A diary written in 1945 by a Latvian boy named Valdis Fomenko,
later translated to English by his niece Lyndian Dowling.
First sent to Dachau and later to the slave labor camp Herzog-Sagemulle, Valdis began documenting his family's saga under Nazi rule immediately after their liberation by American and allied forces.
THE JOURNAL
OF
VALDIS FOMENKO
An account of daily life in a
liberated Nazi concentration camp
from a diary written by Valdis Fomenko in 1945
Translated from Latvian to English by
Lyndian Dowling in 2009
320 pages 16 color plates 14 black and white plates
Available in a limited edition
BLACK FAUX LEATHER HARDCOVER BINDING
Available in a limited edition
BLACK FAUX LEATHER HARDCOVER BINDING
$29.95 + shipping
To order, please email:
This memoir was reviewed in the Latvian newspaper,
The Latviesu Biletens in November 2009
The following is an English translation of the article.
To view the original article in Latvian please go to
http://www.biletens.com/
(select BILETENS ADOBE PDF, click on Novembris 2009, scroll to page 15)
The following is an English translation of the article.
To view the original article in Latvian please go to
http://www.biletens.com/
(select BILETENS ADOBE PDF, click on Novembris 2009, scroll to page 15)
New Memoir Book
(article by Astra Moora, November 2009)
"In these times, would a boy keep a diary? In some instances, that diary could become a testament of time. Valdis Fomenko, about fifteen to sixteen years old at the time, wrote about his family’s fate through many daily journals, which lay safe but forgotten for many years in a closet. A little over ten years ago he rediscovered it and showed it to his sister Gaida’s daughter, Lyndian Dowling, who then translated the text and made it into a book.
The Fomenko family from Rabbit Island in Riga were taken to Germany, first to Neuminster, and from there to the concentration camp in Dachau. They believed that their final hour had come. But inexplicable good fortune befell the family, and once more it was proven that good deeds are rewarded. They were saved by a German who had lived in their home on Rabbit Island during the war.
The Fomenko family was then taken to a labor camp near Schongau. With the war ending, and being moved to a displaced persons camp, Valdis began writing from September 29, 1945 until the end of the year in great detail about everyday happenings - about life together with many other nationalities in close quarters, and whether you liked it or not being accepting of it. About the crooked camp administrators, the never-ending hunger from the meager portions doled-out, fights with other boys, and simple pleasures too - trips to the movie theater, checker tournaments, playing the accordion, and traveling to nearby cities. Also in the camp blooms his first love. With deep sadness, Valdis often remembers his happy childhood in his beloved Latvia. In the first years of their exile almost everyone believed that certainly they would be able to return. Valdis also writes that he is diligently studying the English language every day and still hoping that Latvia will once more have its independence. After some time the family is relocated to a camp in Altenstadt, where the living conditions were more tolerable, and Valdis began learning in school. Understandably, the exiled people celebrated November 18th, Latvian Independence Day, practicing to perform a show in celebration. The next move for the Fomenko family was Kempten, and the last entry in the diary is May 1st, 1946 - still always waiting, not knowing about the future, hoping, that maybe still there could be a miracle.
His diary is decorated with drawings, pictures of Riga, and postcards from places in Germany, but his most precious possessions are the dried autumn leaves picked years before in Riga which he has pressed between the pages …
At the back of this English translation book are more photographs of the family. Valdis emigrated to Canada, his brother Arturs along with his wife Jadviga, daughter Dzidra, and German-born son Juris, and also his sisters Vera and Gaida - emigrated to Southern California. Vera had married an American soldier in Germany. Helena Hoffman remembers how Arturs often played his accordion at the Hermanson building on dance evenings.
Valdis Fomenko writes in his daybook, that in Latvia he was a boy scout, and his mother had bought him a scout’s Rover hat which he would never be able to wear. Later he had other hats - being just eighteen years old he put on his head the heavy gold miner’s helmet, and after that the Canadian 8th Provost Military Police hat, Canadian 4th Intelligence Corps hat, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hat, and the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue hat.
(article by Astra Moora, November 2009)
"In these times, would a boy keep a diary? In some instances, that diary could become a testament of time. Valdis Fomenko, about fifteen to sixteen years old at the time, wrote about his family’s fate through many daily journals, which lay safe but forgotten for many years in a closet. A little over ten years ago he rediscovered it and showed it to his sister Gaida’s daughter, Lyndian Dowling, who then translated the text and made it into a book.
The Fomenko family from Rabbit Island in Riga were taken to Germany, first to Neuminster, and from there to the concentration camp in Dachau. They believed that their final hour had come. But inexplicable good fortune befell the family, and once more it was proven that good deeds are rewarded. They were saved by a German who had lived in their home on Rabbit Island during the war.
The Fomenko family was then taken to a labor camp near Schongau. With the war ending, and being moved to a displaced persons camp, Valdis began writing from September 29, 1945 until the end of the year in great detail about everyday happenings - about life together with many other nationalities in close quarters, and whether you liked it or not being accepting of it. About the crooked camp administrators, the never-ending hunger from the meager portions doled-out, fights with other boys, and simple pleasures too - trips to the movie theater, checker tournaments, playing the accordion, and traveling to nearby cities. Also in the camp blooms his first love. With deep sadness, Valdis often remembers his happy childhood in his beloved Latvia. In the first years of their exile almost everyone believed that certainly they would be able to return. Valdis also writes that he is diligently studying the English language every day and still hoping that Latvia will once more have its independence. After some time the family is relocated to a camp in Altenstadt, where the living conditions were more tolerable, and Valdis began learning in school. Understandably, the exiled people celebrated November 18th, Latvian Independence Day, practicing to perform a show in celebration. The next move for the Fomenko family was Kempten, and the last entry in the diary is May 1st, 1946 - still always waiting, not knowing about the future, hoping, that maybe still there could be a miracle.
His diary is decorated with drawings, pictures of Riga, and postcards from places in Germany, but his most precious possessions are the dried autumn leaves picked years before in Riga which he has pressed between the pages …
At the back of this English translation book are more photographs of the family. Valdis emigrated to Canada, his brother Arturs along with his wife Jadviga, daughter Dzidra, and German-born son Juris, and also his sisters Vera and Gaida - emigrated to Southern California. Vera had married an American soldier in Germany. Helena Hoffman remembers how Arturs often played his accordion at the Hermanson building on dance evenings.
Valdis Fomenko writes in his daybook, that in Latvia he was a boy scout, and his mother had bought him a scout’s Rover hat which he would never be able to wear. Later he had other hats - being just eighteen years old he put on his head the heavy gold miner’s helmet, and after that the Canadian 8th Provost Military Police hat, Canadian 4th Intelligence Corps hat, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hat, and the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue hat.
Life in Canada was good,
and so it was also for his brother and both sisters in Los Angeles,
but still the sense of loss for their homeland never left them."
"I am honored to be a Fomenko even so much more now that I have had a glimpse back into the life of my family. My Dad is Juris. My life as a Fomenko will NEVER be the same and my children will know just how great the legacy of a Fomenko is. Thank you so much ... for making it possible for all of us to read what Uncle Valdi wrote so many years ago ...
Es tevi milu ...
- Brian Fomenko 2/5/11
