Miervaldis Birze facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Miervaldis Birze
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| Born | 21 March 1921 Rūjiena, Latvia |
| Died | 6 July 2000 (aged 79) Cēsis, Latvia |
Miervaldis Birze (born Augusts Miervaldis Bērziņš; 21 March 1921 – 6 July 2000) was a Latvian writer, publicist, physician.
Biography
Birze was born into the family of a municipal employee in Rūjiena. He completed primary school in 1933. After the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, Birze joined the Young Communist League. He was arrested in July 1941, after the Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany. He was first held in prison in Valmiera, then transferred to the Salaspils concentration camp. After this he was assigned to do forced labor in the construction of a hangar at the Spilve Airport in Riga. In July 1944 he was among 1,200 people transported to Germany and interned in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In April 1945, during the evacuation of the camp, Birze managed to escape. He tried to return home through Poland, where he was arrested and held from May until September in an NKVD filtration camp in Hrodna. The time he spent in these camps and prisons is reflected in his literary works, especially in his novel Yet Icebound Rivers Flow.
He graduated from the University of Latvia Faculty of Medicine in 1949. After graduation he worked as a doctor in Cēsis. He died there in 2000.
Yet Icebound Rivers Flow
- Miervaldis Birze, from Yet Icebound Rivers Flow.
English translations
- Yet Icebound Rivers Flow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow. from Archive.org
Sources
