Meza pils. Stasts (The Forest Castle. A Story)

Altgarge: Publishing business approved by Military Government, 1947. Softcover. First edition; 8 x 5 3/4; pp. [4], 5-14, [3]; illustrated beige wraps; small nicks to tips of spine; a few scattered spots of foxing; gift inscription to first blank leaf; illustrated with color plates and drawings in black and white; very good condition.A beautiful tale of a group of kids and a doe, the book was published at a DP (displaced persons) camp in Germany, for the children of its residents. Millions of Russians, Ukrainians, etc. spent time after the Second World War at the repurposed concentration camps and SS barracks, governed by the Soviet, British, and US American occupational forces, between 1945 and 1948, before being forcefully repatriated back to their homelands, emigrating to the US and Canada, or committing suicide. Alfred Dzilums (1907 - 1976) was a Latvian author, who was drafted into the Latvian Legion in 1944 and, after the Second World War, spent time at several DP camps. He managed to emigrate to Sweden in 1950, hidden in the cargo hold of a ship carrying coal, where he continued writing and publishing memoirs, novels, and children's books until his death.