Skede memorial

Skede Holocaust memorial - darkometer rating : 6 - This lonely spot north of the twin towns of Karosta and Liepaja on the Baltic coast of Latvia was the site of massacres perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust in WWII . It may not have been the worst of these atrocities in terms of scale, but it stands out as an especially evil event because it was so well documented – they took photos, even making the victims pose for the camera before their execution! > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: If you've ever seen any of those chilling photos of Jewish women huddled together, naked or scantily dressed, looking straight into the camera with pure terror in their eyes, or lined up with their backs towards the camera on the edge of an already corpse-filled trench, then chances are that they were taken here at Skede, in the dunes of the Baltic coast just north of Liepaja (Libau in German – hence the incidents are sometimes also referred to as the Libau massacres). These photos are so infamous that they regularly feature in museums/exhibitions about the Holocaust in all manner of contexts, related or unrelated to the actual massacres of Liepaja. The Latvian link to is not always made fully overt. For many years I was myself under the mistaken impression that these were photos of the Babi Yar massacres in Kiev , Ukraine , which was one of the largest-scale events of this kind. But no – they are unique documents relating to this site in Latvia . And not only stills were taken, even moving images. That the material ever emerged was pure fluke.