Eduards Alperovičs, who later called himself Edward Anders, was a sensitive spirit, a true intellectual, a warm-hearted person whose German – his mother tongue – remained flawless even after decades in the USA, bearing only a soft Baltic inflection. Eduards was an outstanding witness of the century to German-speaking Latvian Jewry – a world extinguished during the Nazi occupation between 1941 and 1945, (probably) the last survivor from the Baltic seaport city of Libau (Liepāja).
Eduards grew up in a wealthy family and experienced a carefree childhood in independent Latvia. “When Stalin brutally invaded Latvia – my homeland – in June 1940, I was one of many Latvian patriots who were alarmed by this perfidious aggression. On June 14, 1941, I narrowly escaped deportation to the USSR. But a few days later, when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and quickly drove the Red Army out of Latvia, I was one of 90,000 Latvian Jews suddenly facing death. The Holocaust began with a bang. Jews were shot by the dozens, hundreds, and thousands…” – including his father and 24 other relatives. Through a ruse, he and his mother survived until they managed to escape to the German Reich in 1944. After 1945, Eduards studied chemistry in Munich as a Displaced Person and supported the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials. In 1949, he emigrated to the USA and became one of the world’s most important meteorite researchers. After the changes of 1989/90 and the regaining of Latvian independence, Eduards committed himself to a dignified remembrance of the murdered Jewish children, women, and men of his hometown. He saw himself as a bridge-builder between past and present, between Jews and non-Jews. Above all, he was concerned with a balanced view of the role of his Latvian “compatriots” during the Holocaust. In 2011, his autobiography was published in English in Riga, which the Memorial Foundation released in German in 2024 as part of its eyewitness series. Eduards meticulously proofread and found himself in the translation. The publication in his mother tongue was a significant, important event for him and the foundation, as was the presentation together with H.E. the Latvian Ambassador Alda Vanaga and the reading by Sylvester Groth at the Hessian State Representation on June 6, 2024. Until the end, he kept leafing through his book.
Yesterday, on June 1, 2025, Eduards passed away near San Francisco, three weeks before his 99th birthday.
The Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Berlin mourn with gratitude, affection, and pride for a great personality and a powerful voice against forgetting. Our thoughts are with his children Nanci and George in these difficult hours of pain and loss.
»Tolerances un tiltu veidošanas noskaņā« Edvarda Andersa nekrologs
Eduards Alperovičs, who later called himself Edward Anders, was a perceptive thinker, a true intellectual, a warm-hearted person whose native German language remained flawless even after decades spent in the USA, with only a soft Baltic accent. Eduards was an outstanding witness to the German-speaking Latvian Jews – a world destroyed by the Nazis from 1941 to 1945 – possibly the last survivor from the Baltic seaport city of Liepāja.
Eduards grew up in a wealthy family and experienced a carefree childhood in independent Latvia. “When Stalin brutally invaded my homeland Latvia in June 1940, I was one of many Latvian patriots alarmed by this criminal aggression. 1941. On June 14, 1941, I narrowly escaped deportation to the USSR. But a few days later, when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and quickly drove the Red Army out of Latvia, I was one of 90,000 Latvian Jews suddenly facing death. The Holocaust began in an instant. Jews were shot by the dozens, hundreds, and thousands…” – including his father and 24 other relatives. He and his mother managed to hide and survive until they managed to escape to Germany in 1944. After 1945, Eduards studied chemistry in Munich as a displaced person and provided support for the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials. In 1949, he emigrated to the USA and became one of the world’s most important meteorite researchers. After the upheavals of 1989/90 and the restoration of Latvia’s independence, Eduards was determined to honor the memory of the murdered Jewish children, women, and men of his hometown. He considered himself a bridge-builder between past and present, between Jews and non-Jews. However, he was mainly interested in a balanced view of the role of his Latvian “compatriots” during the Holocaust. 2011. In year, his autobiography was published in English in Riga, which the Memorial Fund for Murdered Jews in Europe released in German in 2024 as part of the contemporary witness series. Eduard meticulously proofread the translation and relived his life through it. The publication in his native language was a significant event for him and the foundation, as was the book presentation together with H.E. Latvian Ambassador to Germany Alda Vanaga and Silvester Groth’s reading at the Hessian State Representation on June 6, 2024. He continued to look into his book until the end of his life.
Yesterday, June 1, 2025, three weeks before his 99th birthday, Eduard passed away near San Francisco.
The Memorial Fund for Murdered Jews in Europe and the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Berlin mourn with gratitude, love, and pride the loss of an outstanding personality and a powerful voice against oblivion. In these difficult hours of pain and loss, our thoughts are with his children Nancy and George.
