Prison in the Livonian Order Castle during World War II
Museum

Several members of the LCP Ventspils communications group and refugee boat operators were detained in the prison established in the Livonian Order Castle in 1944-1945.

Memories of the boatman Žanis Fonzovs: “Two boats left Sweden - “Krīvs” and “Zvejnieks”. I was on “Zvejnieks”, and the crew included Saulīte and Grunti. [..] The weather was beautiful, I was sailing so inconspicuously, not very high. I immediately saw - I was in Morse code. The boat was approaching. I went down to the engine room, because in addition to Saulīte's papers, I also had letters from the arrivals to relatives in Latvia and the collected weapons in a bag. I threw the letters and papers into that bag of weapons and everything overboard.. What then! The boat approached ours and the Germans asked for our driving permits. [..] So on October 21, the Germans took us with the entire “Zvejnieks” to Ventspils. They took us to prison. There were about 30 people in the room. I had a sheepskin coat on my back, I put it on the floor and put it on myself, but I had not slept last night. On the second or third day, they called us out for questioning. We had agreed to say that we were refugees on our way to Germany. I had just wanted to go to Lielirbe to follow my friend. It seems that they believed us then. [..] But then the situation in Ventspils changed: the city was taken over by the military administration, and we were called in for questioning a second time. It was worse, because they showed us a box of Swedish matches and a piece of kroon that were allegedly found on the boat. One of the interrogators was a Latvian, and he even beheaded us for telling the whole truth. We saw that the fairy tale had ended, we simply had to confess.