The chief subject of the book is, of course, its author Melanija
Vanaga. Melanija was a Latvian born in 1905. She was 36 at the time
the Communist occupying force arrested and deported her and her
family. At that time, she was journalist, farmer and mother. Her
husband, too, was a journalist.
The translator, Maruta Voitkus-Lukins, Melanija's junior by 34
years, could well have been on the same train that took the Vanags
family to exile. Maruta's family, however, heeded the signs of
foreboding during the time of the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact, and
managed to insinuate themselves out of occupied Latvia just before
the June 1941 deportations. Maruta received a thorough grounding in
Latvian culture at a Displaced Persons' camp in Germany, sponsored
by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association. Her
family subsequently immigrated to Canada. Equally at home in
Latvian and in English, she felt called upon to translate and
self-publish this documentary, in the same spirit that her school
mate, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga answered the call to become President of
Latvia (1999-2007).
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