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Title:: Sworn statement by Max Tukacier regarding atrocities committed by Herbert Cukurs, one of the leaders of the Latvian Nazis

Scope/content:: A Sworn Statement made before and certified by the Central Committee of Liberated Jews.

Tukacier knew Cukurs personally as early as 1928. Immediately after the German occupation of Latvia Cukurs was made one of the leaders of “Perkonkrust” whose headquarters was at Waldemarstr. 19 in Riga. Jews were ill-treated and robbed, especially by the members of “Perkonkrust”, and later arrested in numbers. (p.1-2)

Tukacier was arrested on 15 July 1941 and, with about 200 Jewish men and women, taken to the cellar at Waldemarstr. 19. Tukacier witnessed the most beastly brutalities. Batches of ten were taken upstairs and shot. Cukurs led the group and personally committed atrocities. The corpses of the murdered were thrown out of the window of the building. Tukacier, together with many others, were forced to look on to the most humiliating atrocities. (p.3)

On 29 November 1941 a selection was made in the Riga Ghetto: out of about 30,000 Jews 4,000 were selected for work and transferred to the Little Ghetto. The remaining 26,000 were rounded up and taken in batches to a wood (Bikernieku forest), and shot. The first of these mass executions took place on 30 November 1941, and two more on 7-8 December 1941. Cukurs personally beat up and shot many of the victims en route (p.4).