The Baltic coast is significant in the story of the Mennonites. Mennonite settlements flourished along the lower Vistula, near Königsberg and along the Memel for hundreds of years.
Riga was the point of entry in 1788 when they first emigrated from Danzig to Russia. During the great exodus of the 1920’s Mennonites fled from the Soviet Union via Riga and Libau.
World War II disrupted the lives of most people in the western world. Rastenburg served as the German military headquarters for the eastern front.