On August 7, 2015, members of the Panevėžys City Jewish Community visited the Riga ghetto. The Riga ghetto was established in October of 1941 by order of Nazi politician Hugo Wittrock. They placed the ghetto in the most Jewish neighborhood of Riga called the Moscow Suburb by locals. All Riga Jews living outside the territory were ordered to leave their homes immediately and move into the ghetto, 9,000 square meters surrounded by fences.

About 30,000 Jews in total were forced to live under atrocious conditions in the Riga ghetto. Approximately 12 people had to share a room with five beds.

A ghetto prisoner gave the group from Panevėžys a short tour of the ghetto during which he recounted how they murdered Riga ghetto Jews continuously from November of 1941 till June of 1944. On November 28, 1941, the Nazis ordered the men separated from the women, including children.

They set up a separate Small Ghetto where they kept prisoners transported in from other locations. The next day they ordered all men in the Small Ghetto from 18 to 60 to form a column on the street, and told everyone else (children, the elderly, the infirm) to collect their things and prepare for a trip to another camp, a more comfortable more suitable for the weak. They took all of them to the Bikernieki Forest where they murdered them all.

After the ghetto tour, the group from Panevėžys spent the day at Jurmala on the Bay of Riga, a resort with a sandy beach. They returned to Panevėžys relaxed and full of new impressions.

During the period from July to August, 2015, guests visited the Panevėžys City Jewish Community from the UK, Canada and Mexico. A large group of yeshiva students from all over the world also visited. There were also guests visiting Lithuania under the Howard Margolis program. One such, Sam Lasris, had a grandfather who lived in Panevėžys and it was interesting to hear him talk about the lives of members of his family.

from www.jewishpanevezys.lt