The memorial plaque on the building at 22 Tirgoņu Street (formerly 14 Tirgoņu Street) was placed there in 2004 in honour of Roberts and Johanna (Anna) Seduls, who in 1981 received the highest award of the State of Israel – the Medal to the Righteous Among the Nations. Between 5th October 1943 and 9th May 1945 they hid and saved 11 Liepāja Jews. After Roberts died in March 1945, killed by an exploding artillery shell, Anna continued to care for them until the end of the war.
An extract from the diary of Kalman Linkimer, Nineteen Months in a Cellar: How 11 Jews Eluded Hitler’s Henchmen follows :
” Roberts once said to his friends in the hiding place :” Now I want to tell you something serious. I know that the time is approaching when Latvia will be liberated. How and what will happen, I don’t know. I know only that you will want to take revenge on the murderers, and you will have the right to do that – even the duty. But I ask you (Kalman) only one thing: don’t make innocent people suffer further. When an innocent person comes to you, don’t close your door on them, help them, don’t be swept away (by blind revenge); remember that I helped you, simply because you were innocent.”
Kalman Linkimer :
“Roberts, we Jews, like the Russians, have never had any plan to destroy a people just because their ancestors were Latvians, Lithuanians or Roma. We consider that everyone has the right to live, but only up to the point where they threaten innocent people – then they must be punished. We don’t want to persecute innocent people. But you Latvians above all should beware of your own people because they want to wipe out others in order to ingratiate themselves with the Germans”.
David Zivcon and Roberts Seduls