Ernests Amatnieks from the USA

Ernests Amatnieks was a Latvian born in Estonian territory in 1915, during the First World War. He later lived in Latvia until his family emigrated to United States in 1929. Amatnieks became a USA citizen and was affiliated to Young Communist League in 1931. He lived in New York until his departure to fight fascism in Spain in early 1937. 

In February 1937 Amatnieks was assigned to the XV International Brigade (Abraham Lincoln Brigade). He had no prior military experience, but Amatnieks had studied radio engineering on his own, and this knowledge was put to use in the transmissions section. On 13 October 1937, he was wounded in his left leg and treated for several months in various medical institutions. There he lacked both literature and conversation partners. During his spare time, Amatnieks wrote letters, tried to read different books, and learned Spanish. As his health improved, he returned to the front and participated in the Battle of the Ebro. After the decision to withdraw of foreign volunteers, he participated in the farewell parade in Barcelona. In December 1938, Amatnieks was able to leave Spain and return home.

In the USA, Amatnieks’ mother and brother Kārlis had a vital role in collecting donations for Latvians in Spain. His family, friends and acquaintances were also involved in the activities of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. In May 1938 alone, Latvians in Spain received “five large packages for 77.67 (including shipping costs) dollars and 16 packages of chocolate for 4 dollars” from communist-minded Latvians in the USA and the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Ernests’ mother Anna Amatniece was continually active in motivating other Latvian communists who read the Latvian communistic newspaper Strādnieku Cīņa (Workers' Struggle), printed in the USA, to donate. In thank-you letters, several Latvians who fought in Spain addressed her as “Dear Mother.” During the Second World War, while waiting for opportunities to travel to the USSR, two Latvians in the USA stayed with the Amatnieks’ family. The support of Latvian Americans - and particularly Amatnieks’ family - was later censored in the recollections of the Latvian volunteers published during the Soviet period.

GIB