Displaced Persons CampsLife Under UNRRA

Our families

It's likely we will ever be able to fully reconstruct our families' paths which eventually brought them to the United States. As mentioned, our wider relatives were scattered to never again be reunited.

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Baltic peoples not to be treated as Soviet citizens, not to be repatriated as such. Don't tell the Soviets. May 30, 1945, British National Archives

Baltic peoples not to be treated as Soviet citizens, not to be repatriated as such. Don't tell the Soviets. May 30, 1945, British National Archives

Baltic peoples not to be treated as Soviet citizens, not to be repatriated as such. Don't tell the Soviets. May 30, 1945, British National Archives

The Auniņš family—Hermanis, Lina, and Anda, arrives in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General Harry Taylor, August 23, 1950

The Auniņš family—Hermanis, Lina, and Anda, arrives in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General Harry Taylor, August 23, 1950

The Auniņš family—Hermanis, Lina, and Anda, arrives in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General Harry Taylor, August 23, 1950

Marija Roze with Heinrichs Baikstis arrive in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General M. B. Steward, June 9, 1950

Marija Roze with Heinrichs Baikstis arrive in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General M. B. Steward, June 9, 1950

Marija Roze with Heinrichs Baikstis arrive in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General M. B. Steward, June 9, 1950

The Vecrumba couple—Jānis and Irma, arrive in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General R. M. Blatchford, November 1, 1950

The Vecrumba couple—Jānis and Irma, arrive in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General R. M. Blatchford, November 1, 1950

The Vecrumba couple—Jānis and Irma, arrive in the Port of New York aboard the USNS General R. M. Blatchford, November 1, 1950

We have mentioned the preservation of culture as a unifier of purpose in DP life. One of Peters' fellow members, Mirdza, remembered having Peters' father as an art instructor. There were song days and festivals, as at Fischbach. As noble—even at times joyous—as that may sound, refugee life had its dark sides as well.

• Peters' parents fled twice, once down the Baltic to German-occupied Poland, settling in eastern Germany, then fleeing once more, westward, ahead of the Soviet advance. Riding back trails on their bicycles, pushing them uphill, Peters' mother's left arm went nerve dead—limp and useless. She eventually recovered its use through massages, hot compresses, vitamin injections..., and—largely—sheer force of will. Her doctor told her he had seen many such injuries in war. But there was not a single mention in the medical literature of anyone having ever recovered. And when food ran short in the camps, Peters' parents were derisively told to "eat grass."
• Silvija's father, then a strapping young teenager, was accosted by American GIs who asked his name. "Heinrich," he answered. They took him for a German, slit his throat and left him to die. But that wasn't even the worst consequence of having a German-sounding name.
• Peters' (eventual) godparents, Atis and Ērika, had fled with their two sons, Andris and Juris, and infant daughter. She fell ill in the camps and died. A nurse sobbed in grief when she found out that just because the baby's parents' names sounded German—Otto and Ērika Grunde, it did not mean they were German. Their daughter had been poisoned in "retribution" against the Nazis.

Little wonder our parents and wider circle of Latvian friends had no desire to speak of fleeing their homeland or of their years spent as refugees. We hope to piece together and share at least some parts of that past so as for it to not be forgotten.

In the meantime, in further researching the DP-era cookbook handed down in our family, a bit of background on Flensburg.