In looking through the "how do we know its six million" thread I came across something which caught me short. What happened in Tallinn? My mother in law is Estonian and lived in central Tallinn during the war until the return of Stalins bunch in September 1944. I get the impression there were Jewish bits in their near history though she says (and she lives to this day in England) that they were Lutherans. Whatever happened she is someone I would love to interview for this forum but don't have the words to ask her because to her its her life and family we are talking about. Can people understand how I feel watching her sprightly and feisty in her jeans (!) wandering around Waitrose in Horsham and no one can have a clue that here is a war survivor walking through fields of corpses out of Estonia.
Apologies I thought I was starting a new subject ie new thread and did not in any way intend it to be within this thread-my interests are pathetically trivial compared to the discussion. Still learning my way about the forum.
no worries Susan, I've moved your posts to start a new thread. wiki article for starters. The Holocaust in Estonia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pathetically trivial? By no means at all! I am quite ignorant of this matter and became most interested in your M.I.L. story. Perhaps with some gentle persuasion you might have her talking...
Well the wikipedia entries show why a Jewish friend of mine said the Germans had a map with the words " nil juden" (or words to that effect) over Estonia. I am going to contact M I L's sister who lives in New York and is more talkative on the subject of the war (I think because she was younger). Their father Endel Kirsimagi was certainly a doctor whom the Germans dragooned to work for them. When I found the family home in the heart of old Tallinn I found they were living 50 metres from a building marked with a plaque as being the SS HQ with bricked up lower windows. A very chilling experience in such a beautiful city
