Edward Paikens papers

Edward Paikens (nee Eduards Paikens Dzilna) was born on May 27, 1917 in the northwest region of Latvia, not far from Aluskne. He left the country for school in Riga, where he attended the Riga Technical Institute until 1944 when he was sent to work at the A.E.G. factory in Thorn in occupied Poland (today's Torun) (in July) as a laborer by the occupying German forces. His father had died and his mother remained in Latvia. His brother Laimons was never heard from again.

After the war, Paikens spent the years prior to emigration to the United States in a displaced persons camp Insula in Strub near Berchtesgaden (in Bavaria). From June 1946 to March 1947, he attended courses in the camp, completing his secondary education at the level of "gymnasium." In March 1948, he received certificates from the International Refugee Organization administering the camp to work as draftsman, telephone mechanic, and machine operator (certification by the IRO Displaced Persons Professional Testing Board). In 1947, Edward Paikens joined the local "Alpenverein" (Alpine Club) in Berchtesgaden. Until January 1949, he was a member of the YMCA branch in the Insula camp. A copy of his embarkation card indicates the sailing date to the United States as February 10, 1949, aboard the S.S. Ernie Pyle, from Hamburg, Germany. The ship arrived in Boston on February 21 or 22, 1949. Edward Paikens was sponsored and assisted in his resettlement in the United States by the Lutheran Welfare Society which paid for his transportation from Boston to Minnesota. In March and April, 1949, Edward Paikens resided in Blakeley, Minnesota, a year later, in May, 1950, a letter from the Lutheran Resettlement Service of Minnesota was addressed to him in Minneapolis. He repayed the transportation loan of $57.72 from the Lutheran Welfare Society in June 1950. In Minneapolis, he met and married his wife Helen. He was granted U.S. citizenship in November, 1952, and lived in Minneapolis until his death on October 6, 1993.