Latvijas Vēsturnieku komisijas raksti - 23.sējums

94 Pētījumi par holokausta problēmām Latvijā
the tragedy of the Viļaka Jewish community when Arājs Commando killers murdered about
400–500 Jews in the Zveriņica Forest, about 2 km from Viļaka in the direction towards
Abrene, in the vicinity of Dižukalns Village.
Abrene and Baltinava civil parish
After assassination of Jews near Viļaka, in the evening of the same day, on 11 August, the
Arājs Commando went to Abrene. The Jewish massacre was planned there for the next
morning – on 12 August. About 50 Jews living in Abrene and about 100 Jews living in the
nearby Baltinava Civil Parish were assassinated in the forest not far from Balastu Bog.
There is no clear evidence as regards this event. However, it could be accepted that some
tens of the Jewish refugees fleeing from Lithuania who had been arrested at the Abrene
station at the beginning of July 1941, were killed at the same time and place.
The civil parishes of the Abrene District
Before the war, the Jews lived almost in all civil parishes of the Abrene District, and thus
they were assassinated in other places of the district as well. In several civil parishes, for
example, Baltinava and Liepna, the Jews connected with the Soviet power were killed by
the local Latvian self-defence men already in July 1941. At the same time, in Liepna Civil
Parish the local self-defence men killed 14 Jews who had not managed to evacuate to the
East and consequently were arrested in Liepna, Kacēni and Kuprava civil parishes.