'The Family - The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power' by Jeff Sharlet

[Magda Hassan]

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was born Vaira Vīķe on 1 December 1937 in Riga, Latvia. At the end of 1944, as Soviet occupation of Latvia begun, Vīķe's parents escaped to Nazi Germany. There she received her first education in Latvian primary school at refugee camp in Lübeck, Germany.

Upon graduation, Vīķe became a clinical psychologist at the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital in late 1960. She left in 1961 to resume her education at the McGill University in Montreal while also lecturing part-time at Concordia University. She earned her PhD in experimental psychology, graduating from the university in 1965.

Because of her age it wasn't her decision but it is interesting that the family went to Nazi Germany as refugees in 1944. Which makes me wonder if they were not collaborators, and to what extent. After all, they could have gone by boat the Sweden or elsewhere like others. She also lived in French Morocco and somewhere she also picked up Spanish as a language and worked as a translator.