President Alar Karis’ speech at the conference “Estonian war refugees in World War II” on the 80th anniversary of the Great Escape, organized by the Institute of Estonian Memory, in the Haapsalu Cultural Center.
Good friends.
I will read to you some excerpts from the memories:
“The Russians conquered South Estonia very quickly and for a while only stayed on the Emajõe line. Now it was necessary to decide very quickly what would happen next, before the Russians arrived. Frightened by the June 1941 deportation, it was believed that when the Russian returned, the entire Estonian nation would be taken to Russia.
/—/
The three of us set off – mother, father and me.
/—/
We took with us plenty of food, some household items and even a beautiful mirror and desk made by my father.
/—/
The front moved on our heels like a rabid dog, and when we reached Vigala, we must have lost hope of returning home soon, because we left all the less necessary things, such as furniture, as well as one horse and a cart. Now there was already a definite desire to reach the sea and from there to Sweden, which was the dream land of all refugees. We soon had to give up this dream when it turned out that the boatmen were only transporting people across the sea for gold. Of course, we didn’t have any gold.
/—/
We now headed towards Virtsu harbor with the flow of refugees. We arrived in Virts on September 22 or 23, these are the days when the Russians captured Tallinn. The rapid fall of Tallinn must have come as a surprise to the people, because the refugees were completely panicked when they arrived in Virtsu, many of them on bicycles or in their summer clothes and only packs. All of us were very unhappy, because the fall of the capital meant the extinction of the last hope.
/—/
The Gotenhafen refugee camp in Germany was one of the largest. Those who came by ship made up only a fraction of the refugees, the majority moved west by road, and in this way there were also those who came from Estonia.
/—/
Our family was in the camp for quite a short time. /—/ My parents got a job on the Brandenburg Railway (father as a mechanic, mother as a cleaner). We settled in the town of Belzig, about 80 km south of Berlin.
/—/
In March-April, it was clear that the end of the war was at hand. The only thing that mattered to us now was whether the Western Allies would reach Belzig first or whether we would remain at the mercy of the Russians.
/—/
Somewhere in the middle of April, the parents decided that we could not stay in Belzig any longer. Rumors spread that it was possible to get to the American side from the Elbe River, somewhere in the Dessau area. We also decided to use this opportunity.
/—/
When we arrived at Elben, however, it turned out that although in the first days after the arrival of the Americans it was possible to cross over to them without any obstacles, by the time we arrived, the Russians had eliminated this “disorder”.
I don’t know how many times already in the last year we had to decide – what will happen to us next.
I missed home so much that I began to urge my parents in this direction quite violently. Apart from homesickness, I was worried about my unfinished education. In a war-ravaged foreign country, there was initially no way to continue schooling. However, I was already 16 years old and had only attended school for six years.
I remember that the decision to return home came very quickly and we had no choice. Rumors were already spreading that the Russians would send all the citizens of their country back to Russia (you can guess where!). We were also those citizens of our country, we could only hope that we would not be noticed in the post-war confusion. We thought the safest thing to do was to start wildly and on foot towards home.
/—/
We had completely run out of food stuff and now I felt for the first time what hunger meant.
/—/
We stayed mostly in haylofts. I always slept between my mother and father, and there was a good reason for that, because it was rumored that the Russians raped any woman who got in their way. I felt that my parents were seriously worried about me.
/—/
I can’t remember if we went to Pskov and from there to Estonia or if we did it via Valga, I don’t remember which station we got off at. I don’t even remember such an important moment as meeting my relatives in Härma.
/—/
I had now been away from home for a whole year. I came back starving, in my only sissy dress and with the realization that I had grown up too soon.”
These are the memories of my mother Virve. This is the story of one family among many. This story is typical of war refugees, and also unique to every story. Tens of thousands then strived for the gate of freedom, and not everyone could fit through it, because the gate of freedom can be very narrow.
My mother and her parents also got stuck on the journey and returned to Estonia, later she became an agricultural scientist, but this difficult journey and the choices made then were with her all the time. I am beyond grateful that he thought it necessary to record this time for the benefit of my family.
Good friends.
World War II and the suffering that accompanied it and followed were the worst in our recent past. Estonia lost a fifth of its population in the Second World War, the Russian and German occupations, and we are still feeling the effects of this large population loss, almost a century later.
But in addition to the dead and the killed, we must also remember the immense mental and physical suffering, the fear that most people had to go through, and the undetermined destruction that war and occupations brought. Also the spiritual void that remained in Estonia after the death, mental mutilation, deportation or fleeing of war of so many people.
The great losses and human sacrifices of these years were recorded in the historical memory of the people here, have shaped our choices and guided our decisions. All this tragically changed a lot of life here.
Such a tragedy can be overcome not with bitterness and a desire for revenge, but by talking and writing about those years and what happened, studying that time and remembering the thousands of victims, whether they were murdered or deported by foreign powers, died in the war on different sides, or war refugees.
Therefore, it is very important for me that the fate and stories of all these people become clear as possible. Therefore, it is essential to compile a database of people who left Estonia during the Second World War initiated by the Institute of Estonian Remembrance, because there were 70,000 to 80,000 of them – those who left Estonia as war refugees. 70,000 to 80,000 of our own people. The number could be a little more accurate now.
80 years later, of course, it is difficult to do this, because most have already left and a lot of research material with them. But on the other hand, this complexity is also inspiring. It is also possible to collect memories directly from the refugees and receive materials from them or their descendants that might otherwise be lost forever. A number of documents are waiting to be found and worked through in the archives.
When else? We have just celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the restoration of independence.
Thank you.
2024-08-24 11:00:20
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