Career
Lipke, a dock worker in the port of Riga, was determined to help save Latvian Jews from capture by the Nazis after witnessing actions against them in the streets. The Lipkes and their various helpers saved forty people in this way, one fifth of the approximately 200 Jews who survived the war in Latvia. When he died in 1987, the Jews of Riga arranged his funeral, and he is honoured as one of the Righteous among the Nations.
On 4 July 2007, the day of remembrance of the victims of genocide against the Jewish nation, a monument commemorating those, and in particular Jānis Lipke, who saved Latvian Jews was unveiled at Riga"s Great Choral Synagogue.
