Janis Dimitris

German displaced persons camp building, 1946.

Scrapbook information about Latvian military honours and awards, collected by Janis Dimitris.

Alfreds and Paulina Dimitris with their daughter, Cesis, Latvia. Circa 1927.

People at the Spakenberg displaced persons camp, Germany.

Paulina and Alfreds Dimitris on their wedding day in Cesis, Latvia, 1919.

Alfreds Dimitris in a Latvian Riflemen military uniform, circa 1917. In WWI the Russian Imperial Army conscripted Latvian men to its anti-German initiatives in the Baltics. These men became the United Latvian Riflemen Division of the Russian Imperial Army. Under the leadership of the Russians this Latvian division suffered heavy losses. Because of these grievous losses many Latvians became sympathetic to the anti-imperialist, Bolshevik sentiments.

Schoolchildren in Riga, Latvia, 1940. Janis Dimitris second from left, back row.

Paulina Dimitris and her daughter walk down a Riga street in 1938.

Alfreds Dimitris, Latvian soldier.

Paulina Dimitris with her children and extended family in front of the family home in Cesis, Latvia.

Dimitris family portrait, Riga, Latvia.

Military portrait of ethnic Latvian Alfreds Dimitris.

Latvian students leaving their school. Circa 1940.

Alfreds Dimitris, age 93, Canada.

Students continued their education in German refugee camps.

The Dimitris family, circa 1949. Janis on far right.

Message to Paulina Dimitris from her military husband Alfreds.

Janis "John" Dimitris with his Boy Scout troop in the Geestadth displaced persons camp, Germany, 1946.

Map of buried household goods and treasures drawn by Alfreds Dimitris prior to the family's flight from Latvia. It was the hope of many Latvian families that at the end of the war they would return to their homes and property. Many families buried their valuables and memorized the location of these items or drew maps to remind them later, working towards the hope that everything they had worked for would not be lost.

Janis "John" Dimitris and friends in a German displaced persons camp.

Map of the Spakenberg displaced persons camp, Germany.

Janis Dimitris celebrated his confirmation in England.

The cart that carried the necessities of the Dimitris family from their home to a Latvian port.

Paulina Dimitris, midwife and RN.

Paulina Dimitris with her children and extended family, Latvia, circa 1935.