Grobstein

Liepāja
Libau
Liepoja
Lipawa
ליבאַװע
Лиепая
Либава
Любава

In 1940, upon annexation by the Soviet Union, private property was nationalized and many thousands of former owners were arrested and deported to Siberia; and thousands also fled.

On June 14, 1941, Soviet authorities deported 209 Jews to Siberia, and in the next two weeks about 300 fled to the
USSR after the German attack, and some 160 soldiers and Workers’ Guards retreated with the Red Army.
More might have fled, but the Soviet authorities did not let men leave, except communist functionaries, and later, they closed the Russian border to refugees.
The Soviet Army deployed the 67 Rifle Division with two battalions of the 56 Rifle Regiment and the 281 Rifle Regiment to holdingLiepāja, while the 114 Rifle Regiment, reinforced with a battalion of the 56 Rifle Regiment, defended the coast sector oof Kolgasrago - Pavilosta.
Liepāja was among the first cities captured by 291st Division of Army Group North, accompanied by part of
Einsatzkommando of Walter Stahlecker’s Einsatzgruppe A, when the Germans began the war with the Soviet Union.
On the the night of 22 June 21-22, 1941, the Germans began the assault on Liepāja,
The Jewish population of Liepāja numbered about 7,000 before the war. but was virtually exterminated by the Nazis and Latvian collaborators.
Mass murders took place in the dunes of Šķēde, north of Liepāja city.
Fewer than 30 Jews remained alive in Liepāja by the end of the war.