Varaklani Municipality
Once 75% Jewish; 540 shot in a single day (August 4, 1941). Dissolved in 2024 and absorbed into Madona Municipality. The manor and cemetery remain.
Varakļāni no longer exists as a municipality—it was dissolved in June 2024 and absorbed into Madona Municipality. But its history explains why it mattered, and why dissolution may not erase memory.
The town was founded in the 18th century near Lake Lubāns, Latvia's largest body of water. By the late 19th century, Jews comprised 75% of the population—merchants trading agricultural products from the surrounding Latgale countryside. The Baroque manor complex dominated the town's architecture.
On August 4, 1941, the Nazis forced 540 Jews to dig their own graves and shot them in a mass execution. Earlier emigration, pogroms, and WWI had already reduced the Jewish population; this massacre ended it. Several hundred had fled with retreating Russians before the German advance.
The 2009 reform created Varakļāni Municipality from the town and two rural parishes. The 2024 reform ended it—too small to sustain independent administration. By 2026, Varakļāni will be a settlement within Madona Municipality, its name surviving on the manor and the cemetery.