Pole Anna

Pole, Anna-Alma Following the conquest of Riga on July 1, 1941, the Germans, aided by antisemitic Latvians, began to abuse, plunder, and murder Jews. A month later, about 30,000 of the city’s Jews were incarcerated in a sealed ghetto. Most of them were murdered in Rumbuli Forest in two killing operations carried out at the end of November and in December. During that period, Anna-Alma Pole, a Latvian housewife in her fifties, lived at 15 Peldu Street in Riga. Among her Jewish neighbors and acquaintances was Isaak Vange, a friend of her young son. In the summer of 1943, when the Germans began to liquidate the Riga ghetto, some Jews managed to escape and it was Isaak who led them to his home where Anna-Alma gave them refuge in her basement. Anna-Alma sheltered this group of eight Jews for about a year, until August 1944. In addition to Isaak Vange, there were two Lipmanovich brothers and their sister, Yudel Yudelovich – a physician who had worked in a hospital for tubercular patients in Riga – Sergei Gurvich, Yosel Grudman, and another person whose first name was Abel. Throughout that period, Anna-Alma provided the fugitives with food with the help of her daughter, Margarita Kestere, who was married and had been living apart from her mother since July 1942, when she gave birth to her first son. Margarita brought the group provisions in her baby carriage. On August 24, 1944, members of the Nazi Security Police burst into Anna-Alma’s home, apparently after neighbors had informed on her, and all the occupants were arrested: Anna-Alma Pole, the Jews, and Margarita with her infant son, who were visiting at the time. The next day, the Latvian daily Tevija (The Homeland) reported, “Last night a group of Jewish bandits – 6 Jews and 1 Jewess – who were hiding in one of the apartments at 15 Peldu Street, was neutralized… Also arrested was a Latvian housewife, Anna-Alma Pole, who hid the Jews and provided them with food. She will get the punishment she deserves… Thedetained Jews and their henchmen will be convicted immediately after interrogation…” In the interrogation, Anna-Alma and the Jews insisted that Margarita Kestere had not known about her mother’s activity. A few days before her arrest, Margarita had given birth to a baby girl, and her husband’s family managed to smuggle her out of Riga until the arrival of the Red Army. Alma-Anna Pole was brutally tortured and then executed. The Jews she helped suffered the same fate. Less than two months later, on October 13, 1944, Riga was liberated. On November 3, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Anna-Alma Pole as Righteous Among the Nations.