The book is an account of the
annihilation of the Jews of Riga during WWII in what is one of the
Nazi's and their collaborators' most brutal crimes on the occupied
Soviet territories. The mass murder near the Rumbula forest is with out a
doubt on the same level as other places of human tragedy such as Babi
Yar, Paneriai and the Kaunas Ghetto.
«I survived Rumbula» is based on the
personal memories of one the only two survivors who miraculously
survived the shooting of the Jews of Riga. In two large-scale operations
in late 1941 nearly all 30 000 inhabitants of the Riga Ghetto were
murdered. The chances of a successful escape were almost zero. But
Frieda Michelson did survive and so did the memory of the atrocities. To
forget these events is impossible, even if one tries to. In the sixties
she wrote down her memories in her mother tongue Jiddish. These served
as literary inspiration for David Silberman's book in Russian language
that was recently released in fourth edition. Due to the comparatively
small number of copies, the book is mainly known within Latvia.
Silberman was born in 1941 in the town
of Preili, Latvia. His family managed to leave their home before the
arrival of the Wehrmacht. During his time in Riga in the 1960ies he
actively fought for the rights of Jews in the USSR – a goal for which he
risked severe repressive measure towards him by the Soviet government.
In 2004 a memorial monument for the victims of the Holocaust was built
in Pereili thanks to the financial means provided by David Silberman.