Dissolution of the Riga ghetto
On Novermber 2, 1943 only one work detail left the ghetto in the morning; it was
called A.B.A., initials for the Army Clothing Office (Armee-Bekleidungs-Amt). All
others stayed in the ghetto. A large number of Latvian SS guards drove out the
people form the houses to a large mustering place. There, many trucks were waiting
with SS guards armed with machine guns and pistols. Also present in the place was
the commandant with several German SS types.
The people were then indiscriminately selected. Of our relatives, with this transport
departed: our dear parents, Joseph’s sister Berta with her husband, Selma Wertheim,
Arons’s wife from Kassel, Max Wertheim’s wife from Niedenstein, Licci with
daughter and mother, Mrs. Lion from Kassel. Cont.: Meir Wertheim with his wife,
the son of uncle Mendel, Bertha Hoechster with husband and son-she was the
daughter of aunt Rosalie from Kirchhain (Hatzbach)-and also many other close
acquaintances.
Small children were all taken, only a few parents succeeded in hiding them. It was
horrifying to return to the housing in the evening. The SS had already ransacked
everything again, and stolen everything possible. There was no way to even think
about sleeping in the next nights. - Emma, sister of Bertha Hoechster, used to live in
Hof and worked at the A.B.A. She returned after work in the evening, horrified, and
stayed with us until we left together on November 6 when the A.B.A. was barracked
to Muehlgraben near Riga.