Pēteris Dzelzītis was born on September 21, 1921, near the village of Renda, in a family of farmers.
In 1943, Dzelzītis, along with his brother Vidvuds, was enlisted in the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
The 19th Division gradually retreated to the region of Kurzeme, where they stayed until the war ended (the so-called Courland Pocket).
[citation needed] In the early 1990s, not long after Latvia regained its independence, a commemorative plaque was attached to the Renda primary school.
There was a movement which aimed to name a street in the nearby city of Kuldīga in memory of Dzelzītis, but it failed.