"Below is a photo of my uncle, Rolf Mozeson, and his classmates at the Rauchvarger Gymnasium in Riga, taken about 1937 or '38. The smiling faces and playfulness of the children is in jarring contrast to the damage that the photograph itself has undergone. This is a symbolic reminder of how many of these children were torn from life a mere three or four years later. This photo was given to me  five years ago by Chaia Volpert, one of the few survivors from this class photo. She and my uncle Rolf were close friends." -- George Mason (Mozeson)

 

THE FATE OF SOME OF ROLF’S CLASSMATES

 

1.      Rosa Blankenfeld – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

2.      Tziva Katchtova – Fled Riga as the Nazis approached, returned to Riga after the war.

 

3.      Tzila Shpringenfeld – Fled Riga as the Nazis approached, returned to Riga after the war.

 

4.      Reiza Steklova – Died in 1939 from scarlet fever.

 

5.      Sonya Rabuchina – Fled Riga as the Nazis approached, remained in Russia.

 

6.     Unidentified

 

7.      Fillip Glik – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

8.      Shimon Kuhlman – His mother was Latvian but his father was Jewish. He and his father and brother were forced into the Ghetto, where they died.

 

9.      Liba Kocinya – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

10.   Riva Munitz – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

11.   Polya Shpringenfeld – Fled Riga as the Nazis approached, remained in Russia.

 

12.   Heinrich Jozefart – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

13.   Michael Sominsky – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

14.   Isaac Cal – Fled Riga, went to Russia, later shot trying to cross the Russian border in his attempt to get to Israel.

 

15.   Samuel Model – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

16.   Jakob Ratut – Died in Riga Ghetto.

 

17.   Rolf Mozeson – Arrested by the Gestapo for being a member of the Riga Ghetto Resistance movement. Died in Riga Prison 1943/44?

 

18.   Paul Kramer – Arrested with his family by the Soviets on June 14, 1940 and sent to Siberia (because his mother was German). Now living in Hamburg, Germany.

 

19.   Chaia Volpert – Fled from Riga with her family as the Nazis advanced on Riga in 1941. Served as a communications officer in a Soviet Artillery Battery during World War II. Was a lawyer in Riga after the war. Now lives in Israel.

 

20.   Paul Bourchson – Died in Riga Ghetto.