Selected text
It was 35 degrees below zero when we got off the train in Omsk. All of us were lightly dressed. When I left the house in Rakvere, it was summer and I did not even take a jacket, nothing to speak of a coat. We, befuddled by propaganda, gullibly used to think that we would be back home in two or three months. We even appointed meetings with those who would survive in Rakvere at 6 o’clock after the war was over – but we were to wait till four years later… We were not given uniforms by the army. Then we started looking for warm clothes.
The former secretary of Tartu regional party committee met us at the station and said that I was to go to the kolkhoz [23]. We went to the station of Kolonia, 130 kilometers from Omsk, There were 36 kolkhozes, where only Estonians lived and worked. These were Estonians, who in the 19th century went to Siberia, the Crimea and Georgia to look for fortune, and founded a colony here. We stopped by a kolkhoz named after Karl Marx. It was a large and rich kolkhoz. People lived comfortably there. There were only Estonians, very hardworking people.
On the second day we went to work. We cleaned cow pens. We worked diligently and people from the kolkhoz gave us valenki [warm Russian felt boots], gloves and hats. We stayed with different families. People treated us very well. I remember I marked my birthday there and the locals brought me two cooked geese, white bread and all kind of food. We celebrated New Year’s of 1942 there as well and on 10th January we were told to go to Omsk for the formation of the Estonian corps [24].
The former secretary of Tartu regional party committee met us at the station and said that I was to go to the kolkhoz [23]. We went to the station of Kolonia, 130 kilometers from Omsk, There were 36 kolkhozes, where only Estonians lived and worked. These were Estonians, who in the 19th century went to Siberia, the Crimea and Georgia to look for fortune, and founded a colony here. We stopped by a kolkhoz named after Karl Marx. It was a large and rich kolkhoz. People lived comfortably there. There were only Estonians, very hardworking people.
On the second day we went to work. We cleaned cow pens. We worked diligently and people from the kolkhoz gave us valenki [warm Russian felt boots], gloves and hats. We stayed with different families. People treated us very well. I remember I marked my birthday there and the locals brought me two cooked geese, white bread and all kind of food. We celebrated New Year’s of 1942 there as well and on 10th January we were told to go to Omsk for the formation of the Estonian corps [24].
Year
1942
Location
Omsk
Russia
Interview
Isaac Serman