“That was the first time I saw my dad cry. He and my grandfather had planted so many trees on the island. And now he was being ordered to chop them all down himself.”

Rudīte Ķikuste

 

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“Bulldozers  were massive — they looked like tanks. I was 14 or 15 years old, and one time, late at night, when this vehicle came into our garden yet again, I climbed into its tracks to stop it from running over our apple trees.”
Vilnis Roze 

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“I and my parents hiked along the Daugava, slept next to the river, and went out on rafts to preserve it in their memories however we could.”
Juris Urtāns 

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“It had the most beautiful sites. Then suddenly I see these strange pegs hammered into the field. I started asking around, and it turned out that they were markers for the borders of the flood area.”
Dainis Īvāns

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"Kumpji's house served as a landmark for eel fishing for many years: nets had to be set in front of it, but one day the house simply disappeared"

Kaspars Kurps

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"Even now I can't swim because I couldn't go to the sea for half my life. There was a black strip in front of the house made by border guards. To get to the beach in the summer you had to travel several kilometers away."

Maris Dadzis

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“All I have is my land and my children. But now the waves take whatever they want. The sea comes right up to the cliff and washes away the land. Sometimes I find in the morning that piece of land just left. I had hay sheds there, but the sea has already taken them all. Over the 50 years I have lived there, the edge of the cliff has moved about 70 meters closer.”

Anna Rudīte Andersone