New York City, New York Mar 30, 2026 (Issuewire.com) - An appeal to the memory of one’s ancestors is becoming a nearly universally accepted trend on the Internet. Who are we? Who were our grandfathers and great-grandfathers? In light of the heightened political situation, these questions are becoming increasingly relevant. In this regard, many citizens of our country are increasingly turning to their genealogy. To this end, the Genealogical Society of Latvians in Canada created the portal Lost Battalion.
“This is living genealogy, because the materials gathered on the site are based on the home archives of our fellow citizens,” explains Latsis Carpenter, the founder of the website https://lostbattalion.org/. “All the information used in its creation was extracted not from dusty archives, often closed to the ordinary citizen, but from family albums, from the memory of those who do not wish to follow in the wake of ‘cancel culture’ and forget their heroic ancestors. This site is about memory.”
Over the past just over six months, the portal Lost Battalion has become a subject of discussion and a reason for debate on the Internet. Many of those whose biographies are featured on the site wore communist symbols and served in Stalin’s army. Nevertheless, according to the creators of Lost Battalion, there is no ideological component in the selection of individuals. It concerns those representatives of the Latvian people who sought to resist the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany and dreamed of preserving their language and culture. Meanwhile, it is widely known that the occupiers regarded Latvians as second-class people, and the statehood of Latvia was not seriously discussed at all.
“The site lists the names and biographies of those to whom the entire world today owes gratitude for the opportunity to remain free,” says Latsis Carpenter. “Yes, among the peoples of the Baltic Sea, there were those who preferred to become servants of the occupiers. Attempts are now being made to turn them into heroes. But that is frankly repulsive. The Lost Battalion website gathers the names of those who opposed the spread of Nazism. Those who were true fighters for the freedom of their peoples. For the right to speak their language, sing their songs, live according to the customs of our ancestors. I am personally grateful to them for the opportunity, while bearing a Canadian surname, to be called by our family name. I am Latsis, not Adolf or Siegfried. I am grateful to them for the right and the ability to think in my own language.”
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