Feasibility Study 2019-2020

Jungfernhof Concentration Camp at dawn. Photo: Karen Frostig (2020)

Jungfernhof Concentration Camp at dawn. Photo: Karen Frostig (2020)

  • The Lock(er) of Memory project was established in 2019 by Prof. Dr. Karen Frostig. The project is conceived as an interdisciplinary project integrating history with science, art, and technology. Frostig’s grandparents were deported to the Jungfernhof concentration camp on December 3, 1941.

  • In February 2019, obtained three critical letters of permission to develop a permanent memorial at the Jungfernhof concentration camp site:

    • Mr. Dmitrijs Pavlovs, Executive Director of Riga City Council and Riga Eastern Executive Directorate holding oversight over the Jungfernhof camp site;

    • Mr. Janis Asaris, Head of Riga Regional Department of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage Board of Latvia; and

    • Mr. Guntis Gailîtis, Director of Riga Municipal Monument Agency.  

  • Created website to present early stages of project development to international audiences (Kabren Levinson).

  • In June 2019, contracted expertise of world-renowned Holocaust archeologist, Prof. Dr. Richard Freund and his team of geospatial scientists to search for a mass grave at the Jungernhof concentration camp.

  • Assemble names of 3984 victims and survivors of five transports leaving Germany and Austria during the first week of December 1941, to be imprisoned at the Jungfernhof concentration camp: Berlin, Nuremburg, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamburg.

  • Work with technologists in the Makerlab at Brandeis University to create three experimental augmented reality (AR) prototypes (H. Uzumkaya).

  • Design template for a permanent Naming Memorial, surrounded by a memorial garden, connected to a protected space containing the mass grave.

  • Video taped four interviews in Riga, starting at dawn;

    • Eye-witness testimony from survivor, Margers Westermanis, speaking from his study about his visit to the site as a member of a work force in 1942;

    • Karen Frostig, Founding Director interviewed at the site about history of site;

    • Ilya Lensky, Director of Museum “Jews in Latvia,” interviewed at the site about history of site; and

    • Mr. Janis Asaris, Head of Riga Regional Department of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Board of Latvia, who spoke about Latvian cultural heritage.