Murder Story of Liepaja Jews in Rainis Park

... Around June 29-30, 1941, the German monsters carried out the mass murders of the innocent citizens. At about 5 am, the victims were placed in columns of 25-30 people and brought along the Brivibas Road to Rainis Park, where they were murdered. This continued for six to seven days. A number of trenches had already been dug in the park to defend the city: one of them was approximately 200 meters long, the second about 150 meters – both of them less than a meter wide and up to two meters deep. The Germans did not wish to dig their own pits and thus cause alarm among the residents of the city, so they used the already existing trenches. Thus, over a course of six to seven days, 1,430 people were murdered. Testimonies of a number of witnesses state that over a period of six to seven days, the sound of gunfire and the screams of the victims – “Comrades, save us!” – could be heard coming from the direction of the Park. After two to three weeks, when the stench from the Park had become overwhelming because the layer of earth covering the corpses was too thin, the Germans ordered Jewish residents to exhume the bodies, transport them in wagons and bury them outside the city. Then, in an effort to conceal their deeds, the Germans killed these Jews ....