Refugee boats from the coast of Kurzeme to Sweden
Activities and memorial sites of the Ventspils Communications Group of the Central Council of Latvia , dedicated to the secret refugee boat operations from the coast of Kurzeme to Gotland in Sweden.
What the tour includes
One of the most significant achievements of the Latvian resistance movement during World War II was the organization of illegal refugee boat movements from the coast of Courland to Gotland.
Thanks to the activities of the Latvian Central Council (LCP), illegally established in Riga on 13 August 1943, more than half of the approximately 4,500 Latvian refugees were allowed to reach Sweden by the end of the war. The illegal boat movement became particularly massive in August 1944, reached its greatest intensity in September-October, and continued with less success until the capitulation of National Socialist Germany on 8 May 1945.
From January 1944 to March 1945, 37 boat trips to Latvia were made with the support of the Swedish Defence Staff Office C, and from June to September 1944, at least 18 boats financed by the US War Refugee Council set out to pick up refugees from Latvia. 2,077 refugees arrived in Sweden privately, while 2,541 people arrived as a result of boat trips organized by the LCP.
The route was prepared in collaboration with the National Research Program project "Archaeology of Independence: New Approaches to the History of National Resistance in Latvia" (No. VPP-LETONIKA-2021/2-0003) and the Latvian Occupation Museum project "Popularization of Evidence-Based Information about Events in Latvian History". The implementation of the event is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture .