Saaremaa

Saaremaa - This is the island where my parents were born... This is from where my parents fled the Soviets back in 1944... And this is where I've been spending most of my last couple of months here in Estonia... It has been quite an eye opening experience, for both myself and my brother...

My year in Estonia seems to have been divided into three parts, and where none of this was planned or intentional. I arrived here back in late August, as an ESL teacher. After Christmas, I became a tourist and started traveling all over the region trying to understand the cultures, history and people. And now as my year away is rapidly coming to a close, I'm investigating my ancestry and roots, trying to get a handle of what my parents went through, and who they really were. And so this has taken me to Saaremaa.

Saaremaa is Estonia's largest island and you need to take a ferry from the mainland. The population is about 40,000 people with approx. 15,000 residing in the capital, Kuressaare. It is a gentle area and probably resembles the old pre-Soviet Estonia better than any other in the country. It is a land of farms, wind mills and wooden houses. It is where people own summer cottages and saunas. And as it turns out, I have many, many relatives living there. This was a huge surprise for both my brother and I. You see, with the exception of my uncle, it has been only my brother and I in Canada, and we knew of perhaps one or two others and that was it. My parents never really talked about their own families here in Estonia partly because it was a bit painful for them to talk about and partly due to my young age and my lack of curiosity. As one tends to get older, it is then when we start asking questions about our past, etc... So to come here, some 60 years after my parents fled, to see so many people with the same last name, and of my mother's maiden name, is quite thrilling. I certainly feel much less alone in this sometimes cold world...

As with many Estonians families here, I learned of many new tragedies during the Soviet times, ones that both my brother and I were completely unaware of. One such story happened in the Castle in Kuressaare during the first Soviet occupation. The Soviets used the castle to torture the native Estonians for information, location of the underground, etc.. One of those unfortunate victoms was my grandfather's brother. After the Soviets retreated and the Germans took over Estonia in 1941, my grandfather was able to locate his brother in a shallow grave with his hands and feet severely burnt, as if they were boiled. All the victims' names, who were tormented in the Castle during those years, are on the wall of the courtyard, including my grandfather's brother, Gustav Truuverk (see picture).

This incident led to my grandfather, fearing for his life, to make the decision to flee his homeland as it became apparent that the Soviets were coming back to Estonia in 1944. He built a small fishing boat and took his only daughter and a few others on a stormy night. His only daughter was of course to become my mother and among the others in that small boat, was my father. In the Saaremaa museum is a model of a typical boat used by many to flee Estonia (see picture from the Saaremaa museum. Note: The actual boat used by my grandfather and parents was a slightly larger than the one pictured).

While my brother and I were meeting with many long lost relatives, we came across an older gentleman who was actually present on that faithful night in the summer of 1944 when my parents and grandfather fled in the fishing boat. He told us that he and his brother were going to go as well, but at the final moment decided to stay behind and take their chances with the Soviets. The reason, he told us, was that the sea was quite rough that night and he thought that the boat wouldn't make it. As it turned out, it did make it, taking about 5 days to Sweden. You know, it's amazing to talk to this gentleman, who had to make a quick life altering decision back in 1944. Do you take your chances with the Soviets? Or risk the rough seas and the unknown in a foriegn country away from everything you grew up with. A decision, all in a matter of moments, that dictates your future... I wish we had more time to speak with him, I would have liked to gotten to know him a bit more. He did, of course, know my mom and dad when they were young and it was a real honour for my brother and I to spend what little time we had, with him. He is pictured on the far left, next to my brother. The three people between my brother and I, are our first cousins and we are standing in front of the house where all our parents grew up back in the pre-Soviet years. I'm sure my dad, along with his siblings, were smiling down on us as the sun shines ...

I'll write more in the upcoming days and weeks but I'll close this entry with some random pictures of Saaremaa and Kuressaare that I've taken over the last 2 months...