Riga Ghetto and Kaiserwald — Helena and Alfred Schatten

Helena / Hela Schatten née Barber and her son Alfred Simeon Schatten were deported from Vienna to Riga on 6 February 1942. The journey lasted four days in freezing conditions without food, water or sanitation. On arrival outside Riga, those unable to walk were taken in blue buses that were mobile gas chambers. Helena and Alfred entered the Riga Ghetto. Alfred worked as an automechaniker for the SS Vairoggs Kommando. When the Riga Ghetto was liquidated in 1943, remaining Jews were transported to Kaiserwald. Alfred was later sent to exhume and burn bodies in the forest and is presumed to have been killed in August 1944. Helena is presumed to have been shot when Kaiserwald was emptied.

Riga, Riga, Latvia