The road to the "Grīnieki" house in Vārve parish Trail

The road to the “Grīnieki” houses in Vārve parish, where in 1944 one of the main settlements for boat refugees on the Kurzeme coast was located.

Memories of boatman V. Jurjakas: “Entering the “Grīnieki” yard, everything looks very normal. A quiet country house, not a soul, probably people in the sun. [..] It turned out that not only the “Grīnieki” residential house was full of people, but all the buildings were full. The barn, the granary, the hayloft and the bathhouse. I met one or two acquaintances, because it was time to leave our land. [..] The nutritional situation was not critical, but quite poor. [..] In the evening, the refugee caravan began to move towards the seashore. I warned everyone in advance not to come out of the bushes by the seashore, because there were coast guard dugouts and observation posts nearby. It was a large caravan, because about 200 people were going to the seashore. There was no hope that everyone would arrive on time. The evening was not very dark, and I was able to review the activities of the entire group. The most striking were the large "When people lived in "Grīnieki", they didn't see them, but now, when they were brought into the light, they only saw this. The goods alone required a whole boat. 3-4 two-horse carts were loaded with goods, followed by people. [..] We waited for the boat for a long time, but it didn't come. The whole caravan had to turn back. It was very dark."