Burning of the Riga synagogues The burning of the Riga synagogues occurred in 1941 , during the first days of the World War II Nazi German occupation of the city of Riga , the capital and largest city in the country of Latvia . Many Jews confined in the synagogues died in the fires , and many other anti - Semitic measures were launched at the same time , ultimately followed by the murder of the vast majority of the Jews of Latvia . German occupation . The German army crossed the border in the early morning of Sunday , June 22 , 1941 . All along the front , the Soviet armed forces suffered a crushing defeat . On June 29 , 1941 , the Red Army began a disorganized withdrawal from Riga , then under German aerial bombardment . To slow the German advance , the retreating Soviets had blown up all the bridges over the Daugava river . The highest church spire in the city , St . Peter ' s , had been set on fire by German bombs . Some Soviet sympathizers in the city set out pails of water and gave bread to the retreating troops , but these were futile gestures amid the military disaster . On July 1 , 1941 , the German army entered Riga . There were about 40 , 000 Jews in the city at that time . The Germans were welcomed by the non - Jewish majority portion of the Latvian population of Riga . Actions against the Jews . Shortly after German troops entered the city on 1 July 1941 , the Nazi occupation authorities incited Latvian nationalists to commit deadly anti - Jewish riots known as " pogroms " . Within three months , more than 6 , 000 people were killed in Riga and the vicinity . Professionals such as lawyers , physicians and engineers in particular were targeted by the Nazis . Frida Michelson reported that they were singled out by fellow Latvian professionals from among the other Jews arrested and immediately shot . Large groups of prisoners were taken out of the Central Prison by truck to Bikernieki Forest , where they were shot . On July 2 , at the instigation of the Germans , Latvian armed youths wearing red and white armbands went about the city dragging Jews out of their homes and arresting them . The Latvians assaulted a number of Jews , some so severely they died , and shot others . The same morning , all the telephones of the Jews were disconnnected . Pērkonkrusts ( Thunder Cross or Swastika ) was the name of the Latvian fascist party that was active in the 1930s . Members of Pērkonkrusts including , among others , Viktors Arājs and Herberts Cukurs cooperated with the Nazis in exterminating the Jews of Latvia . The university fraternities were also involved with the party . In July 1941 , after the German occupation , Pērkonkrusts took over the house of the Jewish banker Schmulian , in Riga , at 19 Valdemara Street ( Gorki Street under Soviet rule ) , to use as their headquarters . A Riga newspaper Tēvija , ( " Fatherland " ) regularly published anti - Jewish propaganda , such as an editorial on July 11 , 1941 entitled " The Jews — Source of Our Destruction " . The Jews arrested were taken to police headquarters ( or " prefecture " ) and the Central Prison , also known as the Zentralka . Old and sick people were brought in naked . Young women were stripped naked and confined to cellars where they were raped . There were reports of women being raped in front of their husbands and children . Traditionally - attired Jews , especially those with beards , were targeted for humiliations such as dragging them around by their beards and forced shaving . Others were forced at gunpoint to put on the talith ( prayer shawl ) and tefilin ( phylactery ) , then dance and sing Soviet songs . People , including non - Jews , were commonly accused by their enemies of " Communist - Jewish activities " . In the days following July 2 , the Jews at the prefecture were marched out to perform forced labor , then confined back at the prefecture during the night . The Latvian Roberts Stiglics was in charge of the prefecture . Much of this was simply makework designed to humiliate and intimidate the Jews , although in at least one instance a small group of Jewish women was detailed to Jelgava to work in the fields for six weeks . According to Kaufmann , the Latvians were in charge this entire time . Among other things , they forced the Jews to sing Nazi songs and the Internationale . The only Jews not subject to brutality at the hands of Latvian thugs were those who had been members of the Jewish Latvian Freedom Fighters Association ( : Lačplēsis ) , but this immunity did not last . Professor Ezergailis , while not disputing Kaufmann ' s descriptions of the Latvians ' activities , finds the things Kaufmann describes to have been typical of initial Nazi abuse of Jews in other locations . He also draws the inference that the lack of deliberate killings by the Latvians shows the Germans were at the root of the plans for the massacres . Destruction of the synagogues and cemeteries . Jews were rounded up and forced into synagogues , which were then set on fire . The Great Choral Synagogue , on Gogol Street , was burned on July 4 , 1941 , with 300 Jews locked in the basement . Historian Gertrude Schneider , a survivor of the German ghetto , assigns responsibility to Viktors Arājs , Herberts Cukurs and Vilis Hazners . Historian Press states that some of the victims were Lithuanian Jews who had taken refuge there . Schneider identifies the victims as mostly women and children . Frida Michelson , a Latvian Jew who had been working near Jelgava in a forced labor crew when the synagogues were burned , reported that on her return to Riga , she was told by a friend ( who had heard it from someone else ) that the halls and the backyard of the Choral Synagogue were filled with Lithuania refugees . Perkonkrusts and " other Latvian hangers - on " surrounded the building , trapped the people inside , and set it on fire . The burning of the synagogue was filmed by the Germans and later became part of a Wehrmacht newsreel , with the following narration : " The synagogue in Riga , which had been spared by the GPU commissars in their work of destruction , went up in flames a few hours later . " According to Bernard Press , Herberts Cukurs , a Latvia air force officer , and his gang of thugs , burned the synagogue on Stabu Street , but only after dragging Jews out of the neighboring houses and locking them inside : The holy scrolls were dragged out of the synagogues and burned . According to the Press , many Jews wearing prayer shawls and " talith " went into the fires to save the scrolls , and were all killed . Ezergailis disputes this , stating that no one entered the flames trying to save the holy scrolls . Only the Peitavus synagogue in the center of the city was not burned , and this was because of its location among apartment buildings . The interior was however ransacked as had been all the other Jewish places of worship . The mob also attacked the Jewish cemeteries . Kaufmann also describes a number of incidents of Jews being locked into synagogues by Latvians which were then set on fire , including : Ezergailis does not find it credible that Jews were locked in the Great Choral Synagogue before it was set on fire . Ezergailis does acknowledge that there could have been 300 Lithuanian refugees in the synagogue before the fire was set . He postulates however that they would have been killed before the synagogue was set on fire . According to Frida Michelson , after she returned to Riga in the summer of 1941 from a forced labor detail near Jelgava , she was informed by a friend , that the interior halls and backyard of the Gogol Synagogue were filled with refugees from Lithuania . Perkonkrusts and " other Latvian hangers on " surrounded the building , trapped the people inside , and set it on fire . Michelson ' s informant , however , did not witness this herself , but only heard about it from other who had said they had seen the fire . Among the Jews killed in the synagogue massacres were the cantor Mintz and his whole family , the rabbi Kilov , and Sarah Rashin ( or Rashina ) , a 21 - year - old internationally - famed violinist . ( Another source says that Sarah Rashina was killed at Rumbula on November 30 , 1941 . By July 16 , 1941 , Jews were no longer allowed on the streetcars of Riga . Armed Latvian policemen wearing red - white - red armbands arrested Jews on the streets . Those arrested were taken to the police prefecture near the railroad station and to other prisons . Further restrictions on Jews . At the end of July , the city administration switched from the German military to German civil administration . Head of the civil administration was a German named Nachtigall . Other Germans involved with the civil administration included Hinrich Lohse and Otto Drechsler . The Germans issued new decrees at this time to govern the Jews . Under " Regulation One " , Jews were banned from public places , including city facilities , parks , and swimming pools . A second regulation required Jews to wear a yellow six - pointed star on their clothing , with violation punishable by death . A Jew was also to be allotted only one - half of the food ration of a non - Jew . By August , a German named Altmayer was in charge of Riga . The Nazis then registered all the Jews of Riga , and they further decreed that all Jews must wear a second yellow star , this one in the middle of their backs , and not use the sidewalks but walk in the roadway instead . Jews could be randomly assaulted with impunity by any non - Jew . The reason for wearing two stars was so Jews could readily be distinguished in a crowd . Later , when Lithuanian Jews were transported to the ghetto , they were subject to the same two - star rule . Officially the Gestapo took over the prisons in Riga on July 11 , 1941 . By this time , the Latvian gangs had killed a number of the Jewish inmates . The Gestapo initially set up its headquarters in the former Latvian Ministry of Agriculture building on Raina Boulevard . A special Jewish administration was set up . Gestapo torture and similar interrogation tactics were carried out in the basement of this building . Anyone who happened to survive this treatment was then sent to prison , where the inmates were starved to death . The Gestapo later relocated to a former museum at the corner of Kalpaka and Alexander boulevards . The Nazis also set up a Latvian puppet government , under a Latvian general named Danker , who was himself half - German . A " Bureau of Jewish Affairs " was set up at the Latvian police prefecture . Nuremberg - style laws were introduced , which tried to force people in marriages between a Jew and an non - Jew to divorce . If the couple refused to divorce , the woman , if a Jew , would be forced to undergo sterilization . Jewish physicians were forbidden to treat non - Jews , and non - Jewish physicians were forbidden to treat Jews . Construction of the Riga ghetto . On 21 July , the Riga occupation command decided to concentrate the Jewish workers in a ghetto . All Jews were registered ; a Jewish council was also set up . Prominent Riga Jews , including Eljaschow , Blumenthal , and Minsker , were chosen to be on the council . All of them had been involved with the Jewish Latvian Freedom Fighters Association and it was hoped this would give them credibility in dealing with the occupation authorities . Council members were given large white armbands with a blue Star of David on them , which gave them the right to use the sidewalks and the streetcars . The Nazis issued an order that , by October 25 , 1941 , all Jews were to relocate to the Moscow suburb of Riga . As a result , about 30 , 000 Jews were concentrated in the small area known as the Moscow Forshtat by the end of October 1941 . The Nazis fenced them in with barbed wire . Anyone who went too close to the barbed wire was shot by the Latvian guards stationed around the ghetto perimeter . German police ( " Wachmeister " ) from Danzig commanded the guards . The guards engaged in random firing during the night . Thirty - five days after the Riga ghetto was established , 24 , 000 of its inhabitants were force marched out of the city and shot at the nearby forest of Rumbula .