The Locker of Memory project is dedicated to remembering the victims of the Jungfernhof concentration camp. Under Nazi occupation, 3985 German and Austrian Jews were deported to the Skirotava train station in Riga, Latvia during the first week of December 1941.  Arriving on four different transports from Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamburg, the victims were marched to an abandoned and dilapidated manor, which became the Jungfernhof concentration camp.  Established during the coldest winter on record, the Jungfernhof concentration camp was Latvia’s first Nazi concentration camp. It was considered one of Latvia’s cruelest camps. Eight hundred victims were murdered or died of inhumane treatment during the first couple of months. An additional 1800-2000 victims were massacred on March 26, 1942 in the Bikernieki forest. Today the camp is situated within a public park designated as an area for recreation and relaxation. Lacking proper signage and a permanent memorial identifying the location a mass grave, I refer to the Jungfernhof concentration camp as an unremembered site. Known to a small number of historians and public officials in Germany, Austria, and Latvia, the camp escaped public attention for eighty years.

As the granddaughter of two victims Moses Frostig and Beile Frostig, I was motivated to restore memory to this abandoned site. In 2019, I presented a proposal to Latvian officials. They expressed interest and invited me to search for the mass grave as the first order of business. I applied for a series of grants and hired a team of geospatial scientists led by world-renowned Holocaust archeologist Professor Richard Freund (1955-2022). I also established a small project team comprised of three historians, a graphic designer and technologist, and developed a detailed plan. Using my expertise as a conceptual artist, public memory artist, and cultural historian, it was my goal to create a 21st century model of memorialization for this neglected camp. My plan would unfold in three stages: research, memorial development, and multiple forms of documentation. A series of grants allowed me to fulfill my vision for phase one of the Locker of Memory memorial project, which I would develop as a storytelling project. The initial phase of research combines history, science, design, and technology with education.

The website contains two mapping platforms. The 3-D tour provides visitors with a virtual tour of the seven killing sites in Latvia, established between 1941-1944.  Two Latvian historians provide on-site narration. The 3-D tour is also animated with 11 audio tapes developed by two historians, that incorporate archival research and survivor testimony into each tape. Two additional tapes are written by me and recorded by my son, providing a descendants’ perspective. And one tape summarizes scientific research, using non-invasive ground penetrating radar to search for the missing mass grave.

The interactive timeline and interactive map present an in-depth discussion of the research, concerning the fate of 3985 Jews imprisoned at the Jungfernhof concentration camp. Memorials using websites to convey complex histories of murder and torture, must go beyond basic consumption of facts to facilitate a more dynamic form of engagement. Circumventing standardized models of inquiry containing static questions, I use technology to empower each visitor’s personal exploration of the truth about the past. The interactive experience engages visitors in a vigorous process of investigation and inquiry. The clicking process reveals individual patterns of inquiry, shedding light on attitudes and ideas about Holocaust history for different age groups in different regions of the world.

Combining time with space, I introduced a series of legends and levels of corroboration, plus rings and connectors, used to enhance the interactive design of this program. All actions and events derived from two timelines, depict the Jewish experience of victimization. The Jungfernhof timeline and the population chart represent original research conducted by Fred Zimmak, descendant of a survivor and extended family deported to Jungfernhof; and Richards Plavnieks, a US citizen of Latvian descent. The two timelines interact with the area map containing seven killing sites. The map reveals interactions between the different sites, addressing cruel histories of imprisonment, starvation, slave labor, sexual violence and subjugation, mass murder, and multiple transfers to other camps. The map portrays the exploitive nature of the camp’s history under authoritarian rule. The map also tells a story about human fear, destitution, and the resilience of memory.

Depicting a detailed, historically saturated relationship to the camp and its land, the map also speaks to our memory of land as home. Filtered through the machinery of technology, the map and its primary connection to the earth, reminds us of our human capacity to remember, to grieve, and to heal.

Jungfernhof concentration camp Photo: Karen Frostig (2019)

Interactive Timeline and Map Project and supporting research was generously funded by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.