Massacres of civilians during World War II
Liepāja Massacre: 5,000 Latvian Jews Murdered by the Nazis
12m
This is the story of how Nazi Germany and its Latvian collaborators destroyed the Jewish community of Liepāja during the Holocaust. Beginning with the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, it follows the arrival of Einsatzgruppe A, the first mass shootings, the anti-Jewish measures imposed after the occupation, and the infamous massacres at Šķēde, where thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were murdered. It examines the roles of Franz Walter Stahlecker, Wolfgang Kügler, Erhard Grauel, Viktors Arājs, and other perpetrators, as well as the rare photographs and the only surviving film footage of an Einsatzgruppen mass execution. It also explores the liquidation of the Liepāja ghetto, the fate of the few survivors, the German attempts to conceal the crimes, and the post-war trials that brought many of those responsible to justice.
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