My grandfather lived through the war, that was his greatest achievement.
Born in Tallinn Estonia 13-08-1919 he grew up with his mother and brother in the finer neighborhoods of Tallinn. They both studied at the university in the summer of 1940 as the Soviet Union forcibly occupied their country. Military officers were executed, property confiscated and all the university students deported to the Gulag labor camps. Of roughly 8.000 students, the majority of them young men in their early 20's, some 5.500 survived up until Germany declared war and invaded the Soviet Union.
My grandfather and his brother were among the survivors and after spending nearly a year in the same prison camp they first met each other on the march towards the front line. They were put in the same penal batallion and company. This company of Estonians crossed the front line one night, my grandfather was left behind and missing when they reached the German line, so his brother had to go back and get him. They were rounded up by the Germans and taken care of, some were taken away (jews? I do not know...). However, they were given a choice, to join the Wehrmacht voluntarily, or involuntarily. The majority were more than willing to fight the soviets after the inhumane treatment they had recieved.
I do not know which unit he served with, for he never spoke about the war. I only have second accounts from people that knew him before I did. However he served in the Wehrmacht, then at some point in '43 he came home to Estonia to be reunited with his wife. They had married a couple weeks before the breakout of war. They both decided to go to Finland, so they had to give away everything they owned to try to get on board a ship to Finland. There my grandfather wanted to join the Finnish Army, but before he got a chance to do that a bomb fell on a barn they slept in overnight. Packed with refugees, half the barn disappeared. It was winter and the snow painted red and black with blood, guts and mutilated bodies. That's when his wife had enough of war and they continued to seek a way to safety. They crossed the baltic sea from Finland to Sweden in a small fishing boat packed with refugees. At one time they hit a rock and got stuck, someone had to go into the water and try to get the boat clear. There was a draw and my grandfather had to go in to free the boat. They arrived in Sweden and were taken care of as war refugees. That must have been in early '44.
My dad was born in 45. Grandfather continued to study economy at the 'Handelshögskolan' in Stockholm while learning the language at the same time, now that is a show of determination. He was very successful in his career but died of heart problems in 1991 at the age of 71.
His brother on the other hand, met a Estonian-German nurse at a hospital while recovering from a wound. He obviously had a deeper hate of the Soviet Union than my granfather for some reason. One can only speculate why but in my view the most likely cause is the time in the gulag camp. In his own words, he "fell in love with this woman, and at the same time with Germany". He fought on the east front until the end. They managed to get to Canada together and lived there the rest of their lives, but had no children.
So many lives lost, not only the dead but the living too lost their lives, their souls, their hope. Live through hell at one time in your life and you will always carry that hell with you for as long as you live, it is not optional. Of the original 8.000 Estonian University students only a handful survived the war. Most of those who survived the time imprisoned by the Soviets, died in German uniform fighting for what they believed to be a free Estonia one day. Something that we now today know probably never would have been realized. These men were f***ed over by both sides, in a war that was not theirs. The majority of the men who actually survived the war were executed post-war by the Soviet Union.
To me it is amazing they both lived through this hell, and to me that is the greatest achievement of all. To stand at the very edge seeing so many fall, but have the willpower and determination to pull through to the other side.
Medals endorsed by the govenment mean little to the men dying in the front line. All fighting men of WW2 know this, and those who were there honor the dead the most. Not their own medals or achievements. That is for later generations to admire (us) without knowing what they really mean.
