Task Force For International Cooperation On Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research

Since October 1990, Latvia has held an official commemoration event for the Jewish victims of genocide on 4 July. The event commemorates the burning of the synagogue on Gogola Street in Riga, which took place in 1941, when victims were locked inside the synagogue. The event addresses the 20th century as a century of unprecedented terror and violence. The genocide against the Jewish people, orchestrated by Nazi Germany, is remembered as the culmination point of evil. It is emphasized that the mass killings during the Holocaust caused irreversible changes in Latvia, leaving deep scars in the collective memory.

The event takes place in Riga, at the memorial site of the synagogue that was burnt to the ground during World War II.