3. DP Camp: Occupation Period (1945 – 1949)
SS internment camp and the “Valka Camp”
In 1945/46, the Americans divide the prisoner-of-war camp into an internment camp for members of the “Waffen-SS” and a “DP camp” run by the United Nations refugee organization. The internment camp, serving as a penal and labor camp for convicted Nazi leaders, is dissolved in 1949.
“DPs” (“Displaced Persons”) are people deported for forced labor by the Nazi regime, concentration camp survivors, and refugees from Soviet-controlled countries. Most attempt to emigrate overseas. People from Lithuania and Latvia housed in the wooden barracks name the camp after an Estonian-Latvian border town: “Valka Camp.”
In 1949, both camps are dissolved, and the empty barracks are repurposed.
Photo: Example / Unsplash
“DPs” (“Displaced Persons”) are people deported for forced labor by the Nazi regime, concentration camp survivors, and refugees from Soviet-controlled countries. Most attempt to emigrate overseas. People from Lithuania and Latvia housed in the wooden barracks name the camp after an Estonian-Latvian border town: “Valka Camp.”
In 1949, both camps are dissolved, and the empty barracks are repurposed.