Frieda

This is my mother-in-law's cousin Frieda. I don't remember her surname. This photo was taken in Tartu in 1932. There was a tragic accident in my mother-in-law's family. Her cousin Frieda, much younger than Ida, was a very beautiful woman. Frieda and her family lived in Tallinn before the war. When the war began, Frieda didn't want to leave her home. She was telling my mother-in-law that there was nothing bad about the Germans, and that they were not going to hurt Jews. Estonia had been under German rule at some time, and there was nothing terrible happening. They knew German well, and she believed things were going to be all right. She was saying they would wear yellow stars, if necessary. What else was there going to be? They had managed more or less during the Bolshevik rule, and they would survive the Germans somehow. Therefore, Frieda stayed in Tallinn. When the Germans occupied Tallinn, they started arresting and killing Jewish residents. Many Jews stayed in Estonia thinking like Frieda did. Frieda was arrested right on a street. German soldiers pushed her into a bus where they raped and shot her. Some acquaintances told my mother-in-law what had happened after she returned to Tallinn.