Vili Friš lived in Riga. In July 1941, German troops occupied the city. A few weeks later, Friš had to move into the ghetto. He lived there under difficult conditions, witnessing numerous coordinated murders. He planned to escape from the ghetto, helped by his acquaintance Emīlija Ābele. When she found a hiding place for Friš in the fall of 1943, he fled the ghetto along with another man.
They hid in a concrete water container in a Riga garden. However, the container was very cramped and cold, so they needed somewhere else to hide. Ābele put them in touch with Jānis Lipke, who helped persecuted Jews. Lipke took Friš to the Rozentāls family in Miltiņi. Later, Friš stayed on the Mežamaki farm near Dobele with the siblings Jānis, Lidija, and Elza Millers. Friš built an underground bunker there for himself and other people in hiding. In July 1944, German soldiers and Latvian collaborators found and shot dead four Jews hidden at Mežamaki. Friš survived because he was in Dobele at the time. After the war, he married Emīlija Ābele.
Vili Friš (1st from right) with Emīlija Friša (with small child on her lap) and presumably other relatives, Riga, 1950s. Source: Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls, Riga
Emīlija and Vili Friš, Riga, 1950s. Source: Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls, Riga
