The exile experience

Coming to America

New York City skyline, 1950

Resuming our families's stories, beyond the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty as light dawned across the harbor in a new country, the Manhattan skyline must have been a miraculous sight, coming from a flattened, devastated post-war Germany. And while it wasn't true of Peters' parents, growing up his family knew numerous multi-generational families who like his parents had started life over in cramped walk-up apartments, reminiscent of images from West Side Story.

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G-1 SHAEF memo on repatriation to USSR

G-1 (Personnel) Division of SHAEF — Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force memorandum — individuals not to be repatriated to the Soviet Union unless they request it, don't tell the Russians (May 30, 1945)

G-1 SHAEF memo on repatriation to USSR

Silvija's mother and family arrive

Silvija's mother and family arrive

Silvija's mother and family arrive

Silvija's father and his mother arrive

Silvija's father and his mother arrive

Silvija's father and his mother arrive

Peters' parents arrive

Peters' parents arrive

Peters' parents arrive

Peters' parents arrived on the USNS General R. M. Blatchford

Silvija's father arrived on the USNS General M.B. Stewart, photo shows it departing Bremerhaven in the early 1950's

Silvija's mother arrived on the USNS General Harry Taylor, photo shows it moored in Bremerhaven

It was a difficult crossing on stormy seas for Peters' parents. His mother got violently sea-sick. Fortunately another couple bunked at the center of the ship offered her their berth.

Peters' mother recalls their refugee ship arriving at night and anchoring in New York City harbor. They were perplexed by the strings of lights going back and forth across the bay in the darkness. Morning revealed the answer: ferries plying their way between Staten Island and Brooklyn and Manhattan.

November in Latvia already qualifies as winter — with temperatures averaging 14° F (8° C) lower in Rīga, the capital, than in New York City. Still, imagine Peters' parents surprise when they found themselves donning short sleeves as they went for a walk in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The high temperature November 1st, 1950 was 85° F (29.4° C) while the 2nd peaked at 84° F (28.9° C). They surely hoped their warm welcome was a portent of their future.

Easing the transition for Peters' parents was that the Latvian Lutheran congregation in New York was, in fact, a century old, and their pastor, Rihards Zariņš, made a point to greet arrivals. Through Lutheran refugee services, Peters' mother had a job secured for her as a maid, his father, a job as a hospital orderly. But two weeks into his job, he became seriously ill and quit.

Ultimately, Peters' father found work at NBC as a scenic artist, while Peters' mother worked her way up through New York City's 7th Avenue garment industry to become a sample maker — a highly specialized skill she learned at the Fashion Institute of Technology after learning sewing and pattern making in Germany. (Sample makers take the designer's sketch and, knowing who would be modeling it, make all the patterns and sew the garment.) And working her way "up" in some cases did mean exactly that, as when she quit her job for $1.50 more an hour at another in the same building, but two floors up. Every penny counted. When Peters' father saw some luscious ripe strawberries at a fruit stand, he suggested they binge and get them. His mother's response? "Well, the choice is strawberries or the installment payment for my PFAFF↗ sewing machine." And therein lay also the lesson: buy quality even when it means making sacrifices elsewhere.

Just when Peters' mother was poised to be sent to Paris to make knock-offs of the last fashions, Peters' arrival cut her career short.

Photograph and inscription by Peters' father:

Starting life cheerful was a good thing, having been invested at birth — as was every Latvian child growing up in exile — with no less than the survival of Latvian identity and culture as the Latvian dzimtene, homeland1, suffered more mass deportations↗ and yet another era of Russification↗.

Browse our library for more on cultural preservation in exile.
Read on for  life in Siberia.