Mural "Separated but safe"by artist Daniil Vyatkin. Rīga, garden of the House of Courage (opened 18 May 2024)
Wall painting "Separated but safe" by artist Daniil Vyatkin.
It is dedicated to sisters Zāra Frenkel and Regīna Rudiņa (née Frenkel), who escaped from the Riga ghetto and found a safe haven during the Holocaust with the Latvians Auguste Bērzina and Edgar and Emīlija Ozoli.
The Lipke Memorial, which is actually not so small, may become Riga’s best hidden museum. This concealment is not only factual but also symbolic for this place used to serve as a hideaway.
In the yard that is the endpoint of the tiny street, an underground bunker had been dug out. That is where Žanis Lipke had made a hiding place for people saved from the Jewish ghetto. One exit from the bunker was under a doghouse, the other on the northern hillside. During the Second World War, eight to twelve people used this 3×3 meter hole in the ground as a shelter, often for long periods of time. The visitor should note that it was impossible to build the memorial above the actual bunker, for then it would be located right in the yard of the Lipke family. Above the hole, that has since been filled in but after the war served Žanis as a pit for fixing his car, the family now keeps their firewood. It is important to stress that the German police never found this shelter, Lipke was never caught and none of the people involved was ever betrayed. If that had been the case, there would be no Lipke family here today.
Mural "Separated but safe"by artist Daniil Vyatkin. Rīga, garden of the House of Courage (opened 18 May 2024)
Wall painting "Separated but safe" by artist Daniil Vyatkin.
It is dedicated to sisters Zāra Frenkel and Regīna Rudiņa (née Frenkel), who escaped from the Riga ghetto and found a safe haven during the Holocaust with the Latvians Auguste Bērzina and Edgar and Emīlija Ozoli.
The Lipke Memorial, which is actually not so small, may become Riga’s best hidden museum. This concealment is not only factual but also symbolic for this place used to serve as a hideaway.
In the yard that is the endpoint of the tiny street, an underground bunker had been dug out. That is where Žanis Lipke had made a hiding place for people saved from the Jewish ghetto. One exit from the bunker was under a doghouse, the other on the northern hillside. During the Second World War, eight to twelve people used this 3×3 meter hole in the ground as a shelter, often for long periods of time. The visitor should note that it was impossible to build the memorial above the actual bunker, for then it would be located right in the yard of the Lipke family. Above the hole, that has since been filled in but after the war served Žanis as a pit for fixing his car, the family now keeps their firewood. It is important to stress that the German police never found this shelter, Lipke was never caught and none of the people involved was ever betrayed. If that had been the case, there would be no Lipke family here today.