Subate (; lt, Subačius, german: Subbath) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

Augšdaugava Municipality Augšdaugava Municipality ( lv, Augšdaugavas novads, "upper Daugava municipality") is one of the 35 municipalities established in Latvia in 2021. It surrounds the independent city of Daugavpils and its municipal headquarters are located there. It ...

in the

Selonia Selonia ( lv, Sēlija; lt, Sėla), also known as Augšzeme (the "Highland"), is one of the Historical Latvian Lands encompassing the eastern part of the historical region of Semigallia ( lv, Zemgale) as well as a portion of northeastern Lithuani ...

region of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, near the border with Lithuania. Subate is located 40 km west of

Daugavpils Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the c ...

. The population in 2020 was 596. Subate cemetery

In 1570

Gotthard Kettler Gotthard Kettler, Duke of Courland (also ''Godert'', ''Ketteler'', german: Gotthard Kettler, Herzog von Kurland; 2 February 1517 – 17 May 1587) was the last Master of the Livonian Order and the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia. Biography ...

, the first Duke of

Courland and Semigallia The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia ( la, Ducatus Curlandiæ et Semigalliæ; german: Herzogtum Kurland und Semgallen; lv, Kurzemes un Zemgales hercogiste; lt, Kuršo ir Žiemgalos kunigaikštystė; pl, Księstwo Kurlandii i Semigalii) was ...

, granted the

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

Plater family, the dominant nobles throughout southeastern Latvia, an estate at the lake of Subate, and Alt-Subbath (Old Subbath) was established. After the Counter-Reformation, the Plater-Sybergs ( pl, Plater-Zyberk) converted to Catholicism, founding a mission with the intention of converting their serfs, and the

Lutherans Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

moved across the lake in protest, creating Neu-Subbath (New Subbath); the two towns were joined in 1894. By the late 19th century

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

composed about half of the population, and in 1914 there were ca. 2300 inhabitants. The town traded primarily in Lithuanian flax, but this trade languished after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Almost all of Subate's Jews were brutally murdered in the Stahlecker phase of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

in 1941. File:Subate8.JPG, Monument to soviet soldiers in Subate File:Subate Evangelical Lutheran Church.jpg, Lutheran church File:Subate4.JPG, Old believers church in Subate

References

* Arveds Švābe, ed.: ''Latvju enciklopēdija''. Stockholm: Trīs Zvaigznes, 1952-1953.
Shtetl Focus: Subate
Retrieved 25. II. 2006. {{Authority control Towns in Latvia Augšdaugava Municipality Holocaust locations in Latvia Selonia