Foundation “The Children of Siberia” has published a new book “Mothers in Siberia”. The book contains interviews with mothers and their children deported on June 14, 1941, fragments of interviews from the memories of children deported on June 14, 1941. In 1941, the children taken to Siberia asked me to publish a book about Mothers. Latvian women, who from a prosperous life, from a prosperous home, ended up in the filth, filth, narrowness, hunger, and cold of Siberia. In chiffon dresses, mothers went to cut trees in the taiga, returning to their huts in the evening with worn-out clothes. Mothers gave the meager ration of bread to their children and starved to death. On June 14, 1941, 15,424 Latvian residents were deported from Latvia. Deportation greatly affected women – being separated from their husbands, taking all care of children, parents. They had to fight for physical survival with all possible means, far away from the usual environment, raise children, be able to create a sense of family, survive many physical and moral hardships. suffering – loss of husband, also children. Research by psychologists shows that the traumas caused by deportation leave
traces and are passed on to the next generation.
In 1946, when orphaned children were allowed to be sent to Latvia, some mothers committed suicide so that the children could return to their homeland. In 2000, when we started looking for and interviewing Siberian children, we still met some mothers, this book contains their memories. What surprised me the most was the suffering, the pain that had been experienced and was able to remember it without bitterness and malice.
More than 80 years have passed, memories are fading, time is running and there are calls to forget it sooner. Then suddenly war in Ukraine. History repeats itself, fathers have been killed, families destroyed, children deported again. That is why this book is needed. Lest we ever forget…
Eternal memory for Latvian Mothers.”
Māra Eidukas (quote from the book) “Mum was working in the forest, she left this food for us, but it happened that other children ate our food. I got sick… For a month, on my way to work, my mother waited in terror to see if I would be alive when she came home from work. Mom said – it’s better if misfortune comes without knowing, because it’s terrible to go through it. I’m sick from hunger”
Hélène Lacone (quote from the book): “I was 34 years old when I was deported. I work in a collective farm, digging a cellar. There were older wives. I dug up a lot of earth, on the third day I only worked in the corner with a shovel, I was sick. I wanted to earn. We were given a ration of bread. There was a hospital nearby, I went in for treatment. I was investigated. I was all messed up. I wasn’t allowed to do hard work anymore”
Margrieta Silenieks(Otaņķe) (quote from the book): “We believed that we would be together with our husbands. We saw that there were no husbands when we left… We asked, of course , but the communists had their own answer – they didn’t know where our men were.”
The book is published by “Children of Siberia Foundation”, it can be purchased by ordering on the website https://sibirijasberni.lv/shop/product/mates-sibirija/ or by phone 28647939, we also send by mail and to your home. The book can also be purchased on site at the studio in Zaķusala, LTV building, tel. 28647939 or 29273016.