Under Czarist rule, Ventspils was in the province of Courland. Jews were permitted to settle in the town in 1795 when Courland was annexed to Russia. By 1881, the Jewish population was about 1,400 (24% of the total population). A new wave of settlers arrived in the early 1900's, increasing to Jewish population to about 5,000 at the start of World War I. In 1915, the Jews were expelled by the Russian army. After the war, a small number returned. In 1925, the Jewish population numbered about 1,300 (about 8% of the total population). The Germans entered the town on July 1, 1941, and the Jews (about 1,000) were crowded into the synagogues and a few dilapidated buildings. Over the next four months, all these Jews were executed in the Kazin forest by German and Latvian firing squads. The postcard below depicts street scenes in Ventspils, including the synagogue street (bottom right).
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
Spector, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, P. 1386
Copyright ©2005 Edward Victor