In December 1941, SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Lange was appointed commander of both the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in German-occupied Latvia, officially known as Generalbezirk Lettland in Reichskommissariat Ostland.

The site near the town of Salaspils was chosen as it was readily accessible from the main railway connecting Riga and Daugavpils, the two largest cities in Latvia.

In February 1942, Lange was a participant in the Wannsee Conference where the final plans for the extermination of Jews in Europe were established by the Nazi leadership.

[3] The 30 hectare site was surrounded by a double barbed wire fence with guard towers at the corners, which were equipped with searchlights and machine guns.

By the end of 1942, Salaspils held mainly political prisoners, including those who had originally been incarcerated at the Riga central prison without due process under "protective custody orders", interned foreigners such as Latvian returnees from Soviet Russia whom the Nazis considered politically suspect, and Latvian collaborators who had committed routine crimes without permission.

Around 12,000 prisoners went through Salaspils during its existence, of which about 2,000 to 3,000 people died due to insufficient accommodation, poor sanitary conditions, lack of nutrition, and severe cold weather.

Starting in 1949, legal proceedings were brought against some of the persons responsible for the Nazi crimes in Latvia, including the Riga Ghetto, and the Jungfernhof and Salaspils concentration camps.

The memorial included an exhibit room, several sculptures and a large marble block by architects Gunārs Asaris, Ivars Strautmanis [lv], Oļģerts Ostenbergs [lv], in 2004, thanks to a donation by Larry Pik, a former prisoner at the Salaspils concentration camp, a separate monument to commemorate foreign Jews who died there was erected.

The monument bears the Star of David and an inscription in Hebrew, Latvian and German: “To honour the dead and as a warning to the living.

In memory of the Jews deported from Germany, Austria and Czechia, who from December 1941 to June 1942 died from hunger, cold and inhumanity and have found eternal rest in the Salaspils forest”.