Murder story of Jelgava Jews at the Shooting Range in the Jelgava Area

I remember relatively clearly that, one day in July 1941, I was ordered to the detachment. I reported to Batz. From Batz, I received instructions to go to Mitau [Jelgava]. For the details of the order I received from Batz, I refer to my statement to the police from July 4, 1963, which has just been read to me in part. When I came out of the commander's office, the people of the group I was to take to Mitau were standing there. According to my recollections, they included some eight members of a police battalion and two-three Waffen-SS reservists. I seem to recall that Kirste gave me my orders in the corridor. I assume that Kirste had been informed as to the contents of my order. From which police battalion these people were, I do not know. We left for Mitau at once. There, I reported to the local commander of the Wehrmacht, as I have indicated earlier. I think it was a pioneer captain. I also received rations for my men from a pioneer service station. There were no SS personnel in Mitau at the time. I then got in touch with the head of the Latvian Selbstschutz, whose name, as I dimly seem to recall, was something like Vagulan. I then took the measures that I already mentioned in my interrogation on July 4, 1963. I must correct that only the Latvian Selbstschutz tracked down the hidden Jews, while I and my few people were not involved in this. The old shooting range I have described lay only a few kilometers from the town center. Today, I can't describe the area in greater detail, even from a map. The Jews had to get there on foot.

...The areas of Riga-Land around Mitau [Jelgava] are free of Jews. According to the regional commissioner, there are still some forty Jews in the Wolmar area. These Jews have been transferred to the ghetto established in Dünaburg [Daugavpils]. There are 2,185 Jews in the Dünaburg area. Here, the Jews capable of procreation have been separated from the rest of the Jews. In the whole Kurland region, there are about 5500 Jews. For them, a ghetto is being established in Libau [Liepaja], which is about to be completed....

A few days after the arrival of Einsatzkommando 2 in Riga, on July 4, Batz, with the likely cooperation of Kirste, gave the order to exterminate the Jewish population of the Latvian town of Mitau. To this end, he had a sub-commando formed, consisting of at least three, but probably 8-10, members of Einsatzkommando 2, whose names are known, along with several members of a half-platoon of the 1st Company of Police Reserve Battalion 9, which was stationed in Riga. Of the latter, Adelt, Becker, Entress, Lindenau, Brenenecke, Enevelkamp, Maass, and Chroscinski have been identified. The leader of this group was Adelt, who was at the time the chief constable of the Schutzpolizei, while the leader of the entire sub-commando was Becu, a former SS-Sturmscharführer. 00006 After the arrival of the sub-commando in Mitau, the Jews were identified by Latvian informants, driven to a compound outside of town, and shot there. Even the elderly people, women, and children were not spared. The action was directed by Becu, and probably partly by Adelt. While the policemen formed the cordon, Becu and the other members of the Einsatzkommando carried out the shootings. It is likely that members of the police battalion also took part in the executions. In this respect, however, it has not yet been possible to reach a definite conclusion. The number of Jews killed in Mitau could not be determined with precision. Judging by the fact that the shootings dragged on for more than a week, we can conclude that several hundred, and possibly more than a thousand, people fell victim to them. In addition, an undated secret report by Stahlecker, the leader of Einsatzgruppe A, puts the total number of Jews killed in Mitau at more than three thousand. However, most of these were killed only after July 1941. After the operation in Mitau, the Kommando returned to Riga. 00008 The defendant himself admitted the following during his interrogation on July 14, 1963: He had been ordered by Batz in July 1941 to go to Mitau with some 2-3 SS reservists and some eight members of a police battalion, in order to assist the local Latvian Selbstschutz (Self-Defense Forces) in the extermination of the Jews, and to justify their conduct to the Wehrmacht authorities. After arriving in Mitau, he contacted the Latvian Self-Defense Forces and learned that some 100 Jewish men, women, and children had already been shot by them. Together with the Latvian Selbstschutz, they then tracked down hidden Jews and arrested some 100 Jewish men. The victims were initially locked up, in groups of twenty, in a bunker at the old shooting range outside the city. From there, according to him, the Jews were taken, in groups of five, to a trench, where the executions were carried out under his supervision. The orders to fire were given partly by him, partly by the chief constable of the police. Thereupon, five members of the commando, in a standing or a kneeling position, would kill the Jews with shots to the head and heart. 00039 We had been in Riga for about 8-10 days when my group was ordered to go to Mitau. Who gave the order to this detachment, I cannot say. My group consisted of the group leader Adelt and some fourteen police reservists – fifteen policemen in total. We all traveled together on a truck from Riga to Mitau. In front of us drove some 3-4 cars, carrying uniformed SS or SD members. At that time, I did not know any SS or SD people. We had had no contact with them until then. In Mitau, we were lodged in private homes, with the policemen and SD members housed separately. We also received our orders in Mitau from our Gruppenführer, Adelt. He, in turn, had received them from the SD. We spent a total of about 8-10 days in Mitau. The SS/SD commando numbered some fifteen men. Among them, there were Latvians in Waffen-SS uniforms. Additionally, there were Latvian auxiliaries in Latvian Army uniforms in Mitau; those uniforms were brown. ....... After we had been in Mitau for about 2-3 days, the first shooting of Jews took place. I was involved in this first execution. Some members of my group stayed behind, to guard the shelter. This first shooting took place at a shooting range in the vicinity of Mitau. 00040 From our quarters, we drove in our truck to the shooting range, and the trip lasted some twenty minutes. The way to the shooting range lay along a forest track. Upon Adelt's orders, I was posted to guard the entrance to the firing range, at the end of this forest road. I stood on a small rise, having been instructed not to let any unauthorized persons enter the firing range. After I had taken up position there, a large group of people – which may have numbered about 150 individuals, of all ages and of both sexes – were brought in. I knew that they were Jews. Some of the men in this group were clearly identifiable as Jews by their ringlet curls. The men and women – I no longer recall if there were children among them – were led past me to the firing range. They vanished from my sight shortly thereafter. From my vantage point, I had no view of the actual execution site. The Jews were accompanied by members of the SS or SD, and by Latvian auxiliaries in brown uniforms. Over the next two hours, I heard the sounds of gunfire coming from the firing range. Who the men of the firing squad on that day were, I cannot say. But I know for sure that none of the police reservists were involved in the shooting on that first day. Whether Adelt participated in the shooting, I cannot say. I still remember the following detail: While the Jews were being led past me, I felt sick. I think it was a Latvian who came up to me at that moment, offering me some schnapps from a bottle and handing me a piece of green cucumber. When the shooting was over, we drove our truck back to our quarters. That was still before noon. After our return, we had lunch, together with the SD and SS members, in a restaurant in Mitau. Contrary to the general custom, we had beer and schnapps with our meal. I made a connection between this special ration of alcohol and our activities in the morning. 00041 About two or three days later, we made another trip to the shooting range in our truck. This time, the Jews slated for execution had already been transported to the site before us. According to my recollections, there were four so-called shooting bunkers at the site. The bunkers were open on one side. I and another police reservist were posted in front of one of these shooting bunkers, with a light machine gun. There were some twenty-five Jews, both men and women, in the bunker. There were no children in the bunker in front of which I was posted. I do not know if any other children were shot [at the site]. The Jews were taken out of the bunker, in groups of about 6-8, by members of the SS or SD, and led to a ditch. That ditch lay some fifty meters from my position. I believe that it was an old pit, and not a freshly dug one. These groups had to line up facing the ditch, and were then shot from behind by the firing squad, who were armed with carbines. In the bunker, the Jews were clothed. They were led out of the bunker fully dressed. I don't know if they had to undress before being shot. In any case, I saw none of it. According to my recollections, the firing squad consisted of SS and SD members. There were some eight men shooting at any given time. I cannot say who led the firing squad. Our group leader Adelt stood with the firing squad. However, I do not know if he himself took part in the shooting. Each of the other three shooting bunkers contained roughly the same number of Jews as the one that I was guarding. Between the group executions, I heard pistol shots. I assumed that someone from the firing squad was finishing off the wounded. When the shooting of all the Jews was over, the pit was buried. I can no longer recall who carried out this task. I do not believe that the victims were covered with soil between the individual group shootings. I remember that, in the bunker that I was guarding, there was a young girl who asked me for a cigarette. I gave her one. After our return, we were once again given schnapps for lunch. I know of a third mission, but I am not quite certain whether it took place between the first and the second shootings at the firing range, or afterward. On this third mission, we drove our truck to a small town outside Mitau; we came to a gravel pit and heard that the shootings were already over. I believe that those shootings were carried out exclusively by Latvians. As far as I can recall, we did not even get off our truck, but went straight back to Mitau. The last shooting in which I participated took place a few days later, in Mitau. We drove to an open area surrounded by forest. There were already SS and SD members there, guarding a barn in which some 30-35 Jews were locked up. Although I spoke of 60-80 Jews in my interrogation on January 15, 1964, this number seems too high to me today. Among these Jews, there were men, women, and also a mother with one or two children. Several of the Jews had to dig a pit in the clearing. Before the shooting, the leader of the SD commando told Adelt that the police members, too, should take part. Adelt ordered us to form a firing squad. Some 4-5 Jews were lined up in front of us, facing the pit, and each of them was shot by two policemen. 00043 One policeman was kneeling, while the other was shooting from a standing position. I shot standing up. The standing one was supposed to aim at the victim's head, while the kneeling one targeted the victim's heart. The Jews were clothed. After our first volley, the SD group leader said that we were poor marksmen. We then stopped shooting. The SD group leader went on to shoot the rest of the Jews with his pistol. These Jews had to lie down in the pit – once again in groups – among the bodies of those shot earlier, and were then shot with the pistol.

A few days after the arrival of the Einsatzkommando in Riga, possibly on the very next day, the defendant Becu was ordered by the leader of Einsatzkommando 2, Sturmbannführer Batz, to go to Mitau with a sub-commando under his command; there, in cooperation with the Latvian Hilfsdienst, he was to "exterminate by shooting" all "potential opponents", but primarily all the Jewish residents of Mitau. The sub-commando under the command of the defendant Becu consisted of at least nine, but probably more, unidentified members of Einsatzkommando 2, along with nine members of the 1st half-platoon of the 1st Company of Police Reserve Battalion 9, who were under the command of the defendant Adelt, and who had received the order for this operation from his platoon leader, Lieutenant Keil, or from Borkowski. In addition to the defendant Adelt, the police reservists Maass, Golze, Rietz, Brennecke, Entress, Knevelkamp, Becker, Lindenau, and Chroszinski were subordinated to the task force as members of his group. Whether other reservists had been assigned to Adelt's group could not be determined. The defendant Adelt and the other members of his group were not informed about the duties of the Einsatzkommando. They assumed that they would have to perform monitoring and guarding jobs for the sub-command. The task force thus assembled, under the leadership of the defendant Becu, proceeded from Riga to Mitau, in accordance with the orders. The police reservists drove in their truck, while the vehicles used to transport the SD members could not be identified. In Mitau, the commando was housed in a large rented building. The SD members and police reservists occupied separate floors. On the same day, the defendant Becu contacted the local commander, and then the head of the Latvian relief service, a certain Captain Vagulan, who had to deliver to him the persons to be shot. It could not be determined whether the defendant Becu gave him more detailed instructions regarding the selection of the intended victims and the manner of their arrest, or whether he had been otherwise instructed by Einsatzgruppe A, or by another German authority. The Latvian Captain Vagulan named a firing range located near Mitau as a suitable site. The exact number of Jews who lived in Mitau in July 1941 could not be determined. According to the official Latvian census of February 12, 1935, 34,099 people, including 2039 Jews, lived in the town, which was located about 50 km south of Riga. Early in the morning after the arrival of the commando in Mitau, upon Becu's orders the Adelt group and the SD members went to the firing range, which lay in a forested area. The police reservists, under the leadership of their group leader Adelt, followed the three-four cars of the SD in their truck. None of the SD members remained in the shelter. In total, at least nine SD members, and the defendant Becu as the commanding officer, went to the designated place of execution. While driving to the firing range, shortly before reaching their destination, the vehicles overtook a column of at least eighty civilians – men, women, and children – who were marching toward the firing range, with an escort of Latvian auxiliary policemen. These civilians would later become victims. At the firing range, the defendant Adelt was ordered by Becu to take charge of the cordoning of the area. This task fell to the members of his group. The defendant Becu explained to Adelt the intended direction of the fire. The defendant Adelt, who correctly identified the column of men, women, and children they had overtaken on the road as the future victims, complied with the order without further thought, and he assigned the members of his group to the cordon. Meanwhile, the column guarded by Latvian auxiliary policemen arrived. The able-bodied men were separated from the column and ordered to dig trenches for the victims. It is possible that they used pre-existing trenches for this purpose. This work took a long time. In the meantime, the remaining victims were locked in the bunkers of the shooting range. The number of the bunkers could not be determined with certainty. There were at least three bunkers, but probably more, and as many as twenty victims were crammed into each of them. The victims housed in the bunkers were guarded by police reservists of the Adelt group. The defendant Adelt had assigned them to this guard duty upon the orders of the defendant Becu. After the excavation of the trenches, the first five victims had to step up to the trench and stand there, facing the firing squad, at the edge of the trench. Before doing so, they had to remove their outer garments and surrender any valuables. The firing squad positioned behind the victims consisted of SD men and members of the Latvian Auxiliary Police. When the defendant Becu gave the order to fire, the members of the firing squad, who were armed with 98k carbines, shot the victims, with two shooters – one standing, and the other kneeling – targeting each victim. The kneeling shooter aimed at the heart, while the standing shooter targeted the back of the victim's head. The other victims heard the shots; in some cases, they also had to watch the shooting. After the first five victims had been killed in this way, five more victims were brought in quickly by the SD people, or by members of the Latvian Selbstschutz. They, too, had to take off their outer garments and hand over any valuables; this done, they were led to the trench, where they first had to throw the bodies of the earlier victims – some of which were still lying at the edge of the trench – into the grave. Afterward, they were killed by the firing squad, in the same manner as the first victims had been. The shooting operation was over only when all the persons brought by the Latvian Auxiliary Police – men, women, and children – had been killed. In the end, the victims lying in the ditches were covered with earth.