At the end of the Second World War, when the German army retreated from Latvia, it also took along 700 boxes of materials from Latvian museums. If not for a young woman named Merija Grinberga, the exhibition halls of many museums in Latvia would be empty today. Grinberga was the only volunteer who in 1944 went along with the train carrying the treasures of Latvian art in order to return with them back to Riga. The German occupying forces tried to take them away; the Soviet occupation forces brought them back; Merija completed her duty. As gratitude for her journey, Merija was sacked from her job at the museum and incessantly viewed with suspicion.