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Hardly had we got over our loss, when another tribulation came. In 1940 Estonia was annexed to the Soviet Union [8]. Though, what was happening seemed so strange and savage to us that we could not even believe that it was real. An authorized person, a so-called commissar [9], was appointed to my father’s warehouse by the Soviet authorities. He was supposed to understand the situation. Mother was supposed to go there every day and help him. All the employees spoke only Estonian, but he knew only Russian, and Mother interpreted for him.
In a while my father’s enterprise was nationalized by the Soviet authorities. The families of most of our friends – Jews and Estonians – had experienced that. They said in the open that they envied Father for dying peacefully, for his family and his life was not taken by them. Father’s workers sympathized with us and even offered help. We lived in fear without knowing what would happen to us. Everything had been taken away from us. Only music saved me from that horror. I was playing all day long.
Thus time went by and a very scary day in Estonian history came, 14th June 1941 [10]. On that day 10,000 thousand people out of a total Estonian population of one million were deported and sent to the Gulag [11] and into exile. Again we were happy that Father did not live to see that. He died at home being surrounded by loved and close people. If he had still been alive, he would have suffered in a camp before his death. And he would not even have a grave.
In a while my father’s enterprise was nationalized by the Soviet authorities. The families of most of our friends – Jews and Estonians – had experienced that. They said in the open that they envied Father for dying peacefully, for his family and his life was not taken by them. Father’s workers sympathized with us and even offered help. We lived in fear without knowing what would happen to us. Everything had been taken away from us. Only music saved me from that horror. I was playing all day long.
Thus time went by and a very scary day in Estonian history came, 14th June 1941 [10]. On that day 10,000 thousand people out of a total Estonian population of one million were deported and sent to the Gulag [11] and into exile. Again we were happy that Father did not live to see that. He died at home being surrounded by loved and close people. If he had still been alive, he would have suffered in a camp before his death. And he would not even have a grave.
Year
1940
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
Ester Khanson