Blog Posts

    Jonathan Boldt and I caught up yesterday for a smoak and to reflect on the first week of the Charles Peterson memorial GoFundMe. The campaign had raised 8% as of last night, but Jonathan is optimistic and believes these are early days. We contacted Sandra Bondarevska, whom you know from earlier posts as the author of Petersons in Ireland, and who was the first to attempt this memorial several years ago. We wanted her to be involved with this not only as the author of the definitive biography but as representative of the Latvian-Irish diaspora and Latvia in general. She has asked that we incorporate the Auseklitis, the emblem of Latvian national unity and their heritage:   Jonathan will talk with Mr. Berlin, who is making the monument for the project, about the additional cost, but honestly, when you look at the spreadsheet, it won't add very much to the project. I will, incidentally, clean up the initial post this coming week to make everything clear when visitors are referred to what we're trying to accomplish. We also went over the questions and comments received both on the blog and by email: I don't understand why the body and the monument can't be together. What does it mean that the "grave has been re-issued in 1955 and 2013"? I was trying to wrap my mind around "cenotaph" and failed to understand. Does this mean there will be a headstone with no body? What is the "nearly lost record" that was recovered? Jonathan: There has been some misunderstanding on the project's core objective. I'll try and explain the situation regarding burials here in Germany and where we are at this point. As opposed to the United States, where grave plots are bought and owned by the families of the deceased, in Germany grave plots are given out by the cemetery in the form of a lease for 25-year periods [a common practice in many countries, as it turns out]. Charles Peterson was buried in 1919. In 1944 when the original 25 year lease ended, the hostilities of WWII  prevented cemetery officials from contacting Charles Peterson’s children Conrad and Isolde. His cousin Konrad had returned to Latvia, which was then under Soviet domination, so that Konrad wouldn't have been able to help either. Conrad Peterson, RAMC Mark: Conrad (b. 1904) served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in North Africa. I’ve learned through Sandra Bondarevska that after his discharge, he lived in Great Britain, and married a nurse he met in hospital for his PTSD, from which he never really recovered. Isolde—or “Soldie” as her family and friends called her (b. 1911), was in Éire. Neither would have been able to receive correspondence from Ohlsdorf Cemetery. Jonathan: The Ohlsdorf Cemetery Park archives unfortunately have no records between 1919 and 1955, when the plot was leased to another family. In 2013, it was leased to a third family.  It was by good fortune or grace or whatever you want to call…