Pre-1940: Silene, village, Daugavpils aprinka, Latgale reǵions, Latvia; 1940–1941: Latvian SSR; 1941–1944: Gebiet Dünaburg, Generalkommissariat Lettland; post-1991: Latgale reǵions, Republic of Latvia Silene is located about 21 kilometers (13 miles) southeast of Daugavpils. Until the mid-1930s the village was known as Borovka. According to the 1935 population census, there were 189 Jews living in Silene, or 18.5 percent of the total population. On June 26, 1941, German armed forces occupied the town. Local Latvian nationalists immediately organized a “Self-Defense” detachment, which carried out the first Aktions targeting Jews and Soviet activists. In Silene, the Self-Defense detachment was headed by the senior policeman Alfred Timbergs, the elder of the administrative unit (volost’), Karlis Antin’sh, and the commandant Eric Priekulis. On July 22, 1941, this detachment, assisted by Latvian policemen from Riga and Ilūkste, arrested all the Jews and put them in a large synagogue, whic...