Jews of Latvia: Names and Fates 1941-1945 - Using the Website

by Marion E. Werle

One of the most valuable resources for researching pre-World War II family members in Latvia is the website called Jews of Latvia: Names and Fates 1941-1945. The website, which is available in three languages (English, Russian, and Latvian), is the result of a project headed by Professor Ruven Ferber of the University of Latvia, in cooperation with multiple organizations, including the Latvian State Historical Archives and Yad Vashem. The project is dedicated to identifying and memorializing the names of the approximately 70,000 Latvian Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. The individuals were identified through a variety of sources, mainly, but not exclusively, archival. The newly updated website reflects the fourth stage of the project, as described in its “Methodology” section, namely adding photos from pre-war passports and documents. One advantage to the Names project is that it also identifies individuals who survived the war, most having fled East to the interior of the Soviet Union, who often returned to Latvia when the war was over. Many of their descendants are still living, so the project, in conjunction with other resources (e.g., Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony, online family trees, DNA), is an invaluable aid in locating living relatives. The city of Liepaja is excluded, due to the parallel efforts of the Liepāja Jews in WWII website. which documents the names and fates of the 7,145 pre-war inhabitants of Liepāja. 

The following discussion describes how to use the Jews of Latvia 1941-1945 website. Note that navigation back to the main homepage from any subordinate informational pages is not intuitively obvious: clicking on the University of Latvia logo on the upper left of the screen will return the user to the homepage. 

Below is a partial view of the Jews of Latvia 1941-1945  homepage.

The white bar on the top right, in Latvian, English, and Russian, has a dropdown menu in each language. There is information on the project itself, and the Database topic gives information describing Search Options, Surnames, and Sources. 

To access the database search page, scroll to the bottom the homepage and find the three blue buttons, in Latvian, English, and Russian. The English version is “Search the Database.”

Select the “Search the Database” button in the language of choice to get to the Search page. Don’t use the search bar at the bottom of the homepage. At the top of the Search page (below), is a blue box titled “List of surnames,” which links to a PDF listing of standardized surnames. The Names project standardized on German spelling for given and surnames. For a successful search, users should first click on the blue box to find the authorized surname spelling(s) for the name being searched.

Note the spelling and enter it manually into the search bar. Latvian Jewish surnames typically have Yiddish, Russian, Latvian, and German surname variants, but the search engine will not find a name that isn't spelled the exactly as it is on the surname list. Search the list carefully, as sometimes there may be more than one spelling for the same name included in the database, e.g., Rosin, Rosein, and Rossein, with different entries under each spelling. 

Enter the surname into the search bar (with the magnifying glass symbol). Searches work best if only a single surname is entered. The default for “Sort by” (to the right of the search bar) is “Relevance,” which will bring up a list of all profiles with the chosen surname, whether the current (wartime) surname, names of women with the surname as their maiden name, and names of people whose mother’s maiden name is the chosen surname. Once you have the listing, you can sort by given name, maiden name, or matriname (mother’s maiden name). Sorting the existing list by Family Name (surname), will only show the people whose wartime surname matches. Sorting by maiden name shows only those with the surname as their maiden name. Sorting by “Given Name” may make it easier to locate a specific person. To go back to the full list, go back to “Relevance.”

There is a list of letters above the search bar, but its use is not recommended. Clicking on a letter in the alphabetical listing at the top of the page will display all surnames beginning with a given letter. Typing a single name in the search bar is more efficient.

Entering a surname in the search box, for example, “Minsk,” produces a list of people with the surname, as well as a number of filtering options, each of which can be expanded. 

The filters work one at a time, and sequentially, to narrow down the list of results. So, for example, if the user selects "Female" under the Gender filter, it will only show the females from the list. The remaining filters are specific to the result list. If the list of females shows people born in five locations, only one of those five locations may be selected, for example, Dvinsk, which further reduces the list of results. Only one option per filter per category can be chosen at one time, and it narrows down the choices that were made from previous filters. 

It is not possible to do a generic search to find people of a given surname who were born in either Riga or Lithuania (for example, a family originally from Lithuania who moved to Riga, where their children were born). The geographical filters (place of birth, place of death, place of residence before the war, place of residence during the war) are not arranged alphabetically, and town names and spellings are not standardized. Depending on when a person was born, they may show as being born in Dvinsk or Daugavpils, according to the geographical name at that period in history. If a source document shows that someone lived in a location followed by a question mark (e.g., Daugavpils?), both "Daugavpils" and "Daugavpils?" will show as separate locations, not necessarily sorted together.

If the initial surname search is successful, a list of people with the surname (including maiden name) is returned, along with their date of birth and their prewar and wartime residence. Clicking on the person of interest brings up the full record for the person. Some people are listed with thumbnail photos, and others have a space where a thumbnail image can be added, presumably as passport photos are added to the database.

Click on the person's name to retrieve the corresponding full entry: 

This record has more information than most. Unlike a majority of Latvian Jews who died in ghettos or at the hands of Einzatzgruppen in local forests, Boruch lived in the Riga ghetto, was transported to Kaunas, and then to a work camp that was part of the Dachau satellite of camps, where he died a few weeks before liberation. The Search Options page from the drop-down tab explains the contents of each of the fields, including the various fates of the individual. In some cases, the Fate field is left blank, presumably because it is unknown.

The Sources field lists the source of the information in the expanded entry. In many cases, these are archival documents, e.g. House Registers, Lists of Inhabitants, and Passports and Passport Books, that are held by the Latvian State Historical Archives. Many passports and passport books have been indexed and are part of the JewishGen Latvia Database, with original copies on FamilySearch. Other archival documents may be obtained directly from the Archives, citing the entry in the Jews of Latvia: Names and Fates 1941-1945 database, which will make it easier for the archivists to find. Sources also include information provided by surviving descendants of family members. 

It is important to note that people who survived the war are also included on the Names and Fates website. In these cases, the person's fate may be listed as "Fled," "Red Army," or "Survived," and the wartime residence will typically show that the person's war residence was a location in the interior of the USSR. Online family trees from various genealogical websites can often assist tracking down living descendants, as can the names of family members who provided information to the project, listed in the Sources field.

If a person did not survive the war, it is worthwhile looking for a Page of Testimony in the Shoah Names Database on the Yad Vashem website. Depending on who filled out the PoT, and when it was submitted, the submitter may prove to be a living relative.

To recap the search procedure:

1. Click on the blue “Search the Database” button at the bottom of the homepage in the language of choice (Latvian, English, Russian).

2. Consult the alphabetical PDF list of surnames at the top of the search page to find the correct spelling of the surname of interest. Be sure to look for alternate spellings. 

3. Enter the correctly spelled surname into the search bar.

4. After the results are displayed, adjust the “Sort by” options, if necessary, and add one or more filters (gender, marital status, region, place of birth, place of death, place of residence before the war, place of residence during the war, occupation) from the right side of the screen, if desired.

5. Click on the thumbnail summary of any person to retrieve their full profile.

6. Clicking on the University of Latvia logo on the upper left of the screen from any page will return the user to the homepage.

Users may experiment with entering multiple search terms at once (e.g., given and surname), but in most cases, it will not produce the expected results. The likely  result will be a longer list of names that satisfy either of the two search criteria, not both.

The Names project will accept photographs contributed by family members for a given profile. 

This page has been updated to reflect current procedures on how to use the Jews of Latvia: Names and Fates 1941-1945 website as it exists today, and will be updated if changes occur.