At the end of WWII, many thousands of people displaced from their homelands by the war lived in Displaced Persons (DP) camps across Europe. The residents of the occupied territories, whose countries had lost their independence, found themselves in a particularly difficult situation. Soon after the end of the war, the Cold War began, which determined the international situation for decades to come. In total, about 171,000 Latvian residents had arrived in Germany by the end of the war.

The total number of Latvians in the territory of the German Reich at the beginning of 1945 reached 173,000 people. In the summer of 1945, after the capitulation of Germany, it no longer mattered in what way and who had come to Germany, everyone in their own sense felt like a refugee from communism. During the war, a large number of refugees from other Central and Eastern European countries also arrived in Germany and some neighbouring countries (Belgium, Italy).The question of the number of Latvians in exile after the Second World War is linked to that of how many people fled from Latvia to Germany during the War. In total the number of Latvian exiles who settled in new countries after World War II, was at least 130 000.

In 1946, around 120,000 refugees from Latvia were registered in the territories occupied by the Western allies in Germany. A55% of all these Latvians were in the American-controlled zone, 43% in the British zone and 2% in the French zone. The card file created by the Latvian Central Committee (LCK) with 111,495 German Latvian DP cards shows that at least 62,468 Latvian men and 49,027 Latvian women of various ages and occupations were in Germany. Most Latvian DPs lived in camps together with DPs of other nationalities. The largest camps inhabited by Latvians in 1946 were in the British and American occupation zones. The largest camps were in the vicinity of Lübeck, Esslingen, Oldenburg, Amberg, Gästachte camp “Saule”, in the vicinity of Würzburg, Augsburg, Hanau, Ravensburg, Fischbach, Ansbach, Eichstadt, Kassel, Altgarde, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, Schwarzenbeck, Stuttgart.

Repatriation was not acceptable for those displaced persons whose countries had fallen under the control of the USSR as a result of the Second World War. These included Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians, the majority of whom refused to return to their homeland while the Baltic states were illegally part of the USSR. The Baltics opposed forced repatriation, arguing that they could not be considered citizens of the USSR, as the Baltic states were not part of the USSR at the beginning of World War II.

Most of the world’s democratic countries continued to recognise the de iure existence of the Baltic States and did not recognize the USSR’s rights to their territories. Exiled Latvians also completely agreed with this opinion. A small number of exiles kept their Latvian passport for decades and with their existence directly confirmed the continuation of the existence of the Republic of Latvia de iure. They considered the time of exile as a transitory state, and their main task was to ensure the preservation of Latvianness abroad and to promote the recovery of Latvia’s national independence with all their might. Latvians in Western countries kept alive the idea of the independence of the Republic of Latvia both among themselves and in their home countries.This Latvian community considered themselves to be in exile outside of Latvia. In order to help and protect displaced persons and refugees, a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) – the International Refugee Organization (IRO) – was established in April 1946.