SALASPILS

John and I decided to go to the memorial site of Salaspils a death camp outside Riga where 40,000 Jews and 50,000 others mostly Latvians were killed in the forest. The Russians made this memorial in 1967. It is very dramatic and moving. A metronome beat is heard constantly. The scale of the site is vast and you can see this by looking at the statues and the people there. The inscription says that 'beyond this gate, the earth groans'
At the turn off to the memorial there was a group of working girls in party frocks. Incongruous! The sex trade afflicts Eastern Europe and Riga is a place of sex tourism..