Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs

The museum collection was started in 1993 alongside the creation of the museum. At the start of 2017 the museum archive had registered almost 60,000 items. Wishing to preserve the memory of the occupation period, people have donated personal items and shared their stories. Museum specialists have recorded more than 2,300 video testimonies, one of the largest collections dedicated to this topic in Europe. These testimonies and the donated artefacts add personal experience to the history, through the life story of each person. These memories do not talk only of suffering, but of endurance, selflessness and resistance.

Donating artefacts to the museum
If you have any documents, photos or other objects, relating to the occupation periods, which you would like to donate to the museum please contact the museum collection: tk@omf.lv

Audio-visual archive

Part of the collection is stored in the museum’s audio-visual archive. These are the testimonials of the period of the occupation of Latvia in film, audio and video format. The richest section is the video archive which began to be formed in autumn 1996. Video testimonies are the life stories of those who witnessed the occupation period (for example those repressed, deported, refugees etc.). The number of entries already goes beyond 2,300 testimonies, equally over 4000 hours of footage.

The audio-visual archive specialist have created 10 documentary films. They can be purchased at the museum bookshop or on the museum’s online shop.

Donating to the museum and arranging witness interviews
If you have any film, audio or video material, relating to the occupation period, which you would like to donate to the museum, or you know someone who could share their story about the occupation years please contact our audio-visual archive department: +371 66 116 757, lelde.neimane@omf.lv

USE OF THE COLLECTION

The museum collection is available for public use for research, publication and education purposes. Museum artefacts can be found in both the permanent and temporary museum exhibitions, and those artefacts which are not on display can be seen in the museum’s reading room. Parts of the collections of different Latvian museums, including the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia’s collection, can be viewed on the Joint Catalogue of the National Holdings of Museums.

The museum’s collection is extensively used in both research, and cultural and artistic projects. For example, in Riga Motor Museum, in the European History House in Brussels (Belgium), in the Second world War Museum in Gdansk (Poland), in the Museum “Jews in Latvia” testimonials project, in the work of the Committee of the LSSR National Security Commission, Arta Ozola-Jaunrāja’s series of stamps, issued by the Latvian Post, which commemorated the 14 June 1941 deportation and Litene tragedy. As well as in documentary films such as “Berklavisms (Berklavism)”, “The Soviet Story”, “Bēgļiem arī ir seja. 1944” (Refugees also Have a Face. 1944), and theatre productions such as “Veļupes krasta” by the Latvian National Theatre, “Pieci vakari” (Five Evenings) by the New Riga Theatre, “Leģionāri” (Legionnaires) by Ģertrūde Street Theatre, and in the making of the artistic films like “Melānijas hronika” (the Chronicles of Melānija), as well as in many other projects.

Do you have to pay to use the collection?

The museum’s artefacts and reference materials –the database and photonegative index cards– can be seen free of charge. However, making copies of any items in the museum collection must be paid for (pricelist). If the materials are published it must be stated that the materials are from the collection of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Please contact the Museum's Collection department before visiting: tk@omf.lv