Beside the ruins of the Great Choral Synagogue on Gogoļa Street, a monument to Žanis Lipke and other Latvian rescuers of Jews was unveiled on 4 July 2007. The ribbon was cut by President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and Jewish community leader Arkādijs Suharenko; the site itself was where, on 4 July 1941, the synagogue burned with people inside. The monument was meant to record the known rescuers — people who, under occupation, risked their lives to hide others and lead them out of the death zone.

The location was not accidental: the monument stands beside ruins tied in Latvia’s public memory to the beginning of the Holocaust in Riga. The story of Žanis and Johanna Lipke lets the same site speak about rescue as well as destruction.