The 19th-century synagogue in the southern Latvian town of Akniste has become a firefighting depot. An older synagogue, with wooden vaulted ceilings, is now a community center, and another synagogue has been turned into a church.

After the Latvian Jews who owned, managed and frequented the buildings were killed during the Holocaust, the state took them over. But now, 80 years later, the Latvian Jewish community will be reimbursed for hundreds of buildings that were appropriated during the war and never returned.

The Latvian Parliament has given final approval to an award of 40 million euros (about $46 million) to the Latvian Jewish community to “eliminate the historical unjust consequences” resulting from Holocaust activities, according to a news release that was reported in The New York Times.

            In 1940, the Soviets invaded Latvia and nationalized Latvians’ properties. Shortly after, Nazi Germany occupied the country and killed 90% of its 93,000 Jews — 25,000 of them in a two-day mass shooting in the Rumbula forest.

“This award cannot bring back a destroyed community or a destroyed synagogue,” said Gideon Taylor, a chairman of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, one of the main promoters of the bill. “But what it can do is recognize what happened, and this is why it is important.”

[Pictured, synagogue is now a firefighting depot.  Museum Jews in Latvia/The New York Times]