Letters From Latvia - Nica 2nd of September 1947

Before I comment on the next letter in the series, I would like to thank those of you who commented on the posts and those who have contacted me on twitter and google+. I really appreciate the positive feedback I have been getting! At this stage most of it has been about this series of letters which makes the hole process of having them translated and publishing them here seem even more worthwhile.

If you have any latvian documents that you wish to have translated I can recommend the very helpful lady who is translating these letters for me. Not only has she translated the letters but she has also provided me with invaluable contextual backgrounds to many of them. For further enquiries please type the following address into you email client (I have posted the address as an image in order to reduce spam):

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click HERE.

This is the fifth letter in the series. There are quite a few themes covered in this letter. I sometimes forget  how patriotic my father and (as these letters show) my aunty were. Patriotism seems to fly under the conscious mind and it is often taken for granted that we love our country and/ or our ancestral land. I sometimes wonder if modern Latvians are so patriotic.

This letter also alludes to some of the hardships in Germany after the war. Of course we have to guess what was in Janis' letters to his sister Kate but we know from history that there was mass unemployment and malnutrition in Germany, at least partially due to the (understandable) industrial disarmament enforced by the allies at the time. Also a sign of the times is the 'letter counting'. This is a sign of the relatively unreliable postal service at the time which necessitated the writer stipulating which letter she was responding to in case another, earlier letter had been lost or delayed.

On a personal note, it is interesting to see just how much my aunty and I have in common even though we never met. Though, as a young adult she was unusually aware of her "childish inclinations and wishes", something that at my age I am only starting to become aware of.

Nica, 2.9.47Our dear Janis!
We received a letter from you again yesterday, which we had been waiting for so much and which gave us great joy again. So you are still in your old place and do not intend to look for new homeland, as others are apparently doing. But for a Latvian outside Latvia’s borders to look for a “homeland”, doesn’t that go against the heart of every Latvian? This must surely be just talk, and not for real. And in my opinion the heart of every Latvian will sooner or later call him back to his real homeland, Latvia. You might look for a living here or there, but a homeland? I am glad, brother, that you are standing firm in your heart against such thoughts, and know that I believe above everything in your true Latvian heart. -  Yes, you are not able to make full use of the best years of your life now and far from your homeland you have to carry the burden of  being in a foreign place and partly also of want. Such is the fate of our small Latvian nation – to live scattered throughout the world. We are faring incomparably better here, we are in our own country, each in our own home and we can shape our own lives. But thoughts of you, our countrymen, the strong young Latvian generation far away, won’t let us have peace in our hearts and we live in constant hope that they will be able to return to us – our sons to our country. Of course we, as well as you, have unshakeable hope that someday you will all return home and that then we will live a brighter, happier life. We are all waiting for you. Every family is preparing something for you, for your return. We have made a good   currant wine, which we will save for you. Although things are harder for us without you, we manage to do everything on the farm and we are happy, that we can cope and are strong. The threshing is starting here now. The hum of the threshing machine is a farewell song to a sunny summer. Yellow  dahlias  are flowering and many coloured asters, the apples are ripening. Yesterday we were at the Kaupelis’ to help with the threshing. Today I pickled the cucumbers, they grew well this year. Mum is shearing the sheep. Father has gone to the mill. – And dear brother, your suspicions of the man who is sitting next to me in the photo are not correct. He is our pastor, and we invited him because he knows a lot of people. You should have known that. But I really would not want a husband like him – old and fat. I feel (?) that you thought such a thing of me but it is funny too. I only hope that this letter will reach you quickly, so that you are not under such a wrong impression any longer. I can’t even imagine getting married yet. I still have quiet childish inclinatons and wishes. I still haven’t given up thoughts of studying, schooling, and still want to be young and free,   So, brother, your little sister doesn’t yet want.or  intend to get married, but to get engaged to an old gentleman with a big stomach and grey hair, that is not possible for me. But dear Janis, I will hold on to your wishes and advice quietly, until such a time when they might really be appropriate. But I am sorry, that you have perhaps been misled. But now that is cleared up. After the third letter we sent cards for you birthday and your Osvalds namesday and a letter on 12/7 with confirmation photos, after that on 30/8 and now today. In the letter which we (?) was also a letter for Janis from the Kaupelis. You might receive it later. From you 3 letters, 3 cards. I will be  waiting eagerly and once again, may God help you. Holding you in our hearts, mum dad, grandma and I, Kate.

Letters From Latvia - Nica 30 August 1947

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click HERE.

This is the fourth letter in the series. In the last letter Janis' sister and mother seemed a little upset with Janis' decision to marry while away from home - and while his girlfriend was waiting for him to return from war. This letter is quite brief, no new revelations, however the second half contains some information about life on the farm during the early years of the occupation.

When I read these letters, I sometimes wonder how much of them to publish on the internet. I'm not certain how Janis would feel about these private letters being made public. The last letter in particular seemed quite personal. This letter might not contain a lot of interesting information.  Up until now I have decided to publish everything. It is hard to know how important some of the minor details could be in piecing together some of the 'bigger picture'. There were probably thousands of Latvians in a similar position to Janis, and maybe tens or hundreds of thousands who were farmers during the occupation. In the end, it is the details that made my family -and Latvia - unique. To that end, I believe that the positives outweigh any negatives and it is important to publish as much as possible.

Nica 30 August 1947

Greetings, our dear, dear Janis!

Dear Janis, we have not written to you for a long time – we sent the last greeting cards for your birthday and your second namesday. The last thing we have received from you was the Janu day greeting.

Life after 50 years in Latvia: Part 2

Note: This is part two of a two part series, to view the first part click HERE. 

The following is from a speech which Janis CIRKSIS delivered detailing his experience as a Latvian returning home after 50 years of Soviet occupation. It was written in around 1997 so most likely a lot has changed since then. It is a deeply personal account of his experience and by no means is it intended to be indicative of a more general experience. Having said that, it does express many of the daily struggles of Latvians as they tried to reestablish their independence after 50 years of occupation.

The original document is written in a script font and thus I have had to transcribe it manually.  In order to publish something this week, I have decided to break it (arbitrarily) into 2 halves. As per usual, I would love to hear from you. In particular How do you think life in Latvia has changed since 1997?


Life after 50 years in Latvia: Part 2

One of my younger day lady friends, a retired schoolteacher, has suffered a stroke. She is unable to converse, cannot walk, and is restricted to bed in a place which use to be the main general hospital in Liepaja. Today these premises are in a deplorable condition. The care and medical attention in the ward where my friend is situated is tragically deficient. In comparison, living conditions of the old Latvian people in out Retirement Village in Melbourne would be considered by those in Latvia as “a paradise on Earth”.

Letters From Latvia - Nica 12 July 1947

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click HERE.

In this, the third letter in what promises to be quite a long series of posts Katrine talks about the home land. The culture, the festivals but significantly, the land itself. It is quite clear that the family has a strong connection with the land and nature, something that has been somewhat lost in modern times. I am reminded that the indigenous Australians believed that the land owned them (as apposed to people owning the land). I imagine that this belief would not have been totally foreign to Latvians up until the 1950s.

A sincere greeting from your homeland to you, Janis, in foreign parts!

Thank you so much, dear brother, for your good wishes  on my confirmation day, at which time we were apart, but in our thoughts we were together. Also for the Whitsunday greeting from the whole of what is now your family the most sincere thanks from us all.

In your few lines you again sent us happy news.

We wrote our last letter after Jani, and now after cleaning the house, I have a quiet moment in which my thoughts again fly to you, your life partner and her son, who are now your most real and best friends and with whom you can perhaps find  the homeliness of family in a strange place, so that your life is easier until you return to your homeland. We know that you are able to live a more or less satisfactory life, it is good that that is so and you are safe and well, but still that is not real life, in a foreign place, without your real home, without your homeland, and the road that in your thoughts will lead you back to the dear land of your childhood.   The only land in which you can be at home, and like an unmovable tree, which does not have to submit to the fury of winds, but which can grow and flourish and bring blessings to itself and humanity. You are not here in our midst, and yet you exist, live, work and fill your life with something until you can at last be in your real place, in your land. May God grant that your life there does not seem too empty and painful and that it actually is not so. May you as a living person be able to live a humane life and may you keep in health and strength and joy of living and faith in life. The only good thing that we can do for you is to fervently wish you this and to believe that it could be so. The day will come when after a long time of separation and absence, you will come home again, but when we meet we will not be the same as we were when we parted. We will have experienced and been through a lot and learned a lot and we will look at one another as If we had become strange and unfamiliar to each other but then we will be able celebrate your return and the beginning of a new, permanent life in which we will again feel like loving members of one family. I have no objection to you bringing back your wife and stepson, we will get to know each other and they will be like family too. If that is the happiness of your life and good fortune, if it cannot be otherwise in your wishes. Mum also says “I am happy as long as he is alive and well and comes home, even if like this.”

Katrine's CIRKSIS in her confirmation dress. 

Hay cutting time has started here now, we have already brought in some loads, the rest has been (?) and a bit still has to be mown. With the machines to cut and collect the hay we can manage easily. We are also all in good health. A hive of bees has settled in our big linden tree, today father carved out a hollow under it and cleared it out, to make more room for the bees and so we can reach to collect the honey in time. Next year, when the bees swarm, then the swarm can be caught into a beehive. So we have acquired bees, like a gift from God. Mum is in Liepaja today. She will bring back a new suit-dress for me, which will have been made for me. We wove the material ourselves in the winter. (PS I am enclosing photos of my confirmation)

Tomorrow Janis Reinis will be wed to Anna Lusens of Halva (?), and Alvina Ratnieks, who was at the Rutins’, to Fran(?) Pelnics. So life is shaped and rolls on. – Anna Kuskis has given the world another little boy – Janis, who was born right on Janu day. Tomorrow I am going to the pharmacist’s (female) sister’s confirmation, she has finished high school this year, will be confirmed in Liepaja and then will come here, to her sister’s, with her guests to celebrate.  I have started to attend the church choir. We will go to Ventspils at the end of July to sing, we have been to  Irvite (?)   But after that I won’t go any more. Half a day gone every Sunday. Enough. – So I am chattering on here all sorts of little bits and pieces, that make up our daily life, our life. Maybe they are for you sounds from your homeland. So I don’t want to limit myself and am relating everything. Last Sunday a group from Barta performed  their  oldtime christening  enactment  which won a prize in Riga in the amateur performance show. Also berry season will start soon. My new plots are yielding a bit already as well. A few raspberries are turning red, the cherries are pale red, and the currants too. We will conserve all the berries, while waiting for you to come home. We will be making wine too, for medicinal purposes. Well, my dear though distant, but so close brother, loving, sincere greetings from mum, dad, grandma and me to you all!  Kate 

If you like reading these letters, or if you know any of the people mentioned in them, why not post a comment below? Or you can message me on twitter @cirksis or Google +. 

Letters From Latvia - Nica 27th of June 1947

Janis CIRKSIS was a displaced person (DP) after the Soviet union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states during WWII. This is a continuation in the series of letters that he received from his homeland, translated into English. To see the other letters in the series click HERE

One obvious problem with this series of translations is that we only get half of the story - because I don't have a copy of the letters that Janis sent to Latvia. Perhaps they are out there somewhere but unless someone comes forward with them, I will have to speculate as their content.

It appears that Janis left a girl behind. We often hear of soldiers getting a 'dear john' letter in which their sweetheart has found another man. In this case John (Janis in Latvian) has written to tell his family to tell them he has married while abroad - leaving an awkward situation at home, with his girlfriend still waiting for him. On the bottom of this letter Janis' mother writes a short note, it is quite apparent that this has come as quite a shock to the family, least of all janis' girlfriend.

Also mentioned in the letter is the festival Ligo. Celebrated on the summer solstice, it is one of the most (if not the most) important national holiday in Latvia. You can find more information about Ligo here and here!

Our dear Janis in a distant foreign place,

We have received a letter from you again – a greeting for mother on Mothers’ Day June 21. It was very moving for us and especially for our dear mother. Janis, it is lovely that you can so feel the bright star of your mother’s heart over you in foreign parts, that you feel its light and can keep strong and sure in its light and guidance. And truly our mother has prayed and is praying to God, every morning and evening for you and us all. Her heart wants to stand guard over us. She has prayed for blessings for you, and now that you have started life together with your chosen life partner, she has faith that that too is perhaps a part of the blessing  that she has prayed for for you and will not cease to pray for, for you both, her son and her daughter-in-law. I think she will want to write a few lines herself in this letter. We have come to terms now with the change in your life and accustomed to it and do not feel as if we have been slighted by your actions, because you know what you are doing and you do not have to answer to others for it. In life many bad things are done for which their perpetrators should be ashamed, but we do not think that your choice could be any wrong doing. Vera knows about it now, although we avoid talking about it. All the talking is done by both mothers. But we think that Vera is able to forgive you. It is fate and she is not a mean person. But she is not thinking about getting married at the moment, perhaps she intends to stay unmarried altogether. She comes to see us with her mother and will continue to do so, the same as all this time – so she can show people that she has only been coming here in friendship to me and  for the sake of general good relations. We did not manage to keep the news private though, at least father did not consider it necessary not to tell his relatives and good friends and then why should they stay silent? They say also that Peteris Sapratis and (?) from the Lejnieks have told about it. But never mind, let them know. We consider that you are not to be blamed and maybe Vera “does not want you at all” any more.

So. Live happily with your wife. She might help you to bear the heavy weight of your exile, till you all return to your homeland to start a real life.

Dear brother, I wanted to write to you on Ligo night itself, but that was not possible. Vera came to visit with her friend, her schoolmate Zigrida, her “husband” as she calls her, and who has become our friend as well, because she has been here a number of times. In the evening all of us, including the forester’s Ilze, went to the forest for birch boughs, but on the way back there was terrific rain and thunder several times, so we were soaked. But the rain was warm and only made us laugh, we sang Ligo songs, even though the rain was driving into our mouths. This trip was for us the best part of the whole Ligo festival. We brought home birch and oak branches and wild flowers. We all went to the neighbours’ – to the forester’s place- to celebrate Ligo vakars, but as it still rained and the ground and grass were wet, then to our great regret no celebration was possible. We did not see other people lighting barrels either. But nevertheless the Ligo spirit was in our hearts and in all other houses as well and in all of our Latvian land, when Latvian people prepare for and celebrate our most beautiful and traditional festival, the Ligo festival. Old and young celebrate it. Then the sun gives us more of its light and warmth in our lives and the whole earth in its caress offers to us, its human children, its greatest splendour. Everything is green, ripening, flowering and fragrant. All the little flowers are blooming in the meadows and edges of the fields, the clover fields are in flower, the rye fields are rippling high and over the fields and meadows a vast and fervent Ligo rings from the hearts and mouths of the people. Joy and gratitude for the unchanging beauty of the land and of life, no matter what storms and shadows pass over it and over people’s lives. On that evening, our dear Janis, I wished you all the best from my heart, that you too might feel some joy and happiness, especially on this evening when in your homeland they sing Ligo. Perhaps you thought of the Ligo festivals you celebrated with your friends in your homeland, before we were separated by (?) life.

We all wish you and your wife a happy life together and a swift return to your homeland. And may your son Ilmars also not feel left out. 

With best, best wishes, Kate

PS We have received 3 letters from you and have sent you 2 letters, 3 cards and now this letter.

Dear son and daughter-in-law,

I send greetings to you in distant, foreign parts and wish you God’s blessing in your future life. What you have done was a big shock to me though, for it came unexpectedly, not dreamed of in my mind or my dreams. When we got your first letter, we hadn’t even had time to read it a second time when Vera was advised by telegram, for I know of your real good fortune, that you are alive and well, for all the talk here was about you being alive and well. Then when your second letter came, whatever I might say, it was a great mercy that Vera was not here with us. If we had not been driven out of our home, then of course Vera would have been with us, because that was your wish. And I have fulfilled it all, I did not abandon Vera even though we were refugees, we shared each mouthful, so that you could not reproach me that I did not fulfil your wishes. But now it is very much the opposite It caused me great anxiety, you will know that yourself. For my expectation was to see you come home alone and for maybe half a year not to give you back to the world, but to rejoice over you by myself as over a small child, to look after you and give you a mother’s care, after the perils you have been through. But now you have chosen a life partner for yourself in  foreign parts.  I still wonder every day if that really is your fate. Then once again best, best wishes from mammucite and I wish all three of you the very best and hope to see you come home soon.

Letters from Latvia

Janis CIRKSIS was a highly organised person. Thankfully, he was also a little bit of a hoarder. Along with all of the photos and other documents that he kept were several hundred letters from Latvia spanning from 1947 until the mid 1970s, all neatly arranged in chronological order in a file folder and well preserved.

A couple of months ago, I finished scanning all of these documents to PDF and I began making enquiries about having some of them translated.  A few weeks ago I received a translated copy of the first letter my father received from his family after WWII. I have always thought that these letters would contain invaluable details about  day to day life under Soviet occupation. What I hadn't expected was the amount of subtle information that speaks volumes - but that is for another post.

The translation has also finally revealed the author of the letters! Initially, because my grandmother and my aunt both had the same first and last names, I was unable to determine who had written the letters. Now I know that the first letter at least was from my aunt Katrine CIRKSIS. And here it is:

Our warmest greetings to you, our dear Janis!

You are so far from us, and yet we received a letter from you yesterday. We all cried while reading it. Such emotional joy, held-back pain, all together. The letter from you gave us such comforting joy, it seems to us now that we can more surely believe in life and face life with more cheerful courage. Even though you are so far from us, we now have such a sure feeling that family ties have not been severed. Although you yourself are not here, we feel that your thoughts often reside here. Mother and I feel that when we are thinking of you, then it seems that your thoughts too are close, hovering over your native fields.

The author of this letter Katrine CIRKSIS 

The news that you are alive and well we received from Valdis about the end of August. He came to us himself and told us about you. We had no doubt that you were alive, but still we were tormented by not knowing. Valdis and Peteris Kers  (Keris?) are now working in Riga, they come to Nica on Sundays. – The last letter from you we had received in April 1945, so this news is precious. It is now three years since we last met, but we still believe that the time will come for you to make your way here to the place of your birth, that we do not doubt.

Fate has destined us to endure much, but not as much as you, we think. Many young men have returned from Russia.

We are all fit and well, I can say that that is almost completely true even for myself. We returned home right after the capitulation. The buildings were all as they had been, only the threshing barn was destroyed and the inside of the granary.   Other people are in much worse circumstances. Of all the old animals, only Dukats is left. There is also a large German horse. The Pirtnieks gave us a cow. We are raising two calves and we have some pigs and sheep. We also saved all the clothes, yours and others. Everything had grown a good bit. So life is fast taking shape anew, we are just waiting to see both sons return home. Mother had jumpers knitted for all three, father and you two. Now we are weaving cloth as well. We manage to cope with the work. Father is strong. I planted cherries last spring at the end of the house, on the eastern side. It seemed a pity to let the seedlings perish. So we do the jobs that are fitted for each time of the year. But when you return, everything will go differently!

Give their parents’ love  to your cousin Janis if you can, to our neighbour Valdis from the estate. Both families are living at home and are safe and well. Might you know something about Jekabs Jurka (?). They know nothing about their son. I will be confirmed this Whitsunday, so my dear brother, you think of me too on that day. Sincere best wishes from the Sturmanis women (Vera is studying to be a teacher), the Pirtnieks, the Kaupelis, the Strautnieks. Our dear Janis far away! Stay well and strong, we will all meet again happily sometime!  The warmest, warmest greetings from us all –mother, grandmother, father and Kate!  The warmest, warmest greetings  from mammucite. (possibly other grandmother?)

If you need help translating Latvian documents, leave a comment below and I will arrange to pass your details on. Or you can contact me via twitter @cirksis 

The International Tracing Service: Following the bread crumbs

On the 18th of July last year I sent an electronic request to the International Tracing Service (ITS). For those who don't know what the ITS does I will quote from their website:

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen is a centre for documentation, information and research on Nazi persecution, forced labour and the Holocaust. It documents the fate of millions of victims whose names and memory are to be preserved. 

Janis survived WWII and he told me some information about himself and his brother however there are a lot of unanswered questions - questions I can no longer ask him since he has passed away. The ITS will provide information that they have on lost or deceased relatives who were victims of the NAZI regime.

I placed the request to find out more information about Janis CIRKSIS and his brother Peteris CIRKSIS. I am told that Peteris was shot by the Germans either in a case of mistaken identity or because he had been a communist - he decided to stay in Latvia when the Germans came because he was horrified by what the Russian communists did to the Latvian people. I also wanted to find out more about Janis' movements during and after WW2. Where did he go and what was it like there? Well the ITS has provided some answers for me!

CIRKSIS, Janis, born on the [redacted] 1924 in Nicas, nationality: Latvian, religion: Protestant, marital status: single, occupation: Engineer-mechanic, was on the 28th June 1948 in DP-Camp Barum, and emigrated on 24th  1950 from Bremerhaven aboard the ship "Anna Salen" to Australia, remark: ex Fallingbostel

This runs somewhat contrary to what I had initially thought: That Janis had been at Baltic DP camp Wohnheim which as far as I can ascertain was near Hallendorf (though the photos I have suggest that he may have stayed or at least visited there as well).

The ITS also provided me with a copy of Janis' Refugee/Displaced person statistical card.

Unfortunately, with regard to Peteris CIRKSIS the ITS "could not investigate any details within [their] documents". To me that was an ambiguous thing to say. Does that mean they don't have any documents relating to Peteris or that they do have documents but were unable to investigate them for other reasons?

On the bright side, they have send me a questionnaire so that enquiries can be made with the Latvian Red Cross. Perhaps they will be able to shed some light on what happened to Peteris CIRKSIS.