Qualla: Museum of the Occupation of Latvia https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:35 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/1/5/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Museum of the Occupation of Latvia https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia Museum of the Occupation of Latvia: Introduction https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia/ Photo credit FearChild, Public domain. On June 14, 1941, Soviet authorities loaded approximately 15,500 Latvians onto cattle cars bound for Siberia. On the night of March 24-25, 1949, they did it again to roughly 43,000 more, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Of about 93,000 Jews who had lived in Latvia in 1941, perhaps 70,000 were murdered during the German occupation, most of them in the first six months. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga exists to record those numbers and the names behind them. It was founded in 1993 by an emigre Latvian historian, Paulis Lazda of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who proposed the idea to the new republic's Ministry of Culture. The first exhibition opened on July 1, 1993. The museum has been telling Latvia's 51-year story to anyone who comes through Strēlnieku laukums ever since.

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Image: FearChild | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/1/5/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-wp/ud15-museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Museum of the Occupation of Latvia: The First Soviet Year https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia/ Photo credit Metrophil, CC BY-SA 3.0. Soviet forces marched into Latvia on June 17, 1940, after the Soviet Union had presented an ultimatum that the small republic could not refuse. By August Latvia had been formally annexed, the elections rigged, the leadership arrested or fled. The June 1941 mass deportation came o...

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Image: Metrophil | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/1/5/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-wp/ud15-museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-the-first-soviet-year.mp3 0:06 2 full Museum of the Occupation of Latvia: The Holocaust in Latvia https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia/ Photo credit Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher, CC BY-SA 3.0. When Germany invaded on June 22, 1941, some Latvians initially welcomed the Wehrmacht as liberators from Soviet terror. What followed was something else entirely. Einsatzgruppe A, supported by Latvian collaborator units, began the systematic murder of Latvia's Jews almost immedia...

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Image: Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/1/5/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-wp/ud15-museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-the-holocaust-in-latvia.mp3 0:06 3 full Museum of the Occupation of Latvia: The Second Soviet Occupation https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia/ Photo credit Dezidor, CC BY 3.0. The Red Army returned in 1944 and stayed until 1991. The March 1949 deportation, codenamed Operation Priboi, was carried out across all three Baltic republics on a single coordinated night and removed roughly 43,000 Latvians, again disproportionately women and children, this time...

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Image: Dezidor | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/1/5/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-wp/ud15-museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-the-second-soviet-occupation.mp3 0:06 4 full Museum of the Occupation of Latvia: House for the Future https://qualla.com/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia/ Photo credit Philipp Hertzog, CC BY-SA 3.0. The collection now numbers nearly 60,000 registered items and an audiovisual archive of more than 2,300 video testimonials from deportees and refugees. From 2012 the museum operated temporarily out of Raina bulvaris 7, the former United States Embassy near the Freedom Monument, w...

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Image: Philipp Hertzog | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/1/5/museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-wp/ud15-museum-of-the-occupation-of-latvia-house-for-the-future.mp3 0:06 5 full