The Žanis Lipke Memorial on Ķīpsala tells the story of a family and network who hid Jewish people during the Holocaust. Its dark timber building stands beside the Lipke home, near the site of an underground wartime shelter.
Guide
At the end of a small street on Riga’s Ķīpsala island stands a dark timber building beside the Lipke family home. The Žanis Lipke Memorial recalls a place where concealment was necessary for survival. The original hiding place lay in the family’s yard; the museum beside it asks visitors to consider both the people who sought shelter and those who helped them.
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- Žanis and Johanna Lipke helped Jewish people escape persecution during the German occupation of Latvia.
- A wartime shelter in the family yard measured roughly three by three metres.
- Architect Zaiga Gaile designed the memorial beside the Lipke family home.
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