By COLlive staff
Riga city council has informed the local Holocaust museum that according to the new land lease agreement it will have to dismantle the central part of its exposition and start paying a full market price.
As the Shamir Association operating the museum is unable to comply with the new terms, the council’s decision is likely to force the museum to close its doors after 10 years.
Local residents believe that the council’s position is a result of continued pressure from the local business community which hopes to acquire the land currently occupied by the museum.
Rabbi Dr. Menachem Barkahan, Chairman of the Shamir Association, is asking to help save the museum: “This is not a local commercial conflict. The city council’s decision will show whether the preservation of Holocaust memory is an important value for Latvian authorities or not. As Latvian citizens, we cannot accept that in our country money is worth more than the memory of our fathers killed by Nazi occupiers.”
Ten years ago, the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum was established in the Spikeri quarter, a rundown area used for a central market warehouse and car washes.
In 2010, Shamir Association and the Riga city council signed a land lease agreement on a non-reimbursable basis, which gave the Association an opportunity to create a museum in memory of the Holocaust victims.
Under the terms of the contract, the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum had to pay only 10 percent of taxes as a rental fee. Quite abruptly, the property department of the Riga city council decided to propose a new agreement, which is unacceptable from the Museum’s point of view.
According to the revised proposal, the museum will have to let go of part of its territory, where an important segment of the memorial is located, namely, the Ghetto Street bearing the names of 75,000 Latvian Jews and 25,000 Jews from Western Europe who perished in Latvia during the Holocaust. The department’s proposal also stipulates a new rent of approximately 10,000 euros per month. This corresponds to today’s high market prices for what once used to be an abandoned quarter.
“In our case, it means closing the museum, as we won’t be able to afford to pay such a high rent,” says Rabbi Barkahan.
Shamir Association believes that in recent years the museum has been subjected to continuing deliberate attacks from the private businesses for the purpose of territory seizing – there have been lawsuits, complaints to various authorities, as well as the unauthorized seizure of territory.
On October 27, Riga city council is expected to decide whether the current land lease agreement with the local Holocaust museum will be renewed.
“The Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum has made and continues to make a great contribution to educating the public about the fate of Latvian Jews, the Holocaust, and the invaluable importance of an active public stance. The relocation of the museum would become an unbearable burden for us – in fact, it will mean the destruction of everything we have built so far,” says Rabbi Barkahan.
“The Holocaust was not only caused by those who killed; it happened with the tacit consent of the indifferent majority. I would like to hope that nowadays nothing like that is possible. In this sense, the decision on the fate of the museum is also symbolic, as it shows the values of the authorities and the society. We are asking for the support of the entire community, because the future of the museum depends on the active participation of each and every one of us.”
The Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum has been recognized internationally as one of the capital’s important landmarks; renowned experts and participants from all across the globe have participated in the conferences organized by it. There are 9 permanent exhibitions on the territory of the museum, which have been visited by more than 170,000 people from all over the world.
Unfortunately, this can be the last month of the museum’s operation, as there is a chance that the Riga city council will not renew the existing lease.
The museum’s administration suspects that this may be due to the vested interests of private businesses. Today, Spikeri has become a creative industry quarter popular with local residents and businesses.
They need pay absolutely nothing for the museum, and explain the importance of central morality, based on sheva mitzvot, clearly understood at that location, where our inability to be objective of our inclination, including the influence we might receive from others, is obvious.
The sheva mitzvot Of Noach, for non-Jews can be developed by learning everything about them, and even including what is learned in conversation, and day to day work.
That space is eternally the reminder that we cannot rely on our instincts, but must control them with our minds, through the seven mitzvot, and the mitvah campaigns.
let’s keep it open until Moshiach comes.
Praying for good news & משיח כאו!!
When many Latvians took part and help hands with the Nazis (against the Soviets) it feels like the Latvians again are taking ranks among the Nazis
Riga and Latvians have a moral obligation to maintain this museum and support it to ensure ‘Never Again’!
Closing this important educational facility is wrong. Not only is the area important from a genocidal perspective as the site of Riga’s Jewish ghetto, the location ensures that it is visited regularly by those who need to be educated and reminded about the Jewish Holocaust.
As a historian, I am opposed to this being closed and hope that those who are likeminded will ensure the Riga city council is told why this important educational facility, this museum to remembrance, is never closed!