Jelgava

Jews began to settle in Jelgava in the 18th century. The Jewish population of the town included both traditionalists and people sympathetic to the Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment). In the second half of the nineteenth century, some local Jews held civic posts and became civil servants.

In 1897, there were about 6,000 Jews in Jelgava, making up approximately seventeen percent of the total population. The Jews established a network of welfare institutions, such as kosher slaughterhouses, a free soup kitchen, homes for the elderly, and loan and savings societies.

In May 1915, during World War I, all the Jews of Jelgava, along with all the Jews of Courland, were expelled into the Russian interior by the Russian Imperial authorities.

When Jews returned after the end of the war, they numbered about 2,000 people. During the period of Latvian independence, the local Jewish community maintained welfare services. Jelgava had a Talmud Torah, a Jewish public school, a Hebrew-language high school, and four synagogues. Zionist parties and youth movements were also active during that period. In 1935, the town was home to 2,039 Jews, who comprised six percent of the total population.

In 1940, in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, all of Latvia – Jelgava included – fell under Soviet rule. During the Soviet period of 1940–1941, the Jewish institutions and political parties were banned, and some of the Jews were deported to Siberia by the Soviet authorities.

Following the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, some local Jews were able to evacuate into the Soviet interior. The German army and the SD occupied Jelgava on June 29, 1941.

On July 17 that year, the Germans consolidated their rule in the Baltic states and established the "Reichskommissariat Ostland." They renamed many local towns, giving them German names. Thus, Jelgava became Mitau.

A Latvian SD unit and a local police force were established. Both of those Latvian units acted under German supervision. Several anti-Jewish decrees were introduced by the German rulers of Jelgava. On July 1, the Jews were banned from shopping in certain shops, and two days later they were forbidden to buy groceries anywhere. In the first days of July 1941, the Latvian SD and the police unit burned a synagogue, killing some twenty local Jews.

On July 8, a registration of the Jews was announced, and they were required to perform forced labor.

In the course of four days, between the end of July and the beginning of August 1941, the German SD killed about 600-1800 Jews in pits at a shooting range near the town. On September 2, 1941, the Germans killed forty-five Jewish patients of a psychiatric clinic in Jelgava, and sterilized the other patients. On October 20, 1941, the General Commissioner in Riga reported to the Reichskommissar of Ostland that (Mitau) Jelgava was free of Jews.

The Red Army liberated Jelgava on August 1, 1944.