Selected text
Somebody rang at the door early in the morning on 14th June. My mother and brother were off to work and I was by myself. People were standing on the steps: An NKVD officer wearing a cap with a blue stripe on the top, two soldiers with rifles and two pallid and frightened witnesses -Estonians. The officer didn't ask for permission to come in, he just pushed me aside and entered the room. The only thing he asked - who was in. I said that I was by myself and that my mother and brother were at work. He told me to call them. I gave mother a call and soon she and my brother came over. Then the NKVD officer informed us that we would be exiled to the remote region of the Soviet Union. Mother asked on what grounds, but no explanation was coming, they just said that it was the resolution of the Supreme Council of the USSR and that we had two hours to pack our things. Later, when we were in exile we found out that there was no resolution. It was an oral order of Beriya [20] regarding deportation of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians [21].
We were permitted to take 20kg of luggage either per family or per person. We were at a loss without knowing what to do first and which things to take with us. Fortunately, my sister and her husband came over and helped us pack. The NKVD officers whispered to us that we could take more things as nobody would be weighing our luggage and added that we would need warm things. Then we understood that he was a decent man. Many NKVD officers merely plundered the exiled, ordering them to take out money and precious things and put them on the table. Then they misappropriated them. The apartments were confiscated and then everything that new host took an interest in was loaded in the trucks. Luckily, we didn't come across that.
A large truck was waiting for us in the yard. There was an elderly couple with their belongings. We got in the car. We were driven to the harbor. There were railway lines for unloading the ships and there were six trains consisting of 50 cars each on every line. The trucks with the arrested families came from all parts of the town. The families were separated: men were put in one car and women with children in another. Then it turned out that the cars with men headed to the Gulag camps [22], and the ones with women into exile. Eighty percent of the arrested were women and children. 10,000 people were exiled from Estonia on that day, 14th June 1941.
We stayed at the harbor for 24 hours. People were told to get on the cattle cars and then they weren't allowed to leave them. There were no toilets in the cars. There was a hole in the floor. There were double-tiered bunks along the walls of the cars and that was it. We were not fed on our way. We were eating the food we managed to take from home.
We were permitted to take 20kg of luggage either per family or per person. We were at a loss without knowing what to do first and which things to take with us. Fortunately, my sister and her husband came over and helped us pack. The NKVD officers whispered to us that we could take more things as nobody would be weighing our luggage and added that we would need warm things. Then we understood that he was a decent man. Many NKVD officers merely plundered the exiled, ordering them to take out money and precious things and put them on the table. Then they misappropriated them. The apartments were confiscated and then everything that new host took an interest in was loaded in the trucks. Luckily, we didn't come across that.
A large truck was waiting for us in the yard. There was an elderly couple with their belongings. We got in the car. We were driven to the harbor. There were railway lines for unloading the ships and there were six trains consisting of 50 cars each on every line. The trucks with the arrested families came from all parts of the town. The families were separated: men were put in one car and women with children in another. Then it turned out that the cars with men headed to the Gulag camps [22], and the ones with women into exile. Eighty percent of the arrested were women and children. 10,000 people were exiled from Estonia on that day, 14th June 1941.
We stayed at the harbor for 24 hours. People were told to get on the cattle cars and then they weren't allowed to leave them. There were no toilets in the cars. There was a hole in the floor. There were double-tiered bunks along the walls of the cars and that was it. We were not fed on our way. We were eating the food we managed to take from home.
Period
Year
1941
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
simon rapoport