Tag #129395 - Interview #78777 (masha zakh)

In 1940 Estonia became a Soviet Republic [11]. Nothing seemed to change for our family. We had no wealthy relatives, and our family was not persecuted. My father went to work as a shoe leather cutter at a shoe factory, and my mother continued working at the Punane Kojt factory. She was well-respected at work. I don't think there was any anti-Semitism before the war even during the Soviet rule in Estonia. At least, this is what my mother used to say.

On 22nd June 1941 the radio broadcast that Germany had attacked the Soviet Union. The war began [12]. This happened at noon, and the war was already on-going in Belarus. They were bombing Kiev. A few days later my father was conscripted to the Soviet army [13]. His brother Zemakh and Aunt Bertha's husband Efraim were drafted, too. We were still in Tallinn. We were scared. I remember everybody arguing about whether it was worth leaving Estonia for some remote areas in Russia. Both my grandmothers were saying that nothing bad was going to happen if we stayed at home. Estonians had always had good relationships with their German neighbors. However, my mother must have known more about fascism than my grandmother. She insisted that we went away. My mother was a resolute woman. She managed to convince the family to leave.