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and to have sold the fragments to the Germans. In addition they are credited with having smashed the electric cookers in the kitchen and are said to have engaged in other forms of wanton destruction. They became so troublesome that Mrs. Shepe requested their removal and they were sent to Camp Hasenhecke in May from where they were repatriated not long afterward after having smashed up that camp quite thoroughly.
The military guards around the camp were frequently called upon to quell disorders in the camp and they proved a great help in maintaining order, but in May Mrs. Shepe organized a Camp Police force of 16 men. Possibly because of repatriation, the police forced disappeared on some date unknown and a new force was not created until October 1945.
Arrival of First Balts.
On May 26th, Dr. Makstenieks, a Latvian physician, and his wife and son, arrived with two Latvian nurses to work in the camp hospital.
A short time previously Junkers Camp had been inspected by Capt. Marye accompanied by Miss Rita Liepina, a Latvian DP then living and working in Camp Mattenberg (she later became an UNRRA Class II employee) who was looking for a camp for 29 of her compatriots living in a village theatre hall in Dittershausen who were looking for work. Capt. Marye was impressed by their interest in work rather than in food and lodging only and he took Miss Liepina on an inspection tour which included Furstenwald, Moncheberg, and three other small camps no longer in existence. They decided that Junkers camp was the best. One of this group arrived at Junkers on June 1st and eighteen mroe came the following day.
Captain Marye sent Latvians from nearby camps, and others came in of their own accord from villages in Curhessen when they heard there was a camp for Latvians. At that time, Mrs. Shepe was authorized to take in groups of persons not greater than ten in
number