The DP era Apinis loom

One half of our story arc originates in northeastern Latvia, the rolling hills of Vidzeme↗, in the Lizums↗ and Druviena↗ parishes1, where Peters' mom, Irma, and Ervīns, her first cousin and junior by a year-and-a-half spent their earliest years growing up together before Irma's family moved to Kurzeme↗. The other half starts in the west, in the port city of Liepāja↗ on the Baltic coast with Anna Strauss, born into and growing up in a weaving household, going on to major in weaving and graduate from the Liepāja Applied Arts High School↗ in 1933 and marrying Ervīns, now employed as a railroad engineering specialist in Liepāja, on New Year's Eve in 1938.

We pick up this arc after WWII, in Memmingen, Germany↗, at a Displaced Person's (DP) camp set up at the city airport and run by United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration↗ (UNRRA) Team 155. There, Ervīns used his engineering and drafting skills to draw plans for a loom which was then built from wood scavenged from nearby bombed-out ruins. Anna painstakingly sketched and documented ancient Latvian designs from the regional folk costumes rescued by Latvian refugees in Memmingen and other camps, and then wove them on her loom with threads gathered by unraveling old scraps of fabric.

Group resettlement to Australia via Naples showing the Apinis/Strauss family departing the US Zone on February 2, 1950.2

Pages from Anna's notebook documenting weaving patterns.3

Examples of Anna Apinis' Latvian folk pattern weaving

When Anna migrated with her father and family to Australia in 1950, her precious loom came also. This was a blessing as her obsession with weaving helped to ease the pain of displacement and separation that she and her husband Ervīns felt in their new land. As suitable weaving materials were difficult to find in post-war Australia, Ervīns put his engineering skills to use once again and designed an unplying machine in Parkes Holding Centre in 1950 where they lived upon arrival. Made from cans, scrap metal and wood, he used the machine to unply balls of wool↗ to make finer weaving threads for Anna. Ervīns was actively involved in helping Anna with her craft and designed and built numerous weaving devices for her. In Latvia, Ervīns had worked as a qualified designer/engineer. After arriving in Australia, he was employed as a manual railway laborer, eventually becoming a rail-bond welder.4 He remained in this work until his retirement.

Anna became one of the few suppliers of fabric for Latvian national costumes in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s and exhibited her weaving nationally at exhibitions and Latvian cultural festivals. In the 1970s she purchased a second loom that used to belong to Elga Kivicka, a fellow Latvian refugee and weaver who also had this loom made for her in a displaced person's camp in Germany. Anna fulfilled her dream to keep her cultural traditions alive through her daughter Anita, who shared her mother's passion for weaving and became an expert weaver herself, conducting seminars, workshops, and exhibiting her own works.

Anna passed away in 1997; Ervīns in 2000; and Anna's daughter Anita — Peters' cousin — in December, 2024 not long after publishing the second edition of her book on Latvian weaving. All the plates from the printing of Anita's first edition were lost, requiring her to create the second edition from scratch, a true labor of love.

Cover of the second edition of Anita's book on Latvian weaving, featuring her at her mom's loom.

Anna's original loom was donated to the Museums Victoria Immigration Museum (Melbourne, Australia) in 2006. The "Kivicka" loom, once owned by the Museum, has been transferred to the Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Centre in Riga, Latvia. The Immigration Museum has over 200 items of Anna, Ervīns, and Anita in their collection.

Plumes of smoke rising from Allied Memmingen Airdrome bombing mission, 1944

We found more reading materials online about the "Memmingen Mission", a 1944 bombing mission targeting the Memmingen Airdrome in which some 300 Allied bombers were dispatched with approximately 200 P-51 escorts, than on the DP camp established there after the war. We did confirm that Jews, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians and other displaced eastern Europeans all resided in the camp, albeit we expect in their own insular communities focused on self and cultural preservation through music, crafts, and unifying activities such as boys' and girls' scouts — the Estonians even had their own theater company. There were schools for the children, classes to learn English, work organized in local factories, and their own newspapers.

While thankful for refuge, there was also frustration at how quickly the western Allies had abandoned the Baltics to Stalin. Post war western Allies' disunity stoked anticipation of another world war with the now Soviet bloc — and it was believed only another war would ever liberate the Baltics. The following is attributed to "the Memmingen DP camp newspaper", which we believe was the Lithuanian Mintis, founded in 1946:

...it is precisely the present, strained international relations that give us more hope to believe that the freedom that Lithuania lost as a result of World War II can be regained as an outcome of World War III.

We invite you to read the Junkers DP camp report and UNRRA-sponsored publication about life in Esslingen DP camp. Unfortunately, we have not located any UNRRA Team 155 records online.5

Memmingen DP camp photos

• Photos from Memmingen airport DP Camp↗lv (latviski↗) at LAPA Muzejs (Latvians in the World Museum).

• The Apinis Loom↗ at Victorian Collections: about Anna, Ervīns, their path to Australia, and the mission to preserve Latvian culture and traditions, highly recommended.
• Over 200 ! items↗, the handiwork of Anna, Ervīns, and daughter Anita held by Victorian Collections.
• Elga Kivicka items↗ held by Victorian Collections.
• Weaving was my love: Anna Apinis↗ at LAPA Muzejs.
• Weaving a family and a nation through two Latvian looms↗, a chapter from Immigrants & Minorities, Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora centered on the Apinis' experiences.
• Parkes migrant hostel — 1949–1952↗, photo collection of "Millie S.↗", whose immigrant parents, originally from Russia and Ukraine, passed through the Parkes.
• Anita Apinis-Herman's book site↗, with background information, a large gallery of woven folk patterned fabrics, and links to ordering Latvian Weaving.
• Virtual exhibition, Camps in Germany for refugees from Baltic countries, 1944-1951↗, in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and English.