The lives of war-traumatised refugees changed when entering the DP camp gates. This is precisely expressed by Erik Dzenis: ” from this moment in autumn of 1945 our lives entered a different phase, as our personal existence was no longer endangered”. Despite the difficulties and sometimes hopelessness of life in the DP camps, people had attained something important - security and the ability to continue to live.

Before arriving at these gates, Latvian refugees had undergone hunger and terror during dangerous journeys by ship, rail or over the roads of ruined Germany, Poland or Czechoslovakia. But it was hardest for the Latvians who were in the Russian Zone at the end of the war. Only with cunning and hiding could they reach the safety of the zones occupied by the Western nations. Russian army units in East Germany tried to prevent this and force the refugees to be repatriated to occupied Latvia, where they could expect reprisals or deportation to Siberia. Even a more dramatic situation was created by the fact that there were many children, elderly and infirm among the refugees.

Eventually, after reaching the security of the DP camps, a long period of uncertainty began, with no regular work, nor the possibility to care for a family or plan a future. The fate of the refugees was in the hands of politicians and administrators. For some refugees this period of change and uncertainty lasted more than five years.