Plans to build a memorial to German soldiers just yards from the site of a Nazi death camp have triggered outrage among surviving prisoners. Over a hundred thousand people were killed in Latvia’s Salaspils concentration camp during the war.

The Germans left the camp, near Riga, in 1944, fleeing the advancing Soviet army. Later, more than a hundred German prisoners of war were buried there.

But now Germany wants to put up several crosses and a plaque with the soldiers’ names. A German-Latvian agreement on war graves allows the construction.

But the project has led to disgust and astonishment among the death camps survivors.

Ivan Gavrilov and Elena Gribuna were both only six when they were taken to Salaspils. Returning to where the barracks used to stand is always painful for them.

“We didn’t know whether out parents were dead or alive. Food was scarce, we were just skin and bones, living corpses,” she recalls.

“We’re not against cemeteries for German soldiers, but not at the former death camp,” her husband says.

The German soldiers were buried on what is now a heritage site protected by Latvian law. But the authorities gave the project the green light, saying they were not aware of the camp’s survivors’ concerns.

“It won’t affect the look of the memorial complex. It’s not like they’re building a supermarket there. And the memorial complex is completely separate from the burial site,” said Janis Asaris, Deputy Head of the State Inspection for Heritage Protection.

But it looks like that is not the case. A path is being built linking the two. For Salaspils survivors this only makes things worse.

Still, the local organisation that manages the project insists there’s nothing inappropriate.

“Getting emotional about it is inappropriate. Our history is rich in contradicting facts. It’s a perfectly suitable site for a cemetery and memorials of different kinds can very well exist together,” believes Eizens Upmanis of the War Cemeteries Committee.

Latvia is keen to rethink its Soviet past. The Museum of Occupation in Riga, which opened after the collapse of the Soviet Union, makes little distinction between Nazi occupation and Latvia’s years within the USSR.

Last spring Latvia’s neighbour, Estonia, removed a Soviet war memorial from the centre of the capital Tallinn, sparking violent riots. Some believe it makes the Salaspils controversy all the more acute. 

“Leaving these graves where they are is very dangerous. They may become the focus of vandalism and inter-ethnic tensions. But asking to relocate them is equally bad because we’ll then be playing the role of grave diggers,” said Eduard Goncharov, leader of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Latvia.

Salaspils survivors see the authorities’ actions as rewriting history. They say as long as they live they’ll be telling their side of the story. But they’re afraid that after they’re gone the legacy of Salaspils will be forgotten.

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