In the 1920s, Jānis Lipke was a dock worker in Riga and took part in underground communist activities. He lived on an island in the River Daugava with his wife and two children.
During the German occupation of Latvia at the end of 1941, Jānis Lipke worked in the German Luftwaffe depot. He witnessed thousands of Jews being driven from the Riga ghetto to mass shootings outside the city. Jānis Lipke decided to help the Jews left alive in the ghetto. He found about 25 allies to support him.
Lipke and his network helped Jews to escape from the ghetto and labor camps, and hid them in Riga and the surrounding area. The first person Lipke rescued was his friend Chaim Smoljanski. The two men dug an underground hiding place behind the Lipkes’ house. Lipke’s wife Johanna and their sons made sure the people in hiding had enough to eat.
The Lipkes and their group of helpers rescued a total of 44 Jews, most of whom survived the war. In 1966 Jānis Lipke was honored by the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Center Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.