I have been trying to get an interview with the head of the Human Trafficking Unit at the State Police since November. Finally I just decided to e-mail again and in true Latvian fashion he said is tomorrow OK and gave me the address of his office. Thats when I realized that the interview was going to take place in the former KGB Headquarters that is now a Police Station on Stabu iela in Riga. The building hasn't been refurbished at all and I learned through the course of the interview that they were actually moving out at the end of the month because the building that used to be a hotel during independent Latvia was being given back to its previous owners. It was truly eerie walking around in a building that so many people had been killed or murdered in. As I sat in his soundproof office I kept thinking that the faded paint spot on the wall might have held a picture of Lenin and that the office I was sitting in was probably used to question enemies of the state. I really think that they should turn the building, at least the bottom floors, into a museum honoring those that died..but of course it will just probably lie vacant because who would want to live in the former KGB headquarters anyways.
The Memorial to the Victims of Communism on Stabu iela
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