Country Latvia Parish Riebiņi Population 951 (2006) | Municipality Riebiņi Elevation 140 m | |
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Riebiņi (Latvian: Riebiņi, Latgalian: Ribiniški, Yiddish: Ribinishok) is a village in and the center of both Riebiņi parish and Riebiņi municipality, Latvia.
Contents
Map of Riebi%C5%86i, Riebi%C5%86i parish, LV-5326, Latvia
History
The village was a shtetl, and most of the inhabitants were Jewish. According to the census of 1897, there were 533 Jews living in the village (91% of the total population). In the beginning of the 20th century, many of the Jews left for Palestine or the United States, and in 1935, Jews constituted 68% of the total population.
At the end of August 1941, Latvian civil defense police (Aizsargi) arrested Jews and locked them into the synagogues. Then they were moved to Ribinishki Forest (4 km. northwest of the shtetl) and murdered there in a mass execution. There were some local inhabitants from Soluions district who took part in the massacre and several Germans who watched it.