Why the pause?

Yesterday I happened to look at my business card and noticed that my blog site was on it.   I realized that events had kept me so busy that I had not had time to think about my blog.  The last entry was more than two years ago!!  What had preoccupied my time?

It was in 2013 that the Occupations Museum in Tallinn observed its 10^th anniversary and in preparation for that, the museum director had asked me to help with the translation of the exhibit texts into English.  In order to translate correctly the text about the museum founder’s biography, I contacted the daughter of the founder, Olga Kistler-Ritso, in the U.S.  As often happens, correspondence developed between us and I asked her whether she had read the book “Carrying Linda’s Stones”.  She had not, but she had read the book “When the Noise Had Ended:  Geislingen’s DP Children Remember”.  She had encouraged the Occupations Museum to incorporate stories from the Geislingen book into an exhibit at the museum and after she had read “Carrying Linda’s Stones”, she felt that the stories were powerful and should reach a wider audience.

It was also in 2013 that the Estonian language edition of “When the Noise Had Ended” appeared (Estonian title: Kui sõjamüra oli vaibunud.  Geislingeni põgenikelaagri laste mälestused).  I was asked by my Estonian colleagues abroad to help with the book’s presentation in Tallinn and I arranged for it at the Occupations Museum in August of that year. 

Simultaneously, the 70^th anniversary of the massive fleeing to the West came into focus and my suggestion to publish an Estonian language edition of “Carrying Linda’s Stones” for presentation in the fall of 2014 gained the support of the book’s editors, authors and other pertinent parties.  Having drafted a budget for such a publication, I turned to Estonian organizations in North America, Australia and Europe for funding.  As it turned out, contributions by end of 2013 were insufficient to carry out such a project and that’s how the reissue of the book, Mis teha - siin ta on (“Refugee”), was born (picture of the front cover appears at the top).  

As the editor of the reissue, I wrote in the Preface:

“As a schoolgirl in the Geislingen displaced persons camp, I read Mis teha - siin ta on (“Refugee”).   The book was popular in our refugee community and, later, it was on the bookshelves of our new homes abroad. 

One can hardly find a comparable piece of Estonian exile literature that describes so aptly - and in tones of dark humor - the experiences of the Estonian displaced person in wartime and post-war Germany.  

By 1946, it was certain that the Estonian refugees’ wish to return home cannot be realized and their future was uncertain.  It was in that environment that Arnold Sepp and Endel Kõks wrote and illustrated Mis teha - siin ta on.  It was published in 1947 with UNRRA’s permission.  While providing hearty laughter, the humorous text gave a psychological uplift to thousands and a glimmer of hope for the future.  

The republication of the book by Arnold Sepp and Endel Kõks with an introduction by today’s historians and with English translations is part of the activities taking place in Estonia to mark the massive fleeing to the West from Estonia 70 years ago. 

The reissue also endeavors to make available the refugees’ narrative to the Estonian reader, especially the readers who grew up during the Soviet occupation when the fate of Estonians who fled to the West was a taboo topic.

It is thanks to the support of the Estonian American National Council, the Rotalia Foundation, the Foundation for Estonian Arts, and Maano and Epp Milles, Aire and William Salmre, Richard and JoAn Conner, Mall Blumfeld, Karl Noor that this book appears.  The good collaboration by the Estonian Diaspora Academy historians Maarja Merivoo-Parro and Sander Jürisson during the compiling of the book and the Introduction they wrote deserve a special thanks.  Invaluable advice and good suggestions were given by numerous people whenever I discussed the book with them and I thank them for their input.

The hardships caused for Estonians by the Second World War are past.  But again, refugees are a reality.  The UN High Commission for Refugees reported this year that forced migration had exceeded the 50 million number of the World War II era, half of them children under the age of 18. Most of them are faced with a situation similar to what Estonian refugees experienced.  May they, at least, have a resource, which would make their misery more tolerable as did the book by Sepp and Kõks for us.”

So, most of 2014 was spent on preparing for the fall event which was to include the presentation of the reissue. Hence a lot of my time was spent as the editor and translator into English of Mis teha – siin ta on. 

After the observance in September, I left for the U.S. in October to visit family and friends, starting in Connecticut and ending in Florida.  In Connecticut, I visited with good friends in my former home town as well as in Norwalk and Greenwich.  After that I spent many wonderful days, including Thanksgiving, with my daughter’s family in McLean, Virginia.  My son lives in Sarasota, Florida, and I had planned to spend Christmas with him. I headed south at the beginning of December, stopping to visit my good friends since the days of my life in South Carolina.  I arrived in Florida about a week before Christmas and didn’t get back to Tallinn before early January 2015.  

Not long after returning to Tallinn, my younger sister who lives on a farm founded by our great-grandfather in southern Estonia became seriously ill and I went to the farm. Part of her illness prevented her from remembering the password to her computer. After she was released from the hospital, she was not to be left along for two weeks, and that's how most of the winter month of February was spent.  It was tranquil, yet busy. 

Having returned to Tallinn, I began to write a project application, based on a proposal made by activists in Norway, for the Estonian Women's Studies and Resource Centre.  The deadline for submission to the Nordic Council of Ministers was May 31, and it was met.  Almost forgot to mention that during the same period, my Rotary club's Assistance to Large Families Project Committee, which I head, visited families in Valga County for two days at the end of March, and the follow-up work to those visits I finished by end of June.  

Now it is mid-July and I've had time to reflect on the past two years.