{"id":1969,"date":"2025-07-05T16:51:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T16:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/?post_type=product&p=1969"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:16:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T19:16:45","slug":"house-of-the-vanadzinis-copy-copy-copy-copy-copy-3","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/visi-stasti\/house-of-the-vanadzinis-copy-copy-copy-copy-copy-3\/","title":{"rendered":"one nine four one path"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Until 1941, C\u0113sis was home to a solid Jewish community made up of approximately 200 residents of the town and surrounding parishes. The first Jews started to live in C\u0113sis in 1868.gads, when they were given permission to build a permanent life in the Vidzeme province of the Russian Empire. Over the next decades, the town’s first Jewish community took shape, and, by the late 19th century, it was 368-strong. After the First World War, the number of Jews in C\u0113sis had fallen considerably, however, stabilised after the founding of an independent Latvia, and continued to grow gradually until 1941. 1935. In the 1935.gads national census, which was the final one before the occupation and Second World War, 145 residents of C\u0113sis identified themselves as Jewish, among them 71 males and 74 females. At the time, they formed a youthful, lively and hard-working community with 58 children and teenagers under the age of 18 and only six retirees. <\/p>\n

Most of the C\u0113sis Jews were merchants and artisans, and some worked in healthcare. Only a small number were property owners, and others lived in rental apartments in the town centre. At the time, one could not imagine getting by without good language skills. Although they spoke Yiddish at home, most had learned Latvian, over half spoke German and less than half knew Russian.
As the community was small, there was no Jewish school in C\u0113sis. The Jewish children attended local schools together with the Latvians. During Latvia’s first period of independence, branches of several local Jewish associations operated in C\u0113sis, strengthening the community’s knowledge of Jewish literature, culture and Zionism, as well as the sense of belonging to the community. The synagogue was the community’s spiritual and cultural centre and was the gathering point of the C\u0113sis Jewish parish since 1920.gads In a parish report from 1939.gads, the rabbi has noted that the parish counted 192 souls. <\/p>\n

1941. 1941.gads brought destruction to the C\u0113sis Jewish community. The first group of C\u0113sis Jews were forced to leave their homes during the Soviet occupation when, on 14 June 1941, they were falsely accused of treason and deported to Siberia along with other townsmen. 1941. In the middle of summer 1941 the Nazi occupying forces took over from the Soviets in Latvia.
The Holocaust began. In late June, several of the C\u0113sis Jewish families fled to the Soviet Union in hope of survival but most stayed at their homes. In early August, the Jews living in C\u0113sis and surroundings were arrested and, on 10 August, they were murdered in the forest beside lake Nieris and buried right there in a pit. Almost the entire C\u0113sis Jewish community perished in the Holocaust. The few that survived did not return to C\u0113sis. The names of the victims were never identified in Soviet years. As time went by and generations passed, the people of C\u0113sis gradually lost their memories of the Jewish community. With the creation of the Burning Conscience \u2013 an exhibition devoted to the legacy of occupying and authoritarian regimes \u2013 in C\u0113sis in 2018.gads, preserving the memory of the “forgotten” victims of totalitarianism \u2013 the Jews of C\u0113sis \u2013 regained significance. <\/p>\n

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Words by: Krista & Reinis Dzudzilo, El\u012bna Kalni\u0146a<\/em>
\nAuthors of urban artwork Krista & Reinis Dzudzilo<\/em><\/p>\n

The materials used for the description are:
\n<\/em>1935. Data from the 1935.population census
\nDatabase of the Centre for Judical Studies at the University of Latvia \u201eJews in Latvia 1941-1945. Names and fates” <\/em><\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t[\/vc_column][vc_column width=”5\/12″]\t\t

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In August 1941, the Jews of C\u0113sis were forced to abandon their homes and flee. Many were killed in forest near C\u0113sis but the few that remained never returned to their lives in C\u0113sis. The names of the dead and memories of them were erased. <\/p>\n

The goal of this urban artwork is to restore their presence in history and today’s reality in C\u0113sis by giving space for memories of them to return to their homes. The path they trod are the same ones residents and visitors of C\u0113sis walk along today. <\/p>\n

one nine four one path consists of 72 concrete sculptures placed throughout the streets of C\u0113sis, on which the killed Jews once lived. The prototype of each sculpture is a pair of shoes donated by someone living in C\u0113sis today. Each donation is an act of solidarity. <\/p>\n

Not only do the shoes represent absence since they are empty, but also invite thinking about presence as we remove our shoes when we come home. The shoes emerging from the pavement become almost familiar-like, poetic stone sculptures or miniature monuments. <\/p>\n

Facts<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • 1868: The first Jewish people started living in C\u0113sis and the surrounding area<\/li>\n
  • Late 1800s: The Jewish community in C\u0113sis had grown to 368 people <\/li>\n
  • 1920: The C\u0113sis synagogue opened on Va\u013c\u0146u Street 35 and began operating<\/li>\n
  • 1935: When the national census was taken, 145 residents of C\u0113sis identified themselves as Jewish<\/li>\n
  • 1939: According to the rabbi’s report, there were 192 people in the C\u0113sis Jewish congregation<\/li>\n
  • June 14, 1941: The Soviet occupation authorities deported the first Jewish people from C\u0113sis to Siberia<\/li>\n
  • Night of August 10, 1941: The Nazi occupation forces murdered the Jewish people of C\u0113sis in the forest near Ninier Lake<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1971,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[204,198],"product_tag":[300,302,303,301],"class_list":{"0":"post-1969","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-cesis-house","7":"product_cat-people","8":"product_tag-1941-en","9":"product_tag-deportation","10":"product_tag-holocaust","11":"product_tag-jews","13":"first","14":"instock","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"product-type-simple"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1969"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1969"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cesustasti.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}