DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

Jungfernhof Concentration Camp Ceremonial Event

July 4, 2023

The date coincides with Latvia’s National Day of Holocaust Remembrance

Day Long Program

Co-chairs, Dr. Karen Frostig and Steven Frankel

Morning program at the cultural center on the grounds of Mazjumpravas muiža

  • Ilya Lensky, Director Museum “Jews in Latvia”, primary advisor and partner with Locker of Memory project

  • Ambassador Christian Heldt, German Embassy in Latvia (TBC)

  • Prof. Karen Frostig, Introduction to Locker of Memory project

  • Excerpt video of "Survivors and Heirs of the Legacy of Jungfernhof,” features interviews with four living survivors

  • Invited speakers: Members of the project team; Prof. Richard Freund, Holocaust Archeologist (TBC)

  • Keynote presentation by Senior Latvian historian (TBC)

Midday program at the Choral Synagogue in Riga to honor Latvia’s Day of Holocaust Remembrance

Afternoon program at the Jungfernhof concentration camp gravesite

  • National and international dignitaries convene at the gravesite

  • Unveiling of the two recovered mass graves at the Jungfernhof concentration camp, containing up to 800 bodies 

  • Four hand-crafted metal stakes, engraved with commemorative text will be inserted into the ground by German and Austrian mayors from the four representative cities. The stakes will conform to the outline of the mass grave. This act becomes the first gesture of protection over the grave and signals a plan for a permanent memorial at the site.

  • Gravesite ceremony, protective covering with an embroidered center “May their memory be a blessing” in four languages, unfurled over mass graves. Created by Karen Frostig

  • Kaddish

  • Group photo taken by Fred Zimmak with his father’s camera - Leonhard Zimmak, Jungfernhof survivor

  • Musical interlude

  • Narrated tour of the Jungfernhof concentration camp, led by Ilya Lensky, streamed to website

  • Late day commemorative walk in the Bikernieki Forest

Evening program to convene at the Skirotava train station (pending funding)

  • Outdoor Concert

  • Evening program: large-scale iconic images of deportations from Germany and Austria to the east, with scrolling names of 3985 victims and survivors, to be projected onto the façade of the Skirotava train station.

Program will be streamed to website

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