Tag #117669 - Interview #83162 (Ester Khanson )

At every station where we stopped, we left a letter for David for him to know where we were heading. We were on the road for a long time. We had lunch at the stations. Local people treated us very well. They brought us food. I remember the train stopped all of a sudden. There were old ladies with kerchiefs on their heads. I said jokingly, ‘Here we are!’ Everybody was perturbed, but it turned out that I was right. We got off the train. It was Nizhnyaya Uvelka, Chelyabinsk oblast [about 1800 km from Moscow]. The old ladies came up to us and told us that they had been waiting for us and got the bath ready for us. I could not even imagine that.

We went out to look for lodging. Local people accommodated us. The hostess was very pleasant and treated us well. She was sure that the Soviet regime set us free and gave us Estonian, a better life. She asked me how we lived before our liberation. At that time I did not understand that it was better to keep silent and said that we were not liberated, but vice versa! We were free, lived in our own county and you took everything away from us. Probably, it was unexpected for the owner to hear that and she was very frightened! ‘What are you talking about?’ I said I told the truth. When the landlady and her cook went to the market it was hard to tell who was who. At this, the lady was intrigued and she started to ask me about our life. Mother was very worried and told me to keep silent as the woman could inform against us, but she turned out to be a decent lady and did not tell anyone about our conversations.