Lasmanes Sisters – The Story

REMEMBER YOUR LOVED ONES!

On June 14th, 1941, two sisters, Rita Lasmane and Sarmīte Lasmane, were deported together with their parents. Rita was 10, but Sarmīte only 5 at the time. Ādolfs, their father, was imprisoned in Vyatka GULAG camp of the Kirov Region (now in Central Russia), while sisters along with their mother, Alīse, were sent to the Novosibirsk region further in the East. In 1946, the girls were able to return to occupied Latvia together with a group of children who had lost their parents during deportation.

Mother, preparing her daughters for the road to Latvia, sewed dresses and a scarf from a burlap fabric  so the girls would have decent clothes to wear in their new lives. Only the youngest of sisters, Sarmīte, got the scarf because of the lack of the fabric for another one. Both girls set off dressed only in these durable but simple dresses, they had no underwear or socks. At the moment of their return to occupied Latvia, their new dresses and hair were full of lice…

Both parents, Alīse and Ādolfs, were able to return to Latvia in 1957.

We kindly invite you to contribute to keeping the memory of your loved ones, family members and friends alive by remembering the first mass deportation of Latvian citizens on June 14th, 1941. If you donate in the memory of a specific person, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia will take care of honoring the name of the mentioned person.

Thank you for your donation — every one of them helps to uncover and preserve both historical and personal stories.

Link to donations page is HERE.

ABOUT PICTURES

Rita (1931–2017) and Sarmīte (1936) Lasmane Riga County, 1938.

Dresses and a scarf made from sack cloth belonged to the sisters Rita and Sarmīte Lasmane, who were deported from Latvia on  June 14th, 1941  and returned in 1946.

Rita and Sarmīte Lasmane on April 8th, 1947, in Latvia after their return from forced resettlement. The photograph was mailed to their mother in Siberia.

From Collection of Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.