National Partisan Resistance Movement in Selia
III National Partizans

Today, the former Susėja parish house houses the Sanssouci residence center. The facade of the building still bears traces of the attack left by bullets fired by national partisans during the attack on July 7, 1945.

The former Susēja parish house, which at that time functioned as the local executive committee of the Soviet occupation authorities, suffered an attack by the Sēlija national partisans on July 7, 1945. The attack on the Susēja executive committee was part of a wider national partisan campaign and took place simultaneously with the attacks on the Vilkupe butter factory and the house of the destroyer Kaunackas.

According to the instructions of the commander of the Susėja national partisan group, Albert Kaminskis (1920-1946), the Forest Brothers were to destroy the security of the local executive committee, take weapons, militia uniforms, documents and damage telephone communications. About 17 Forest Brothers under the leadership of the Lithuanian partisan commander Jozas Kuveikis participated in the attack on the Susėja executive committee. The battle lasted 15-20 minutes, one Lithuanian partisan fell during the firefight, and on the other side - a fighter of the destroyer battalion Jānis Kakarāns. During the firefight, the windows of the executive committee were broken and the telephone was damaged.

The second attack on the Susēja Executive Committee took place on July 16, 1945, when a prolonged firefight took place between the Forest Brothers and fighters of the destroyer battalion who had sought refuge in the Executive Committee building. During the battle, a group of Soviet soldiers came to the aid of the latter, who opened machine-gun fire from the flank and forced the partisans to retreat. At least five Forest Brothers and five destroyers fell in the battle. The attacks on this administrative object of the occupation power confirmed the nature of the armed resistance of the partisan war and were a warning about the people's resistance to the Soviet occupation power.

The Susēja national partisan unit was formed from smaller fragmented forest brotherhood groups, because initially there was no leader who could unite them. For a short time, Artūrs Grābeklis tried to coordinate the activities of the Susēja partisans, and later Markejs Gorovņovs, who fell in the winter of 1945. The Susēja national partisan unit was strengthened after the former legionnaire Alberts Kaminskis arrived in Courland, Sēlija, after the general capitulation of Germany. He established stricter discipline and united smaller groups for a joint fight against the Soviet occupation power. Cooperation was also established with forest brotherhood groups from nearby parishes and areas, especially with the Gārsene group and Lithuanian partisans who had settled on the border of Lithuania and Latvia.

In the early stages of the armed movement, it is clear that the Forest Brothers were not prepared for attacks, unable to occupy either the Kaunacki farmstead or break into the building of the Susėja executive committee. The partisans suffered losses and were unable to resist the Cheka troops for a long time, and the main method of fighting was to think about retreating in time. There was also a problem with the supply of the partisans. Despite the existing difficulties, the Susėja national partisan unit was still able to actively resist the Soviet occupation power in the first post-war years. This partisan group ceased to exist after the fall of its commander A. Kaminskis on May 14, 1946. This was also followed by the legalization of several Forest Brothers, as well as joining other partisan groups.

The monument to the national partisans of the Susēja company was opened on November 11, 1997, at the initiative of Gunārs Blūzmas, a researcher of the history of the national partisans of Sēlija. Next to the names of the fallen Susēja national partisans, a text is carved into a roughly worked boulder under the sign of a cross: “On the head of a hedgehog, I ordered you to protect your father’s land.” The monument mentions those who fell in the attack on the Susēja executive committee on July 16, 1945 - Jānis Grābeklis (1923-1945), Ādolfs Rācenis (1919-1945), Broņislavs-Arvīds Bīriņš (1919-1945) and Edgars Ērglis (1920-1945), and later the names of the murdered Līna Kaminska (1917-1945) and Albert Kaminskas (1920-1946) were added. The monument is missing the names of Arnolds Dombrovskis (1923-1945) and other national partisans who were active in the Susēja national partisan groups and who fell in 1945-1946.

The national partisan war, which continued in Latvia until the mid-1950s, did not pass by Sēlija region, where the Pormaļi brothers' partisan group "Vilkaci" had been actively operating in the Seces and Sēlpils parishes since the autumn of 1944.

The Pormaļi Brothers National Partisan Group was formed in the fall of 1944, when Paulis and Jānis Pormaļi, as part of the German army counterintelligence group "Zeppelin", crossed the front line near Koknese and crossed the Daugava, returning to their native Sece parish, Jēkabpils district.

In February 1945, partisans prevented the arrest of landlord Kļavinskis by attacking a group of Chekists near the Vīgante School, captured and sentenced to death the director of the Seces Motor Technical Station, Kārlis Tauriņš, who had actively participated in the deportations of June 14, 1941, and after returning from Russia, again threatened Latvians with deportation to Siberia.

In the summer of 1945, partisans also turned against the Soviet-organized logging of the Seces forests, repeatedly shooting at gunpoint workers assigned to forest work, led by the local Communist Party organizer Turčins. Damage to railway tracks and agricultural machinery was also widespread, sabotaging threshing. On national holidays, partisans hung self-made Latvian national flags in the highest places.

The Pormaļi brothers' partisan group also published several issues of the illegal newspaper "Vilkaču Sauciens" in the forest.

The Soviet security authorities had even announced a reward of 10 thousand rubles for the surrender of the Pormaly brothers.

On August 11, 1946, as a result of betrayal, the Chekists surrounded the Pormalys brothers in the home of the local forester. Paulis left the house through the back door, but Jānis managed to escape by running through a rye field into the forest.

On October 16, 1946, the Chekists managed to lure the leader of the partisan group, Pauli Pormali, into a trap, and he fell near the "Taimiņi" house in Sece parish.

On August 8, 1948, the Baltic War District Military Tribunal sentenced Jānis Pormālis to twenty-five years in prison. He spent eighteen long years in Soviet slave camps in Vorkuta, Taishet, and Mordovia, and was only able to return to Latvia in 1965.