Memorial site "Bitāna Bunkers" Memorial site
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Located in Mālupe parish, Alūksne municipality.
The memorial stone was unveiled on October 13, 2017. Stonemason Ainārs Zelčs.
On August 24, 1945, in Latgale, in the Dubna forests, the Latvian National Partisan Association (LNPA) was founded with the aim of restoring the 1918 Republic of Latvia. For better coordination of the activities of the partisan groups, regional headquarters were established. The national partisan groups operating in the Beja, Mālupė, and Mārkalne parishes united in the “Priedolaine” sector. The regional headquarters was headed by Jānis Liepacis. Propaganda departments were established in each regional headquarters. One of these, commanded by Jānis Bitāns, was established in the forest massif of Mālupė parish. Here, in the bunker, from 1946 to 1948, five press publications of the Latvian National Partisan Association were printed: “Mazais Latvis”, “Liesma”, “Auseklis”, “Māras Zeme” and “Tautas Sargs”. The Alūksne Gymnasium youth resistance movement “Dzimtenes Sili” was involved in the preparation and dissemination of information.
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In 2015, the head of the politically repressed club “Sarma” in Alūksne and Ape regions, Dzidra Mazika, and the club members, updated the research on the activities of the participants of the national resistance movement in Alūksne and Ape regions. As part of this cycle of events, the sites of partisan activity were investigated, photo and video recording was taken, eyewitness memories were recorded, these sites were cleaned up, memorial sites were created and opened. Active participants in the research on the activities of the National Resistance Movement were: Dzidra Mazika, head of the politically repressed club “Sarma” in Alūksne and Ape regions; historian Astrīda Ievedniece, veterans of the 31st battalion of the National Guard and Chief Juris Ločs, as well as the Alūksne region municipality.
