, it was argued would ease the Army's logistical problems and its need for warm winter clothing.
Katz was like his fellows employed in either agriculture or down by the river estuary. The flexibility of the type of enforced labour he undertook indicated how the Jews had a manageable although at times strenuous existence.Katz, Josef. Erinnerungen eines Überlebenden: cited by David Cesarani. Endlösung Das Schicksal der Juden 1933-1948: Propyläen, p. 760 Life under the authority of the Army was comparatively better than what one heard about regarding the brutalization of the Ghettos elsewhere by the SS and their auxiliaries.
When the survivors of the Vilna Ghetto were crammed into the Riga Ghetto it was clear how more rumours and descriptions of the truth were in abundance to compete with one another. Katz didn't know what to believe but over the course of early and mid-1943 it was clear how operational advantage had slipped into the hands of the SS. They outbidded the authority of the Army so that directives from the WVHA and RSHA in Berlin determined the new course. The Army conceded. Enforced labourers like Katz were coerced into taking up new 'residence' in the conveniently positioned assembly area in Mežaparks that began to take the form of a concentration camp.
The satellite camps became closed and fewer while the main body of workers was located within Kaiserwald. This new concentration camp had all the hallmarks of the concentration camp system. Barbed wire was erected, watch towers took their place, prisoners themselves built more barracks to house the influx of more enforced labourers. Men and women were separated. Prisoners had their hair shaved off and had to wear a striped pyjama uniform and wear wooden cloggs. There were more roll-calls on the main assembly area ('Appelleplatz' in German). A nightmare scenario descended. For the Jews of Riga it must have seemed like the beginning of the end.
Not only was there evidence of grotesque dehumanization but there was also excessive barbarity that began with the extinguishing of the Riga Ghetto while the Army stood aside or even helped with the logistics of murder. That was the tragedy of the Ghetto. It was something Katz couldn't believe.Katz. Josef. Erinnerungen eines Überlebenden: Cited by David Cesarani Endlösungen Das Schicksal der Juden 1933-1948: Propyläen, p. 760
After the Ghetto's liquidation the surviving Jews had to endure the concentration camp. For other Jews like Ingeborg Gerson-Brin (1922-2012), a young woman detailed to work in the camp each day became an endurance test. On account of the camp's strict segregation she was separated from her husband Max Brin (*1924-) who was requisitioned for heavy labour. At least they had been able to be together in the Ghetto but this was no longer possible after the latter's dissolution.
It was mainly young people that were quartered in Kaiserwald Concentration Camp. Among them, for instance, were Ingeborg Gerson-Brin aged 22, Max Brin aged 23, Eugen Borkum aged 34. Some middle-aged tried to pass themselves off as able-bodied, but the work regime was tough for them as it was for Max Brin's father, 50 year old Micha Brin.Gerson-Brin, Ingeborg. 1997. Ingeborg's interview with the USC Shoah Foundation: in Auschwitz und die Todesmärsche. Oldenbourg 2018, p. 569
The elderly, however, together with the lame and sick and all the children, barring a few juveniles who reported for adult work, were taken from the Ghetto and placed on LKW trucks to a secluded place outside of Riga where they were shot. Their bodies were cast into mass graves. It was like a repetition of the events that had characterized the massacre at Ponary.
New arrivals On 19 March 1944 Germany occupied Hungary, a country that had mostly avoided the perils of the 'Final Solution.' Since the Regency-government under Admiral Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya refused to accelerate anti-Semitic measures against the Hungarian Jewish population, the Germans took over and imposed a collaborationist regime led by the Hungarian fascist Döme Sztójay. What followed was an agonizing tragedy as Hungary's 500, 000 Jews became victims of the 'Final Solution.'Mihok, Brigitte. 1997. Ungarn in: Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus. Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml, Hermann Weiß. München, p. 771