Murder story of Ludza Jews in the Garbarovsky Forest

The last prisoners of the Ludza ghetto, twenty-six Jewish “specialists,” were shot on April 2 (according to other sources, May 3), 1942, in the Garbarovsky Forest, two kilometers from the town. In August 1942, a Jewish woman named Maria, who was married to a Latvian, and their three-year-old son (who had not been placed in the ghetto) were shot at the same site. On July 20, 1941, an edict to establish a ghetto was issued. The Jews were crowded into a narrow area occupying a few neglected streets on the edge of the town, near the lake. In some cases, as many as eighteen people lived in a single room; the ghetto’s total population numbered over 1,000. Hundreds of Jewish men were rounded up in two synagogues. The ghetto was not fenced in, but black wooden signs hung around its perimeters read: “Jews – Prohibited!” The commander of the ghetto was German, and his two main assistants were Latvian. The ghetto was guarded by Latvian police.Various decrees were imposed on the Jews, including the order to wear a round black patch emblazoned with a yellow Star of David on the chest and back, and a prohibition against using the sidewalks. In the ghetto food store, only meager rations could be obtained via ration cards. The Jews performed forced labor, such as cleaning streets, toilets and garbage containers. Forty Jewish women were sent to a German hospital to clean the premises and perform other menial work. Jewish girls were seized for orgies, raped, and sometimes murdered by German and Latvian policemen.On April 2, 1942, the Germans murdered the last inmates of the ghetto.