Tag #115406 - Interview #83163 (Anatoli Kraemer )

We had military classes at the lyceum, taught by a lieutenant of the Estonian army. It was the time when the Germans were approaching Tallinn, and there was a working battalion to fight them. As soon as I got the weapon, I went outside and suddenly saw the working battalion marching with the orchestra. There was my military teacher from school among them. He also noticed me and cried out, ‘Join us!’ That’s what I did and headed to the front. Here I also saw my father, who took notice of me as well. He dashed up to me and gave me some chocolate. We hugged each other and continued on our way.

We had walked for about 20 kilometers from Tallinn and reached the place where we were supposed to have a battle. We did not have equal forces. In our battalion almost everybody was armed the way I was – an old rifle and two grenades – while the Germans had guns, mortars etc. A lot of our fighters were wounded and killed in action right away.

At that time I did not take death seriously. I could not even picture my death. It was most likely that I and my coevals looked at it as if it was a military game. My friend suggested walking closer to German positions and take a couple of mortars. We ran to the Germans and they started shooting at us. I got injured by the fragment of a mine and as a result of the explosion I was thrown into the bushes.