Pēteris Dzelzītis (September 21, 1921 – February 16, 1948) was a Latvian soldier. He fought for the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS during World War II and the

Latvian partisans Latvian national partisans were Latvian pro-independence partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet rule during and after the Second World War. Aftermath of World War I The decisions of the 1917 congresses and the declaration of ind ...

during the

Guerrilla war in the Baltic states The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, mež ...

Biography

Pēteris Dzelzītis was born on September 21, 1921, near the village of Renda, in a family of farmers. He was educated in the Renda primary school. In 1943, Dzelzītis, along with his brother Vidvuds, was enlisted in the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. Vidvuds was killed on March 17, 1944, during a battle on the eastern shore of the

Velikaya River The Velikaya () is a river in Novosokolnichesky, Pustoshkinsky, Sebezhsky, Opochetsky, Pushkinogorsky, Ostrovsky, Palkinsky, and Pskovsky Districts of Pskov Oblast, as well as in the city of Pskov in Russia. It is a major tributary of La ...

. The 19th Division gradually retreated to the region of Kurzeme, where they stayed until the war ended (the so-called ''

Courland Pocket The Courland Pocket (Blockade of the Courland army group), (german: Kurland-Kessel)/german: Kurland-Brückenkopf (Courland Bridgehead), lv, Kurzemes katls (Courland Cauldron) or ''Kurzemes cietoksnis'' (Courland Fortress)., group=lower-alpha ...

''). Pēteris, along with some others, did not surrender to the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

and instead started guerrilla warfare. Their group consisted of seven men. Pēteris was its leader. He used

codename A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...

"Kurmis" (''Mole''). On February 2, 1948, the Soviets found the group's hiding place and raided it. Three of seven group members were killed in action, the other four, including Dzelzītis, were taken away for further questioning. The

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

beat him up several times in an attempt to extract information, however, he did not reveal anything. He was executed on February 16.

Legacy

He is considered to be a hero in Renda. In the early 1990s, not long after Latvia regained its independence, a commemorative plaque was attached to the Renda primary school. There was a movement which aimed to name a street in the nearby city of

Kuldīga Kuldīga () (german: Goldingen) is a town in the Courland region of Latvia, in the western part of the country. It is the center of Kuldīga Municipality with a population of approximately 13,500. Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It join ...

in memory of Dzelzītis, but it failed. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dzelzitis, Peteris 1921 births 1948 deaths People from Kuldīga Municipality Latvian partisans Latvian torture victims Latvian people executed by the Soviet Union Latvian Waffen-SS personnel Executed Latvian collaborators with Nazi Germany Nazis executed by the Soviet Union by firearm