“The earth moans beyond this gate’
These are the words inscribed on the face of the massive concrete structure which serves as the gateway to the former Salaspils (Kurtenhof) concentration camp. Continue reading “Salaspils Concentration Camp Memorial”
As you make your way to or from Elizabetes iela and streets around it to admire Riga’s beautiful Art Nouveau buildings, as you must, make sure you at least visit the northern part of Kronvalda Park for a look at this rather unusual memorial, located, rather poignantly and deliberately, in front of the former Communist Party Central Committee building. Continue reading “Memorial in the Wall – Separating and Uniting”
The first decade or so of the 20th century was a very prosperous period for Riga. It was a major trading and manufacturing hub and the third largest city in the Russian Empire, of which is was part at the time. Continue reading “An Englishman in Riga”
This small hill within what is now called Bastion Hill Park (Bastejkalns) is an artificial hill created between 1857 to 1863 when the city ramparts were dismantled after the Crimea War. By that stage, due to advances in warfare and weaponry, the ramparts no longer served any useful military purpose. Material from the ramparts was used to build up the banks of the former moat, now the winding Pilsētas kanāls, and create the 15m high Bastion Hill. The whole area was planted and developed and became Bastion Hill Park (Bastejkalns), now a delightful park between the Old City and the more modern city. Continue reading “Bastion Hill and Memorial Stones”
Within four months of the Nazis occupying Riga on 1 July 1941, a Jewish ghetto had been set up in the Moscow District of the city. 30,000 Jews where forcibly moved into the ghetto. Within weeks, 24,000 of its occupants were forced marched to Rumbula forest on the outskirts of the city and shot. Thousands more were shot or otherwise eliminated within the city. Throughout Latvia, between 1941 and 1945 70,000 Jews were killed by or under Nazi direction. Continue reading “Monument to Zanis Lipke and All the Saviours of Latvian Jews”
In one of the most blood curdling crimes perpetrated by the Nazis in Riga, on 4 July 1941 (three days after taking control of the city from the Red Army) they herded hundreds of Latvian and Lithuanian Jews into the basement of the Great Choral Synagogue and then burned the building to the ground. Everyone therein perished. Continue reading “Great Choral Synagogue – Memorial”
This memorial is a vote of thanks to the United States for its assistance in World War II. The Memorial’s height and design make it one of Canberra’s best-known and most recognised monuments. Continue reading “Australian-American Memorial – Bugs Bunny”
This memorial commemorates the 700 plus Australian police officers who have been killed on duty or who have died as a result of their duties – since Australian policing first begun. The names of the officers who died are inscribed on a bronze commemorative wall. The first policeman to die on duty was Constable Joseph Luker, aged 38, who was bludgeoned to death in Sydney on on 26 August 1803. Continue reading “National Police Memorial – See It At Night Too”
Without in anyway wanting to take from the reason for this memorial, it is, for me, one of the least aesthetically pleasing of Canberra’s many memorials. While it is a very smart and inspired design to appreciate it fully one would really need to see it from above. Additionally, its location (deliberate though it is), tucked away from the lakeside and close to the busy Morshead Drive means that you are unlikely to stumble across it walking around the lake. It took me, a very frequent visitor to the area, over three years to happen upon it. Continue reading “Remembering Workplace Losses”
On 26 December, 2004 (Boxing Day) a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the tip of Indonesia’s Aceh province unleashed a most extraordinary and devastating tsunami which soon hit the beaches of 14 countries around the Indian Ocean on its westerly path. Fortuitously the tsunami, one of the most horrific natural disasters in recorded history, did not hit Australia – one of the closest land masses to the earthquake’s epicentre. Continue reading “Boxing Day Tragedy”
The Rambling Wombat 