Memorial place for the members of J. Rozentals - J. Freimanis national partisan group in Iecava county
Memorial site
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The memorial site for the members of the Jānis Rozentāls – Jānis Freimanis national partisan group was established in 1996 in Iecava parish, on the site of the bunker of J. Freimanis' forest brothers' group. On the concrete base under a white birch cross, you can read the inscription "For the freedom of Latvia to the fallen national partisans" and the names of the forest brothers – Jānis Freimanis, Jānis Kāpostiņš and Laimonis Zīraks, who fell on January 11, 1950 in the former territory of Garoza parish of Jelgava district. Behind the monument, the site of the bunker is visible, but on the edge of the square there is a stand with information prepared by Bauska Museum historian Raits Ābelnieks about the national partisan group of J. Rozentāls and the Dūmiņš brothers, which operated in Iecava, Misa and Zālīte parishes in 1944-1947.
The Forest Brothers unit led by Jānis Rozentāls was formed in the summer of 1945, but by September it already had 11 partisans. This Forest Brothers group was active in the Iecava and Zālīte parishes of Bauska district, as well as in the Garoza, Salgale and Pēternieki parishes of Jelgava district. On August 13, 1948, the Chekists managed to kill the unit commander and his brother, capture three other partisans, but the remaining Forest Brothers of this group continued the fight against the occupiers under the leadership of Jānis Freimanis.
Used sources and references:
R. Ābelnieks. Forest Brothers' activities on the Iecava side // Bauskas Dzīve, 2007, February 5
R. Ābelnieks. Partisan war on the Iecava side // Bauskas Dzīve, 2007, February 19
R. Ābelnieks. Once again about the Iecava forest brothers // Bauskas Dzīve, 2007, March 5
R. Ābelnieks, A. Urtāns. The National Resistance Movement and the Counteraction of the Repressive Institutions of the Soviet Occupation in the Bauska District/District (1944 – Mid-1950s) // Papers of the Latvian Historians' Commission. Vol. 19: Occupied Latvia 1940-1990. Riga: Latvian History Institute Publishing House, 2007, pp. 370-391.
The Unknown War. The Struggle of Latvian National Partisans Against the Soviet Occupiers 1944-1956. 2nd ed. Riga: Domas spaks, p. 313.
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