The Cirksis Family

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 . For more information on Latvian translations please see the  Latvian Translations  page. This is the 17th Letter in the series.  PS Greetings from old Mr Meiers) Nica, 5.8.49 Very loving greetings from home! We received a letter from you again, dear Janis, about which we were again so very happy, for we had been waiting for a long time. But now we know that they won’t come so often and we don’t worry in vain about why you are not writing. Thank you so much for the letter and the greeting cards for Whitsun and Jāņi! You have such pretty, typically Latvian postcards there. I am glad that it is possible for such cards to be made there. – I haven’t written to you for ...

While I have been making regular posts on this blog thanks to the Letters from Latvia series , I have also had a few other pots on the boil. I thought that this week I would take the time to post an update on the progress of my other projects. Yesterday I finally received another letter from the ITS regarding the fate of my uncle Peteris Čirkšis. You may remember from my last post on the topic  The International Tracing Service: Following the bread crumbs  that the ITS had replie d that they  "could not investigate any details within [their] documents" and that the Latvian Red Cross might be able to help. I filled out  their   questionnaire for the Red Cross and sent it back to Germany.   For some reason, I had been thinking that I might  receive  a response from them yesterday and when I got home from work, I went straight to my desk to check for it. To my excitement, the letter was there!  Finally , I thought I will be able to answer so...

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 ...

Edit: New information from the International Tracing Service suggests that the photos contained in this post may actually be from Barum DP Camp in approximately 1948. If you are able to confirm this or otherwise identify the location pictured, please leave a comment below and I will amend the captions. I have been busily scanning photos and documents for the past several weeks so unfortunately I haven't been updating this site as much as I would like. On a positive note, just as I think I have nearly scanned everything, I find more documents and photos. This meaning that once I have finished scanning, I will have a heap of material to post from. In the mean time I will try and post a few bits and pieces as I scan them. Unfortunately, because I am busy scanning at the moment, I won't have much time to research and write about what I post so my intention is to update some of these posts in the future as more information comes to light. In the mean time here are some photos f...