In January 1946, eight senior German occupation officials and military commanders were brought before a Soviet military tribunal in Riga for crimes committed across the Nazi-occupied Baltic territories. The most notorious defendant was SS commander Friedrich Jeckeln, held responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 Jews, Roma and other victims, including those murdered in the Rumbula massacre. The defendants faced evidence of mass shootings, the killing of civilians, forced labour, persecution of Soviet prisoners of war and the destruction of entire communities. On 3 February 1946, all eight were sentenced to death. One died in prison before his sentence could be carried out, while Jeckeln and six others were publicly hanged in Riga before around 4,000 spectators.