VIŠĶI
[End Page 1027] Pre-1940: Višķi, village, Daugavpils aprinka, Latgale reǵions, Latvia; 1940–1941: Latvian SSR; 1941–1944: Viski, Kreis and Gebiet Dünaburg, Generalkommissariat Lettland; post-1991: Višķi, Latgale reǵions, Republic of Latvia
Višķi is located 26 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Daugavpils. According to the 1935 census, there were 423 Jews living in Višķi (56 percent of the total population).
German armed forces occupied the village on June 27, 1941, five days after their invasion of the USSR on June 22. In the interim, several dozen Jews managed to evacuate to the interior of the USSR, and as a result, about 380 Jews remained in Višķi at the start of the German occupation.
Soon after the village was occupied, all the Jews were herded into the building of the fire station, which served as a temporary collection ghetto for them. One day, probably in early July, the Jews were escorted to a forest near the village of Ostrovo, where machine guns were already in place. Minutes before the shooting was about to begin, a vehicle appeared, and a German officer unexpectedly called off the Aktion. From the fire station, the Jews were briefly allowed to return home, to collect their valuables and prepare for evacuation to Daugavpils.1 Most did not believe they were going to their deaths, but some attempted to hide in cellars, attics, barns, and haystacks, and the cemetery. The majority of these people were soon discovered and shot on the spot. On July 11, 12, and 23, 1941, 374 Jews were deported to Daugavpils, and five Jews were killed in the village.2 Following the deportation of the Jews, white leaflets were posted on the Jewish houses, warning that entering them was prohibited. The Jews’ belongings were taken primarily by those who took an active part in the shootings. After the war, the vacant Jewish houses were sold off to needy neighbors whose homes had burned during the war.
SOURCES
Information on the fate of the Jewish community of Višķi during the Holocaust can be found in these publications: “Viski,” in Dov Levin, ed., Pinkas ha-kehilot. Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities: Latvia and Estonia (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1988), pp. 122–123; Rabbi Menakhem Barkagan, ed., Unichtozhenie evreev v Latvii 1941–1945: Tsikl lektsii (Riga: SHAMIR, 2007), pp. 251–257; and I. Rochko, “Kholokost v Latgalii,” in Boris Vol’kovich et al., eds., Kholokost v Latgalii: Sbornik statei (Daugavpils: Daugavpilsskaia evreiskaia obshchina, 2003), p. 419.
Documentation on the murder of the Jews of Višķi can be found in the following archives: GARF (7021-93-94); LVA; Museum of Jews in Latvia (file B-785); and YVA.
