The last birthday celebration of Kārlis Skalbe on the Kurzeme coast
On November 7, 1944, a bright mood was brought to the Latvian refugee settlement on the Kurzeme coast by the commemorations of the poet Kārlis Skalbe’s 65th birthday in the “Laukgaļi” in Jūrkalne. Just four days later, Kārlis Skalbe set off by boat to Sweden as a refugee. It was the day when Kārlis Skalbe celebrated his birthday for the last time.
“In the grey everyday life of refugees, an unforgettable, bright experience was the commemoration of the 65th birthday of poet Kārlis Skalbe in Jūrkalne’s “Laukgaļi”. Painter Niklāvs Strunke had already started preparing an address for the poet’s 65th anniversary on November 7 in “Grīnieki”. His work was not easy – small, dark fishermen’s rooms, and there was always movement, crowding, noise around. [..] On November 7, the entire refugee family, both individually and in groups, visited the beautiful jeweler for Latvia – the great poet Kārlis Skalbe. No valuable gifts were presented, as sometimes would have happened and would have been appropriate under other circumstances, no eulogies were given, however, each greeter brought the great jeweler the warmth of his Latvian heart and some little thing useful for the refugees’ daily needs. The sick poet (he was suffering from kidney disease) with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson Andrejs had a separate small room in “Laukgaļi”. The darkness of the autumn evenings was dispelled only by the tip of a candle. An engineer and an agronomist had jointly brought a bottle of kerosene as a gift.
FJ Šteinmanis. Ventspils Communications Group - “Swedish Ships”. Ventspils 700. Collection of Writings and Memories, Toronto, 1990, p. 126.
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"Laukgaļi" house, writer Kārlis Skalbe's place of residence
"Laukgaļi" in Jūrkalne parish, the writer Kārlis Skalbe's place of residence in October-November 1944, while waiting for the refugee boat to Sweden.
Memorial sign for refugees "Sail of Hope" in Jūrkalne
The "Sail of Hope" commemorative sign for the World War II refugees who crossed the Baltic Sea by boat to the island of Gotland in Sweden in 1944 and 1945. The memorial is located in Osvalki on the dunes between the sea and Ventspils-Liepaja highway, near the public transport stop "Kaijas". It was created by sculptor Ģirts Burvis, who realised it as a sail of hope symbolising the memory of Latvian refugees.
Between autumn 1944 and spring 1945, fearing the renewed Soviet occupation but unwilling to evacuate to a devastated and threatened Germany, some Latvian citizens tried to reach the nearest neutral country, Sweden, by sea. Some of the boats were organised by the Latvian Central Council with the help of the Western Allied countries, which resulted in one of the largest refugee concentration points in Jūrkalnes parish. Besides the boats organised by the Latvian Central Council, other boats were also taken across the sea. It is estimated that about 5000 persons managed to cross the sea. The number of deaths is unknown, as no records were kept of refugees leaving the Kurzeme coast.
The voyages were dangerous because the refugees were threatened by German patrols on the coast and at sea, sea mines, Soviet aircraft and warships, as well as storms, as the crossings often took place in unsuitable and overloaded cutters and boats without sufficient fuel and food supplies, sea charts and navigational instruments. Departures from Latvia were carried out in secret. The destination of the boats was the island of Gotland, and the journeys most often started on the west coast of Courland (from Jūrkalne to Gotland is 90 nautical miles or about 170 kilometres as the crow flies).
Prison in the castle of the Livonian Order during World War II
1944-1945 in the prison set up in Livonia Oden Castle. In 2010, several members of the LCP Ventspils communication group and the movers of refugee boats were detained.
The road to "Grīnieku" houses in Vārve parish
The road to the "Grīnieku" house in Vārve parish, where in 1944 there was one of the main settlements of boat refugees on the coast of Kurzeme.
Memorial sign for refugees "Sail of Hope" in Jūrkalne
The "Sail of Hope" commemorative sign for the World War II refugees who crossed the Baltic Sea by boat to the island of Gotland in Sweden in 1944 and 1945. The memorial is located in Osvalki on the dunes between the sea and Ventspils-Liepaja highway, near the public transport stop "Kaijas". It was created by sculptor Ģirts Burvis, who realised it as a sail of hope symbolising the memory of Latvian refugees.
Between autumn 1944 and spring 1945, fearing the renewed Soviet occupation but unwilling to evacuate to a devastated and threatened Germany, some Latvian citizens tried to reach the nearest neutral country, Sweden, by sea. Some of the boats were organised by the Latvian Central Council with the help of the Western Allied countries, which resulted in one of the largest refugee concentration points in Jūrkalnes parish. Besides the boats organised by the Latvian Central Council, other boats were also taken across the sea. It is estimated that about 5000 persons managed to cross the sea. The number of deaths is unknown, as no records were kept of refugees leaving the Kurzeme coast.
The voyages were dangerous because the refugees were threatened by German patrols on the coast and at sea, sea mines, Soviet aircraft and warships, as well as storms, as the crossings often took place in unsuitable and overloaded cutters and boats without sufficient fuel and food supplies, sea charts and navigational instruments. Departures from Latvia were carried out in secret. The destination of the boats was the island of Gotland, and the journeys most often started on the west coast of Courland (from Jūrkalne to Gotland is 90 nautical miles or about 170 kilometres as the crow flies).
"Bambaļi" houses - one of the main places of accommodation for boat refugees
The restored "Bambaļi" houses in Ošvalki, Jūrkalne parish, were one of the main places of settlement for boat refugees on the coast of Kurzeme.
