Šķēde is a suburban settlement near

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

, Latvia, in Medze Parish,

South Kurzeme Municipality South Kurzeme Municipality () is one of the 35 Municipalities of Latvia, municipalities established in Latvia in 2021. It surrounds Liepāja, Latvia's third largest city. Its first elected municipal council took office on 1 July 2021. Its seat is ...

. It is located on the north border of the city. Šķēde was the biggest

dacha A dacha (Belarusian, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of former Soviet Union, post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ...

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

in Latvia in the time of the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

. One of Šķēde's notable features is its street names, which are known as "lines" and numbered from 1 to 18. Typical Šķēde addresses may thus appear as: ''Šķēde 1-15-2''. Until 2005, the main Liepāja

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

was located near Šķēde.Kurzemes Vārds, 03.02.2005

History

Šķēde is also known for the Nazi Liepāja massacres in 1941. The main perpetrators were detachments of the Einsatzgruppen, the Sicherheitsdienst (or SD), the

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (''Orpo'', , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly of power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of t ...

and Latvian auxiliary police and militia forces. Wehrmacht and German naval forces also participated in the shootings. In addition to Jewish men, women and children (c.5,000), the Germans and their Latvian collaborators also killed Roma (c.100), communists, the mentally ill (c. 30) and so-called "hostages". In memory of this event, a memorial stone has been installed in the dunes near the settlement.

References

Populated places in South Kurzeme Municipality Villages in Courland Holocaust locations in Latvia {{courland-geo-stub