The miraculous escape of Lieutenant-Colonel Eduards Graudins from being shot
In November 1944, a court-martial of the German occupation authorities sentenced 8 staff officers of General Kurel's group, three staff officers were pardoned for various reasons. The lieutenant colonel managed to escape from being shot, but Graudiņš was "trampled" by the German concentration camp system
On the night of 19-20 November 1944, a court-martial of the German occupation authorities was held in the Liepaja Karosta prison, sentencing to death eight staff officers of General Kurelis's group, three staff officers were pardoned for various reasons.
Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Graudins was married to a German-White woman and they had two children, a son and a daughter. In the late 1920s he divorced and his ex-wife and their two children emigrated to Germany in 1939. The son was conscripted into the German Armed Forces and served in the elite "Grossdeutschland" division. He was killed in action in the late summer of 1944. When the trial took place, the ex-wife wrote a request for pardon on the grounds of her son's service. Eduard Graudins was sent to Stutthof concentration camp and died in February 1945 when it was evacuated.
GRAUDINS EDUARDS Son of Peter
Captain of the Independence Company. Cavalier of the Order of the Knights of the Order of the Knights of the Order of the Latvian Knights of the Order of the Latvian Knights of the Knights of the Order of the Latvian Order of the Knights of the Order of the Polish Armed Forces (LKOK)
Order of the Latvian Legion of Merit awarded in 1921
Colonel - Lieutenant Eduards Graudiņš: War of Independence, State of Latvia, Stutthof Concentrations | Sargs.lv
https://www.sargs.lv/lv/vienibas-un-personibas/2011-02-17/pulkvedis-leitnants-eduards-graudins-neatkaribas-kars-latvijas
LKOK nr.3 / 878: Graudiņš, Eduards www.lkok.com/detail1.asp?ID=476
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Part of this is a myth. I am Eduards granddaughter from his second marriage. His first wife had two daughters and a son who died in a German tank division, he was about 17 years old at the time. There is no way his first wife could have heard about the military court, let alone attended or delivered a letter, as she was in Poland. The "court-martial" (which was obviously illegal as the Kurelieshi were not part of the German Army) was an ambush. He was arrested at a 'meeting' and tried and condemned the next day. We have letters he wrote from prison before and after the 'trial'. He had 3 children with his second wife who was near Talsi during the trial, followed to Stutthof but was unable to contact him there. She migrated to Australia. His first wife's family migrated to America. We don't know why he wasn't shot at the trial, but there was no letter.