Šķēde is a suburban settlement near Liepāja

Liepaja

Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...

, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

, in Medze parish

Medze parish

Medze parish is an administrative unit of the Grobiņa municipality, Latvia. The parish has a population of 1558 and covers an area of 109.2 km2.- Villages of Medze parish :* Ievkalni* Kapsēde* Medzes muiža* Piņķi...

. It is located on the north border of the city. Šķēde was the biggest dacha

Dacha

Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...

 cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

 in Latvia in the times of Latvian SSR

Latvian SSR

The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Latvian SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the Soviet Union. Established on 21 July 1940 as a puppet state during World War II in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Latvia after it had been occupied by...

. One of the Šķēde's notable features are street names, which are called "lines" and numbered from 1 to 18. Typical Šķēde addresses look like: Šķēde 1-15-2. Until 2005, the main Liepāja landfill

Landfill

A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...

 was located near Šķēde. Šķēde is also known because of proximity to Šķēde shooting range

Shooting range

A shooting range or firing range is a specialized facility designed for firearms practice. Each facility is typically overseen by one or more supervisory personnel, called variously a range master or "RSO – Range Safety Officer" in the United States or a range conducting officer or "RCO" in the UK...

 , the training center of Latvian army.

Šķēde is known mostly because of the activities involving the Nazi Liepāja massacres

Liepāja massacres

The Liepāja massacres were a series of mass executions, many in public or semi-public, in and near the city of Liepāja , on the west coast of Latvia in 1941 after the Nazi occupation of Latvia. The main perpetrators were detachments of the Einsatzgruppen, the Sicherheitsdienst or SD, the...

in 1941.The main perpetrators were detachments of the Einsatzgruppen, the Sicherheitsdienst or SD, the Ordnungspolizei, or ORPO, and Latvian auxiliary police and militia forces. Wehrmacht and German naval forces participated in the shootings. In addition to Jews, the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators also killed Gypsies, communists, the mentally ill and so-called "hostages". In the memory of this event, a memorial stone has been installed in the dunes near the settlement.