Compassionate Lithuanian Coastguard men

One of the tasks of the Lithuanian coastguard, besides being ready to fight enemy landings and to report enemy ships, was to prevent Latvian refugee boats from reaching the island of Gotland, 160 kilometres away, which could be reached in 12-14 hours by a fishing motorboat.

Later, however, the Lithuanian coastguards became good friends of the Latvian refugees and regretted their reckless firing during the reception of the refugees in the boats. The boat refugees who took refuge in the vicinity also had to be wary of the Soviet "Red Arrow" militia unit that was on the rampage here, which not only robbed civilians, but also killed one Lithuanian coastguard and wounded another on the Jūrkalne coast in December 1944.

However, news of the Lithuanian coastguard's assistance to Latvian refugees and the Lithuanians' own preparations to cross the sea to Sweden also reached the Germans.

On 10 January 1945, the soldiers of the 1st Company of the 5th Lithuanian Police Battalion were gathered in the old dispensary building in the Market Square of Pavilosta to give them a rest, but in reality they were disarmed and surrounded by German gendarmerie units by deception. More than a week of interrogation and trial followed, which, as a warning to the others, decided to execute seven Lithuanian soldiers and imprison 11 more of their comrades in concentration camps in Germany. The execution of the seven Lithuanian soldiers (Sergeant Macijauski, the company commander; Juozas Sendrjuas, a soldier; Vladas Salickas, a soldier; Ionas Bašinskis, Krasauskas and two unknown others) took place on 21 January 1945 in the Zaļkalns Pines in Pavilosta.

It was possible to talk about them openly only almost half a century later, when, on the initiative of Edīte Biģeles, a member of the Pāvilosta branch of the Latvian Popular Front, Pāvilosta residents, together with the Liepāja Lithuanian Cultural Society, cleaned up the Zaļkalna Forest burial site in 1994 and installed a white grave cross for the soldiers who were shot here. Ten years later, the student unit "Austrums" installed a special road sign with the inscription "Cemetery of Lithuanian Brothers of the Coast Guard (1944-1945). Shot for helping Latvian refugees", cut a stile and marked the path from the seashore to the gravesite of the Lithuanian soldiers with posts.

For several years now, encouraged by Irina Kurčanová, the director of the Pāvilosta Museum of Local History, the people of the museum have been cleaning the site every spring, giving all who wish the opportunity to lay flowers and remember the Lithuanian Coast Guard soldiers who were executed more than 70 years ago for their help to their neighbours, the Latvian boat refugees to Sweden.