If I could have dinner with anyone who ever lived, I would pick Olga Rozentals. Olga is the central character in this whole family story. She is related by either blood or marriage to just about every family line. She also had one of the longest lives, within a family full of tragedy and premature death. She was described by my husband’s grandmother as ‘a grand lady’. I feel like she was the glue that kept all branches of the family together through events so horrific I cannot even begin to imagine living through them. She saw more change, modernization, conflict, tragedy and uncertainty in her 68 years than almost anyone else I know of.
Olga was born in 1895 in the countryside of southwest Latvia near the local village of Zaļenieku. Her parents were Latvian peasants Kristap Rozenvalds & Anna Smiltnieks. She had an older sister, Emilija, and a younger sister, Anna Zelma. Olga’s father, Kristap, was a step-brother to the father of famous Latvian playwright and activist, Elza Rozenberg – better known by her pen-name Aspazija (see my website dedicated to Aspazija’s family history here).
Olga’s parents weren’t satisfied with the peasant farming life and by the turn of the 20th century the family were transitioning to life in the city of Riga. Olga spent the next 15 years living with her family in the industrial neighbourhood of Iļģuciems, on the western bank of the Daugava River. She worked at one of the large textile factories in the area, probably the “Rīgas Tekstil”, where she developed the skills of a seamstress that would serve her for the rest of her life.
In 1913, her older sister, Emilija, married Žanis Zekants. This marriage was the beginning of a close and enduring connection between these two families. In 1915, Žanis died, leaving Emilija with a newborn baby (also named Žanis). Tragically, in 1917 Emilija also passed away. After spending the years of WWI and the Russian Civil War (1915-1921) as a refugee and volunteer with the anti-Bolshevik White Army, Olga was faced with helping to raise her orphaned nephew (Žanis Jr., who become my husband’s grandfather).
In 1927, Olga married a first cousin to her late brother-in-law named Andrejs Blezurs (born Kristapsons). They were married at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church. Olga gave birth to their son, Valdis, just nine months before her husband’s untimely death in 1929. Olga, now a widow with a baby of her own and her teenage foster-son/nephew to take care of, also provided for her widowed and ailing father, Kristap, until his death in 1935.
In December 1939, Olga and her nephew (now an adult) took in a border named Willi Droune. Willi was a divorced father of two sons who had a history of drinking too much and seemed to have had little to do with his children. By the start of 1940, the world was at war again. Latvia was still independent but rumours were flying. When it was clear that the Soviets would make a move to invade Latvia, Olga knew she had to leave. With her background as an enemy of Communism during WWI, she must have been scared to death that she and her son would be targets.
Olga and Willi, who was a Baltic German, were married on the 15th of June 1940, the day the Soviets invaded. I believe this must have been a marriage of convenience. As a Baltic German, Willi was eligible to relocate back to the ‘Fatherland’ on Hitler’s orders. As his legal wife, Olga would also be eligible to leave. This must have been Olga’s only way to ensure safety for her and her son.
Olga and Valdis left Latvia forever on the 10th of July 1940; her second, but not her last, time fleeing from the Soviets. Willi followed them in March 1941. They first went to German occupied Poland and the on to Germany. Unfortunately, tragedy was about to strike again. Young Valdis died on the 17th of July 1941. His death record does not record the cause of death but it is highly likely that it was from disease.
Between 1941 and 1945, Olga and Willi lived in the eastern German region of Thuringia. After the war in Europe ended, Stalin was given this area as part of his ‘sphere of influence’. This hand-over occurred in July 1945. So four years to the day since the death of her son, Olga found herself once again fleeing the Soviets. I don’t know under what pretext they were able to leave but we know they moved to Bonn where they lived the rest of their lives. Willi died in 1960 and Olga in 1963. After Olga’s death, her brother-in-law, Hans Droune, took care of her funeral and must have sent a few personal items to her nephew, now known as John, living in Australia. A handful of these precious photographs have come down to us today.
Willi and Olga were buried in North Cemetery in Bonn, Germany.
