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 18th Letter in the series.  A long break between this letter and the last and how things have changed for both Janis and Kate and the family in Latvia! The family farm had been seized by the Soviet government and turned into a collective farm. It would take about another 50 years before the family could claim part of their hard earned land back - and give it away again to a deserving family as it turned out. Will the Cirksis family ever return to Latvia? Who can say - certainly Janis would never have guessed where life would take him! Again we are confronted with the mystery of ...

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 16th Letter in the series.  It is worth noting that in 1949 Kate still believes that Peteris CIRKSIS may still return home. It is a puzzle I am yet ot solve: Where and when did Janis find out his brother's death? I never asked him for any  details  about it. All I was ever told was that Peteris was shot by the Nazis. I had always assumed either he or a family member witnessed this event but it seems not... Nica, 2.2.49 “Let the storm rage, let the north wind howl, Only upwards, upwards will go my road!” Sincere greetings to you, dear brother far away! ...

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 15th Letter in the series.  Nica, 4.5.48 A loving and sincere greeting to you far away! Our dear Janis, we received your letter on 30.2 and that was a great joy to us again, for we had not received any news from you for so long, for two and a half months. We wondered if you had moved and were not writing because of that, or if something bad had happened to you. I wrote my last letter in the middle of March and would have liked to write again in April, but I decided to wait in case your address had changed. But we were so happy again now, for on receiving your letter we kn...

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. The 12th instalment of the Letters from Latvia series is a little soapy. It deals mostly with Janis' breakup with Vera (the girl at home) and his decision to marry Lidija. This appears to be a little less scandalous now that Janis has apparently explained the circumstances of their breakup.  The themes to the letter are interesting but even more interesting to me is the subtext. If we look at this letter, and the other letters more broadly we may notice that Katrine's language is deeply philosophical and somewhat poetic. I can't help but think that...

Neskumsti meitene - Don't be sad, girl. In this series, I have been posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father.  The book is titled Bakset of Songs: Let our Songs Ring out,  Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp  December 1945 . It is also labeled with my father's initials J Č. Click on the following link : Basket of Songs to view the rest of the series. Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the  Letters from Latvia  series has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes inv olved. T he songs individually over the coming weeks and where I can, I will link to a performance of the melody. At this time, I won't be posting full translations for most of these songs -the Leters from Lativa series will be taking priority. Song 2 in the book is titled: Neskumsti meitene - Don't be sad, girl. Don’t be sad, girl, that I have to go away. Remember our times together. If you ar...

Let our Songs Ring Out! J Č Brussels Prisoner-of-War Camp December 1945 In this series, I will be posting pages from a hand written song book left to me by my father. Actually I never knew it existed until he died so I never had to opportunity to hear many of these songs. Ilze, who has been doing an incredible job of translating the Letters from Latvia has been kind enough to provide a translation of the song titles and a summary of the themes involved. Music has always been an important part of Latvian culture. I say it a lot and it is mentioned in may of the letters my father received from Latvia but it really can't be overstated. I did a quick google search and I was pleased to find that this isn't the only songbook to survive the post WWII POW camps. www.latvians.com has an introduction to the Zedelgem POW camp here and they have preserved another Latvian Songbook here .  I will be posting the songs individually and where I can I will try to post a ...

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 letter has a little bit about farm life, postage times, there is  a brief mention of Peteris - we still do not know what happened to him - and Vera - Janis' ex-girlfriend. No real  revelations  as yet but I have been reading ahead and there are some very interesting things to come! Nica, 24.10.47 We send you sincere greetings, our dear Janis, from your homeland. Dear Janis, I am writing a letter to you again, so that it may bring greetings from your Homeland to you in foreign parts, so that even for a moment it may seem closer to you and more attainable, and so that...

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. Love, life,  mortality, pride, this letter seems to have it all.  Again, part of the story (the letters from Janis and Lidija) appears to be missing. From what I know of the conditions in the DP camps, they were difficult. Employment was scarce and many people were starting to think about moving to a better life in Canada, America the UK or Australia. For most of the people in the camps returning home to Soviet occupied Latvia would have meant risking being deported to the gulags (labour camps in Siberia).  It appears however, that in Kate's view, some Latvians "have given over to l...

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...

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 rec...

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 inte...

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 r...

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 wh...

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 app...