The janitor Robert Seduls lived in Liepāja with his wife Johanna and their daughters Indra and Irīda. In July 1941 German troops occupied the city. Shocked by the mass shootings of Jews in Liepāja, Seduls promised his Jewish friend David Zivcon to help him in an emergency.
When deportations began in October 1943, David Zivcon escaped from the Liepāja ghetto with his wife Henny and another couple. Seduls took the escapees in and hid them in the basement of the apartment building where he was a tenant. He took in more people at risk over the next few months. A total of eleven Jews lived in cramped quarters, with no daylight or running water. It was difficult and dangerous for the Seduls family to provide food for them all, and they were under constant threat of discovery.
Robert Seduls was killed by shrapnel in March 1945. His wife Johanna continued to take care of the people in hiding until their liberation.
Johanna and Robert Seduls were honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1981.
David Zivcon and Roberts Seduls (left to right) in the basement hiding place, Liepāja, 1944. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
The hidden Jews Riva Zivcon, Henni Zivcon, and Hilde Skutelski (1st, 2nd, and 4th from left) with their rescuers Robert Seduls and Tonija Pļūkše (3rd and 5th from left), Liepāja, 1944. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
The building where they hid in the basement, Liepāja, 2015. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
