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My mother worked at the factory until the end of June 1941. She never missed one day of work. When the factory announced evacuation, my mother started packing. However, my father refused to evacuate. He might have evacuated to Yaroslavl [today Russia] with his theater, but for some reasons my father decided to stay in Tallinn. He was never interested in any politics and he was probably hoping he could manage all right, when the Germans arrived. They needed good tailors, didn’t they? My mother didn’t insist that he went with us. We evacuated on 4th July 1941. My father’s sister Tsypa was with us. She was single and was very much attached to our family. Zisle was also with us for some time. My father’s parents and Grandmother Eide evacuated with her daughters Juganna and Sheve.
I have vague and random memories of our trip. I remember that Lea and I wore fancy red coats that our father had made for us. We took a train and I remember my father giving us bags full of candy through the window. I remember a bombing. The train stopped, and people were jumping off the train. My mother grabbed Lea, and Aunt Zisle had me and we hid in some bushes by the track. This was terrible. Many women had babies and they were screaming so loudly that they could be heard over explosions. Then we went back to our carriages, and the train moved on and we didn’t know where it was heading. Aunt Zisle and her family went to the Ural [today Russia], and we went to Siberia.
In Siberia we arrived at Novoselskiy settlement in Kurgan region [about 1500km from Moscow]. We were accommodated in a local house. My mother and Tsypa went to work in a collective farm [10], and my sister and I spent our days alone. I remember a large Russian stove [11] with a bench bed on it, which was very handy, particularly, when the frosts were severe. We spent our days on this bench bed. We had no warm clothes with us, and it was warm on the bench. We received no food cards [12]. My mother received potatoes and some grain as payment for her working days [13] in the collective farm. This was the food we had then. It was a bit easier in the spring and the summer. We picked nettle, and my mother made delicious soup with it. We were actually starving and grew very weak.
I have vague and random memories of our trip. I remember that Lea and I wore fancy red coats that our father had made for us. We took a train and I remember my father giving us bags full of candy through the window. I remember a bombing. The train stopped, and people were jumping off the train. My mother grabbed Lea, and Aunt Zisle had me and we hid in some bushes by the track. This was terrible. Many women had babies and they were screaming so loudly that they could be heard over explosions. Then we went back to our carriages, and the train moved on and we didn’t know where it was heading. Aunt Zisle and her family went to the Ural [today Russia], and we went to Siberia.
In Siberia we arrived at Novoselskiy settlement in Kurgan region [about 1500km from Moscow]. We were accommodated in a local house. My mother and Tsypa went to work in a collective farm [10], and my sister and I spent our days alone. I remember a large Russian stove [11] with a bench bed on it, which was very handy, particularly, when the frosts were severe. We spent our days on this bench bed. We had no warm clothes with us, and it was warm on the bench. We received no food cards [12]. My mother received potatoes and some grain as payment for her working days [13] in the collective farm. This was the food we had then. It was a bit easier in the spring and the summer. We picked nettle, and my mother made delicious soup with it. We were actually starving and grew very weak.
Period
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
Edith Umova