Israel honors eight Latvians for saving lives

RIGA - Imagine the underside of a cow barn in the Latvian winter, under a floor made of boards that might be several cracks and loose fittings short of being manure and urine tight.

Under such a floor and in such a space is where two Jews hid from July 1944 to October 1944 when the area was liberated by the Red army.

The two were among five Jews saved by the eight Latvians honored by Israel this month for saving the lives of Jews during the Holocaust.

The eight, farmer Peteris Purins, wife Marija and their daughter Vilma, forester Peteris Kupsis and wife Erna and three others received medals and diplomas naming them Righteous Among Nations from the Yad Vashem organization.

The five Jews from the Riga ghetto who were rescued by the Latvians worked in a Latvian scientific Institute under German management at the village Klaeste. Their work? - to be food for fleas, lice and leeches under study.

"They put boxes of parasites on their bodies, using the people as foodstuff to nourish them," explained Ronit Ben Dor, the Israel Embassy's charge d'affairs and acting ambassador in Riga.

The parasites were allowed to feed on the Jews twice a day and eventually were sent to Hamburg to a bacterial warfare unit.

Three of the Jews were wood gatherers, work that put them in touch with a sympathetic forester and his family. Some of the Jews were able to work in the harvest of fall 1944, allowing them to find a farm family willing to help them.

The eight Latvians honored by Israel preferred a modest ceremony without fanfare, Ben Dor said. Israel honored another eight Latvians in February as saviors of Jews as well as eight Lithuanians for similar deeds.

"These people risked their lives. We want to thank them," Ben Dor said at the February ceremony in Riga. "Righteous among nations are a model to all of us in their humane heroism. I am sure you will agree that these people are so special, so exceptional, that as many others as possible should know about them."