A project is underway in Zedelgem to preserve what remains of POW camp 2227 there. It will be a monument to both Flemish and Latvian soldiers who died on the Eastern front.

There are also plans to publish a history book about the camp and the town and the historical events that surrounded it.

We were contacted to assist in translating some of the materials in their collection (diaries, notebooks with poetry,...) and have been given permission to put those up on our web site as well.

We’re not poets, so any suggestions you have on our translations are welcome. If you are interested, I can send you scans which need to be transcribed and translated. The first item we are working on translating is a notebook of poems which once belonged to Kārlis Cinītis (although it’s not clear he was the author), and which appears to be dedicated to Private First Class Kārlis Ģinters and Private Pāvils Ratnieks.

Finally, any information you might have on Zedelgem which you could forward to those working on this project would be greatly appreciated! For now you can send it to us, our Email addresses are on our home page. (I prefer not to publish other folk’s Email addresses unless they specifically say it’s OK. If and when that happens, that information will also appear on our web site.)

http://latvians.com/en/Exile/Zedelgem/envelope-ZB.php

Sorry, should have mentioned, the birthplace of Daugavas Vanagi. :-)

I believe my stepfather was there for a time, but then, I guess many men were held there at the time.  I have two items that he kept from those times, I think one of them is already on the website, namely the little book “A Day in Zedelgem”.

Sveiks, Ivar!

I plan to include “A Day in Zedelgem” on our site with a translation to English. It’s translated on the Zedelgem site--but not into English. I know I’ve seen it elsewhere--but only the scans. I would be glad to offer you the opportunity to provide a personal introduction for it on our web site when I get that far, if there’s anything you would like to share with the readers.

You mention having something else… has that been scanned/translated? (Can’t hurt to ask...)

Sirsnīgs paldies!
Pēters

at present, I’m not sure where these 2 items are, but I know that I certainly wouldn’t have thrown them away.

That said, I doubt whether the 2nd item is even any link to Cedelghema and also it is not very interesting, as it is someone’s attempt at a very basic dictionary, I can’t remember whether it is Latvian/English or English/Latvian, but it does strike the eye, as the covers seem to have been camouflage material at one stage!

When time permits, I will try to find the 2 items. I don’t know whether I can do much more, as my stepfather seldom mentioned his war experiences. I guess it was all too traumatic to relive by telling, especially to a young person (me) who (at the time) would have had no understanding of war.

I do know that he was all set to study medicine in Latvia when he was called up, so that must have been a huge disappointment, but again, he wouldn’t have been the only one in that predicament, I guess.

He never did get the chance to return to medicine study, then of course, was eventually captured by the British, worked in England for many years and then came to Australia where he became a clerk for ICI and by the end of his career was a company secretary (a very important position) for a small to medium size company.

If it is a dictionary then it was something that the Latvians printed in 1946 in the internment (DP) camps. They were pocket sized for easy packing during the many moves people made. I have 6 different ones from Latvian-English - German to Plain Latvian. I use them in reading old books for many a word has disappeared in the post occupation Avots dictionary.