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| Europe |
| WWII Latvia, Salaspils: 'Those who helped the children were shot. They didn't survive'7 |
| 2024-02-05 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Viktor Lavreinenko REGNUM] Falsification of history in Latvia has long acquired the character of a purposeful policy. The Latvian authorities are forming the image of a “truly European, democratic state,” the “dark spots” in the history of which appeared solely as a result of the “aggressive” policies of the USSR and Germany in the 30s and 40s. XX century A special role in this context is given to the glorification of the Latvian Waffen-SS legionnaires and other Nazi collaborators. The attempt to present Hitler’s henchmen as “freedom fighters” is one of the key elements of the evidence base for the concept of “ Soviet occupation” and “patriotic education” of youth. In January 2015, Latvia, taking advantage of its status as chairman of the Council of the European Union, achieved a ban on the exhibition “Stolen Childhood ” in the Central Hall of UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Victims of the Holocaust through the eyes of young prisoners of the Salaspils concentration camp.” Another striking manifestation of the line on rewriting history should be considered the silencing and downplaying of the crimes committed by the Nazis in the Salaspils concentration camp. In his book “Salaspils camp, 1941-1944.” “historians” K. Kangers, U. Neuburgs, R. Viksne argue that Salaspils was a “labor colony”, and only 2,000 victims, mostly children, can be considered “documentedly confirmed” (of which 500 allegedly entered the camp in "very poor condition"). The data of Soviet and Russian historiography (from 53,000 to 100,000 tortured) in Latvia is called “Kremlin propaganda”. The Latvian public human rights organization “Return Our Names” and its leader, Riga Duma deputy Ruslan Pankratov, together with the film company “Rigafest”, began implementing the project “Children and War” - a series of video interviews with former juvenile prisoners of the Salaspils concentration camp to document their testimonies. The first interview is published today. Please introduce yourself, what is your name ? "Elena Georgievna Gribun. I was born in the Pskov region, right on the border of Latvia and Russia, in the village of Kalinkovo. The whole family lived there: dad, mom, me and my little sister. Our father worked as the chairman of a collective farm. The collective farm united 14 villages. They were all located along the border with Latvia. Such proximity to the border gave us the opportunity to often hear Latvian speech. Relatives on my mother’s side were Russian, and they all lived in Latvia." How did it all happen? "When the punitive expedition began, all our houses in all border villages were burned. We were all kicked out of our houses and told to line up outside our houses. When we saw our houses go up in flames, it became clear to everyone that we would not be brought back. Then they forced us to form a column and drove us on foot to the Zilupe station on Latvian territory. "It was the spring of 1943, at the end of March - at the beginning of April. Everyone was in the column: children, women, and grandparents. They drove through slush and mud. We were not allowed to take anything with us, it was cold. My godfather was sick, limped, fell several times, and was raised several times. He was shot, and his wife was not even allowed to approach him. She wanted to say goodbye, maybe even make sure: he was alive, maybe still breathing. She was driven away, and his body remained lying on the side of the road. "It was in this spirit that we were persecuted and persecuted. We got to the station when it was already completely dark. We spent the whole night at this station. In the morning, freight cars arrived and they began to herd us into them. "Not only our village was there, there were many people from different villages there. And until this train was fully staffed, we did not move. We were not allowed out of the carriages. They didn't give us food or water. Those who had any crumbs of provisions left, then, of course, that’s what they ate. They shared, of course, with everyone, with each other, yes, but how else? When all the carriages were full, we left. We drove for some time, then we were stopped again for some reason. This stopped me several times. They didn't give me any food or water. "Parents lifted the children to the window so that the hand could get through the window. They asked those passing by to give at least something. The entire train was cordoned off and no one was allowed near the carriages. Well, since there were a lot of children in the carriages, sometimes one of the adults still managed to slip a piece of bread or a little water into their hand. It took us, well, maybe 3 or 4 days from Zilupe station to Salaspils. I don’t remember exactly now. When we arrived at the place, we were all lined up in a column, 4 people each. "From the Salaspils station we walked to our camp. When we walked past the Stalag 350 camp - this is a prisoner of war camp, an elderly woman stood on the side of the road, and since we had a lot of children in our column, I myself was 7 years old at the time, and with me there was also a little sister, well, one grandmother She handed something from the food to the child, maybe some kind of croissant, I don’t know exactly what, I don’t remember exactly, I didn’t notice, but she was beaten very badly for it. The first day we were all forced into one common barracks." Please describe what a barracks is? What did he look like? "A wooden building, a structure made of planks, with very small windows near the ceiling. The windows were, however, very high, it was impossible to come up and just look into the street through them. The bunks were three-story. "The first day we were all in the same barracks. There was some kind of cement floor, I remember, very scary. Everyone was in the same barracks. The next day we were all kicked out. Everyone was told to undress and taken to the sanitary inspection room. They drove everyone naked. I remember now, through thawed patches where there was no snow, where there was dirt, barefoot, somehow jumping over. The distance was, well, maybe 200-300 meters. We had to get to the next barracks. There they had already started sorting us from left to right, women to men. "Everyone was doused with cold water. There were some iron basins. Well, just wash yourself. Well, what kind of washing was that? After this wash, go outside again. They gave out one thing at a time and who got what. Who got a T-shirt, who got panties, no more, only one thing at a time. "Both adults and children. And after that they took me to another barracks and drove me. There, now I can’t say how long we were all there, but they said that supposedly we could take our clothes back. They were looking for something there, clothes were all scattered on the floor, everything was lying around. Well, it was clear that they were looking for something, maybe they thought that there were rich people there, they hid something, maybe good clothes, maybe money, like the Jews, they thought it was sewn into the clothes, I don’t know. We were looking for our clothes, who could find what, of course, not all the clothes could be found or the exact ones we had left could be found. "When everyone had already gotten dressed, everyone was kicked out into the street again, that’s when it all started... Children in one direction, women in another, men in a third. It was scary, very scary... It was impossible to survive it. "Mom had three children. She held the smallest one in her arms, they tore it right out of her arms, she screamed, and the child was thrown to where all the children were. All the women there were screaming at that moment, crying, fainting. Then we were all driven back to the barracks. With dogs. When they brought us there, there were bunks in 3 tiers, we were told that the smallest ones should be at the bottom, and the older ones, since they could climb, were ordered to climb higher. Well, there were three of us sisters, we somehow got together and all climbed onto the 2nd shelf. "There was nothing there at all, just boards, boards, boards... We slept on our own clothes and covered ourselves with our own, I had some kind of coat. The food we were fed was simply terrible. In the morning, some kind of liquid, you won’t understand what it is, sweet/not sweet, coffee/not coffee, well, some kind of liquid. At lunch they gave us some kind of soup, but these were cleanings. "It was spring. The cabbage was not just rotten, it was rotten, it all smelled of rot, it was all inedible, and it all looked like slop. I wanted to eat, but I couldn’t eat it, but we ate it. They gave us mugs, we rubbed what was there with a spoon so that we couldn’t see what it was, and we drank this liquid. Sometimes they gave me some kind of porridge, but this was very rarely given. But when the epidemic began, the children fell ill with dysentery, and the little ones who lived on the first floor got sick very often, well, if they ended up in the infirmary, then no one ever returned from the infirmary. "No one ever returned. How they got there, everything... We were all afraid to go to the infirmary. If anyone had dysentery, they hid it in every possible way, as best they could, they were afraid to say that, well, well, I have such a problem, bad stomach. But no. They were afraid. They didn't say anything to anyone. They were afraid. They just stopped eating to let it all go away. There were women in our barracks who looked after us. They suggested what to do, what to eat, what not to eat. "And so we survived little by little. But it was very dangerous. Those who helped the children were shot. They didn't survive. During epidemics, a cart drove up every day and corpses were placed on it, especially from the first floor, the smallest ones. They gave us the order to leave the barracks, line up, and they themselves checked whether anyone was dead or not. We only walked around the barracks ; we were not allowed to go outside." Who guarded you? "There were different forms. And black, and green, and gray overcoats. Everyone spoke German to us. Maybe they spoke Latvian, but who knows how we children could understand it, we confused everything out of fear. We were with dogs all the time. We saw women walking in the distance, we all really wanted to see our mother. These women carried earth or sand from one side of the camp to the other. Then my mother told me: we’ll take the sand to one place, but the guards say: now take the same earth in the other direction, to another place. So they mocked me. We were allowed to use the toilet behind the barracks only a few times a day." What was the toilet like? "These were holes. We were scared to go there, we were afraid to fail there. Well, we had a secret dream or hope, even if from afar, but still to see our mother. Mom or not mom, as you see from afar, we couldn’t know that. But we lived in this hope. And every time we returned from the toilet, I said: I saw my mother. Everyone lived in hope in the camp. I supported the little one so much. So I saw my mother, implying that there is hope." Did they explain to you the reason for your arrest and detention? "But who will explain anything there, no, of course. What is the reason, there was no reason there. We just lived on the border. I later found out that this event was called “ Winter Magic”. Our region was partisan, so the Germans believed that by destroying our settlements they were also fighting the partisans. Obviously this was the case. My father joined the partisans, then entered military service in the active Red Army. So he reached Berlin and also met victory in Berlin." What did you talk about at camp, what did you dream about, maybe, maybe played something? "There was nothing to play with, nothing to play with. There was nothing there at all. The only thing we thought was that the time would really come when we would be able to eat enough bread, just some simple bread, but enough. When the nuns from the Riga Convent on Kryšena Barona Street, house 126, took us out and brought us to the Marlenskaya volost, and the mistress who took me, she simply thought that it was a living skeleton, skin and bones, a living corpse, there was nothing to take on.. Well, they brought me there to her to help in the field. She washed me and gave me something to wear. The first week I could barely walk, but then that was it, there were no concessions. It was summer, we had to go to the fields and work. It was, yes." How long were you in the camp? "This was from the end of March to July 7, 1944." Did the Germans do anything to you, did they do any experiments or analyses? "They took our blood. I remembered the woman who took the blood. She was very beautiful, she had such blond hair, she always had a very beautiful hairstyle, her robe was always very clean and white. Nowadays all the robes have buttons forward, but before they were always tied at the back and at the neck at the front. When they took my blood, I don’t know what happened, maybe I passed out for a while, maybe I fainted, maybe what else happened, I don’t know. I still don’t understand how I ended up back in the barracks, I don’t know. I don’t remember this moment in more detail. It’s surprising that much of this episode has been erased from my memory, but this woman is somehow etched into my memory. It even seems to me that if I had seen her after the war, I would have recognized her immediately." How was the blood sample taken? "Well, at first we were all called supposedly for some kind of medical examination. They sat me down on a chair, there was one big one, one small one, so you could climb on it. They asked me to give my right hand, that is, to move it to the side so that it lay freely on the table. They gave me something sweet, or tea, maybe, or just sweetened water, I don’t know what kind of drink it was, maybe some kind of compote. "A prerequisite is not to look in that direction. Many children were crying. They persuaded them, begged them in every way. It’s clear that children are children. Of course, many people began to panic out of fear. Before the camp, I was in the hospital in Sebezh, suffering from scarlet fever, maybe it saved me, because I wasn’t so afraid. I said that I was sick, but they still took blood. It seemed like they didn’t take it from my little sister, but she was very small, she was about four years old, no more..." How did your life develop after your release from the camp? "We were all brought to the Marlenskaya volost. The teacher wanted to take the little one. She and her husband did not have children, and they wanted to take her with them. They were Latvians. My eldest and I were sent to other families, also Latvian. It was later that we found out that we lived in the same volost, not far from each other, before that we did not know that we lived and worked nearby. She did more than me, as it turned out later. She, like me, also went to the field, but she also looked after the cows, sent them, milked them, and cleaned the house. Then the mothers were brought to this volost. "Apparently, other women told our mother, she first found a small one. They offered to give it to her for good, but her mother did not agree and did not sign anything. Then she found me too. She began to visit us, but it was only occasionally. We all had to work, you didn’t visit much. Towards the end of the war, in the winter of 1944, I was released to live with my mother, and the youngest began to live with us, and then the eldest joined us. My mother found my father through the military registration and enlistment office and found out that he was alive and well." Mom didn’t say anything, how did she spend this period of time? "She tried to talk about it very little. She worked very hard and worked as a laborer for the owners. She was a very good dressmaker, and the owner had two daughters, and she sewed for them, I think that this is what helped her survive and hold out all this time. This owner allowed the youngest to be taken into his house, well, I mean, where my mother lived. Mom did everything to take me to her home, and a little later the eldest. This is probably what saved us all. "I know that there was a plan that everyone who lived with the owners would be transported to Germany. The owner knew about this, he warned us. He was supposed to take us to the railway station and hand us over there against everyone’s signature. I don’t know how this happened, who specifically helped, but somehow they hid the mother, and it seems like the children can’t be alone. I don’t know how they did it, my mother didn’t say either, but as a result, no one sent us anywhere to Germany. What happened to the owner after his release? "To be honest, I don't know. My father returned only in the fall of 1945. He was sent to restore the Kegums hydroelectric power station, he took us all, and we all went there to live. He was a party member, and he was immediately given housing, such a comfortable barracks for workers, we were assigned to a Latvian school. She was 7 km from our house. A little later he was transferred to Riga, given an apartment, and so we all ended up in Riga." The most vivid impressions that just seemed to be etched into your memory? "I always wanted to eat in camp. I remember holding the crust of bread in my hand, that smell. I really wanted to eat, but I couldn’t eat everything, so I really enjoyed the smell. You walk around with this crust all the time, smell it and imagine that it’s like you’ve eaten it. That's how you fall asleep. Otherwise there was no way to fall asleep. Impossible to sleep. "How many years have passed, I still remember this sweetest smell of my life. Long after the war, I always carried a crust of bread in my hand or purse for scent. There was nothing better for me then than this smell. He calmed me down, gave me strength, hope, and energy to live on." You have experienced a lot of things, terrible and painful experiences, what do you think now, from the height of your years, what was it all for, why did you suffer such torment, what was it all for? "God forbid that this happens again. God forbid that children find out that this can happen. All these horrors of war. Let them know better from the movies, as long as this doesn’t happen in reality and never happens again. Well, look at what is happening in the world, where there is war, where people are being killed, well, why all this? Why is all this needed? Why kill each other?" The ex-president of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, wrote in her book that the Salaspils concentration camp was a labor and educational camp. "I would like her or other politicians to live in such a camp for at least a week, in the conditions we lived for months. I am sure that this would be enough for them for a long time. Thank God that he gave us the opportunity to still survive in those conditions. We were rural children, we lived well in those days, in abundance, as they would say now, that is, we were well-fed, perhaps this also helped us survive, but not everyone was able to survive it. Not all villages lived equally well ; there were worse places. It’s impossible to forget this. How everyone in the bathhouse got their hair cut, both young and old. Everyone was cut to zero. The women were screaming. My mother's sister had a waist-length braid. She had such beautiful hair, such a braid... as long as her arm. They cut her hair, but not completely, but as it was cut, they left a little hair on her head. She cried and screamed, you know, a young woman, then she was, well, maybe 25 years old, my mother was 28. "Everyone had to go through the sanitary checkpoint. The orderlies were all men. I don’t know, maybe they were soldiers. They examined everyone after the bath. I don’t know what they were looking at and what they wanted to see, but they looked at everyone. But in the carriage it was impossible to sit or lie down ; it was jam-packed. But I had to go to the toilet. Well, the adults somehow tore the board off the edge, and that’s where everyone went." Did they tell you where they were taking you? "No, of course, who will answer what? Come on... Well, one man tried to ask something, so they answered him in Latvian: Salaspils. And that’s what it seemed to him: “There is lard.” Well, they probably answered him from Salaspils, well, how does he know, he heard it that way, so he said that we were being taken to Salo to eat, everything was fine. When we were kicked out of our houses, many took their cows with them. Well, where would a family be without a cow, you understand that there’s nowhere, so they took it, and it seemed like they even allowed it. They said that they would be with us. That they will travel on the train with us, but only in a separate carriage. Well, of course, no one gave anything away. Some had horses, some had goats. It is clear that nothing was returned to anyone." And who took you out, the Germans? There were Germans and Latvians, Aizsargi. The Germans were in greatcoats, aizsargi in black uniforms with a bandage on their sleeves. They were mainly guarded by aizsargi, there were simply more of them. They were punished for everything. And they put me in a corner, and they forced me to clean, and they forced me to clean and look after the little ones. What were they punished for? He said not to go out - that means not to go out. But I wanted to go to the toilet, but I just wanted to go out into the fresh air and have a look." What form? "They were in uniform, they were in white coats, there were also camp workers, I think they worked so that they themselves would not be taken to Germany. Previously, people were invited to school and told a lot, but now... all this is prohibited. You see." What kind of owner is this? "These were Aizsarg's parents. I remember this for sure, I remember this form, I saw it. He came, we were asked to clean the house both upon his arrival and upon his departure. I don’t remember names, much less last names. Tanta, tanta... that's all. It was later that I learned from books that they paid 5 Deutschmarks there for hiring us out for work. In the summer it was agricultural work ; in the winter they carried hay from the barn. They took a blanket or a sheet, dumped hay in it and just like that they carried it to the barn to the cows, goats, whoever was there." What happened to this family then ? "Oh, I don't know. Who will find out what there, we didn’t say anything. They worked and worked. They didn't do anything bad at all. They didn't beat me, that's for sure. That's it, I remember for sure that they didn't beat me. Well, of course, sometimes they scolded me. The hostess basically scolded me if I did something wrong or did something wrong, yes, of course. It was. Sometimes they punished me. She could have threatened that she wouldn’t give me “plate” on Saturday. Every Saturday the hostess baked something there, some cookies, or something tasty and usually gave a little to me. Plate is a white flatbread fried in an oven. That’s how she punished, but she also punished, but she always left a small piece in the oven, but didn’t give it directly, but just like, go and tidy up the kitchen there, clean the oven. She herself knew that she left a piece there." How many of you did she have there? "I was alone. I was the only one of the children. There was also a married couple there, a husband and wife, but they also worked around the house, mowed there, cleaned the barn, what else, I don’t know, but these were adults, yes, that’s for sure. But they were also soon sent somewhere or taken away, I don’t know, no one told us anything. The war was coming to an end, who knows where they went after that." About the concentration camp... More than 3-4 months, I don’t know who could stand it there. People were dying. If you don’t do anything, some kind of disease will definitely take root. It was impossible to avoid. As with children, as soon as they get sick, that’s it. Nobody treated anyone there, they only killed them. It was scary to get sick there. This was the most important thing - not to get sick. If you get sick, then..." Recorded on February 25, 2015, 13:00, Elena Georgievna Gribun, Riga, Latvia. Authors: producer - Ruslan Pankratov, cameraman - Victor Griberman. |
| Posted by:badanov |