Pēteris Dzelzītis (September 21, 1921 – February 16, 1948) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n 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 partisan (military), partisans who Guerrilla war in the Baltic states, waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet Union, Soviet rule during and after the World War II, Second World War. Aft ...

during the

Guerrilla war in the Baltic states The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic ( Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known alternatively as the "Forest Brothers", the "Brothers of the Wood" and th ...

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 the largest tributary o ...

. 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 was a Pocket (military), pocket located on the Courland Peninsula in Latvia on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 9 October 1944 to 10 May 1945. Army Group North of the ''Wehrmacht'' were ...

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

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and instead started

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

. Their group consisted of seven men. Pēteris was its leader. He used

codename A code name, codename, 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 ...

"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 (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

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 A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...

was attached to the Renda primary school. There was a movement which aimed to name a street in the nearby city of

Kuldīga Kuldīga () () 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 joined the Hanseatic L ...

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