Travel Tips

A short train ride from Riga one arrives at the small and largely deserted station of Darzina. Surrounded by woods there are no obvious signs to indicate the unspeakable acts that took place here between 1941 and 1944. For hidden within these woods stood the Nazi concentration camp of Kurtenhof. It was here over 100,000 men women and children were put to death. Today the site is marked by the Salispils memorial. This huge concrete stucture at the gateway bears the words 'Aiz siem vartiem vaid zeme - 'Beyond these gates the earth moans' Fitting words written by the Latvian writer Eizens Veveris who was himself a prisoner here.

Exiting the memorial you come out in a large clearance that conveys the magnitude of this death camp. The concrete foundations of the barracks still remain visible. The most striking aspect of the site is however the huge sculptures that have been erected in tribute to the suffering, hope and defiance of the people. The site is eerily silent but for the sound of an underground metronome its ticking a constant reminder of the lives spent and lost here.