Frida Michelson (, née Fride; 1906–1982) was a Latvian Jew and

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor. She is known for her

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...

“I survived Rumbula” which records the Holocaust in Latvia, her life in the

Riga Ghetto Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, a neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia, where Nazis forced Latvian Jewish, Jews from Latvia, and later from the German "Reich" (Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia), to live during World War II. On ...

and how she managed to survive the massacre in Rumbula forest. She was one of only three survivors.

Biography

Before the Nazi occupation

Michelson was born in Jaungulbene, in the

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

) in 1906. She grew up in Varakļāni but moved to

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

in the 1930s to work as a seamstress.

During the Nazi occupation

In 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Latvia, she was imprisoned at the

. In two days at the end of 1941 the majority of those imprisoned at the Riga Ghetto were taken to the Rumbula forest, in the outskirts of Riga, and murdered (see

Rumbula massacre The Rumbula massacre is a collective term for incidents on November 30 and December 8, 1941, in which about 25,000 Jews were murdered in or on the way to Rumbula forest near Riga, Latvia, during World War II. Except for the Babi Yar massacre in ...

). Michelson was a witness to the first day, 30 November, when she saw thousands of Jews removed from the ghetto. On the other day, 8 December, she was also removed from the ghetto and was forced to march with thousands of others to Rumbula. However, she escaped being murdered by throwing herself into the snow when approaching the site of the massacre. She then pretended to be dead. The other Jews were forced to take off their shoes which were thrown into a pile on top of Michelson. She continued pretending to be dead and kept hiding under the pile of shoes. Michelson hid in the forest for the next three years, and with the help of local people managed to survive the Nazi occupation.

After the Nazi occupation

Michelson married Mordehajs Michelsons and together they had two children. In 1950 Mordehajs Michelsons was deported to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

due to false accusations. In 1971 Frida Michelson and her children left the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and moved to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

''I Survived Rumbula''

In the 1960s, Frida Michelson wrote down her memories of the Holocaust and the Nazi occupation in Latvia, in her native language, Yiddish. The original copy is kept in the archives of the Jews of Latvia Museum. Michelson's writings were translated into Russian and adapted by David Silberman creating the book "I Survived Rumbula". The book was later translated into English and to Latvian. A German translation appeared in 2020, 60 years after her written memories.Frida Michelson: ''Ich überlebte Rumbula'', Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg, 2020,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michelson, Frida 1906 births 1982 deaths People from Gulbene Municipality People from Valka county Latvian Jews Latvian women writers 20th-century memoirists Riga Ghetto inmates Soviet emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Latvian-Jewish descent