Johanna Novicka grew up in a farming family with six siblings in Eleja. In 1920 she married the dock worker Jānis Lipke and the couple moved to Riga. During the German occupation from the summer of 1941, Johanna Lipke helped rescue persecuted Jews.
Johanna Lipke’s husband Jānis and other helpers smuggled Jews out of the Riga ghetto and labor camps. They housed them in an underground hiding place on the Lipkes’ property, and in vacant buildings in Riga and the surrounding area. Johanna Lipke and her sons Alfrēds and Zigfrīds made sure the people in hiding had enough to eat. Johanna Lipke had to take the risk of obtaining most of the food on the black market, since food was rationed and large purchases were not possible by legal means. She also farmed more animals than the occupying powers permitted.
The Lipkes and their group of helpers hid a total of 44 Jews, most of whom survived. In 1966 Johanna Lipke and her husband were honored as Righteous Among the Nations.
The Lipke family, left to right: Alfrēds, Johanna, Zigfrīds, Aina, and Jānis Lipke, Riga, 1930s. Source: Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls, Riga
Johanna and Jānis Lipke in the center of Riga, 1940s. Source: Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls, Riga
Johanna and Jānis Lipke (front row, 2nd and 3rd from left) with some of the Jews they rescued, Riga, late 1940s. Source: Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem
Johanna and Jānis Lipke shortly after their wedding, Riga, around 1920. Source: Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls, Riga
