The Great Choral Synagogue of Riga
The Great Choral Synagogue was constructed in 1871. On July 4, 1941, three days after the Nazis entered Riga, German and Latvian police set fire to the synagogue and burnt it to the ground
A memorial plaque at the site relates that the synagogue was set on fire while the Jews who were inside were prevented from escaping. Other sources note that about 300 Jews who fled from Lithuania to Latvia were locked in the basement and burned alive.
On the same day, other synagogues in Riga were torched, killing over 400 people.
The Memorial Site
“In the late 1940s the authorities of the Soviet Regime removed the ruins of the Synagogue and laid out a park. In 1988, the Jewish community installed a memorial sign. In 1993, on the uncovered foundations of the Synagogue, the memorial, designed by architects serhejs Rizs and Gunta Svikle, was created with the support of the Latvian Government Jewish Organizations and private donors from several countries. In 2016, the memorial was reconstructed by the council of Jewish communities of Latvia with the support of the U.S. commission for the preservation of America’s heritage abroad.”
(text from one of the plaques at the site)