Autumn 2024 will mark the 80th anniversary of this mass exodus, which saw tens of thousands of Estonians fleeing to the West in the face of the Soviet occupation of their country.
“Estonia is thought to have lost a fifth of its population in World War II,” President Karis explained. “That is only an estimate, because the exact number is impossible to determine. But such a state of unknowing is terribly unjust, because behind those numbers are real people and the vicissitudes of their lives.”
The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, which administers and is constantly adding to the database of names inscribed on the memorial to Estonian victims of communism in Maarjamäe in Tallinn, is seeking to create a similar database of the political refugees who fled the country in World War II, which will then be made available to researchers.
“Naturally, a wide range of archive material will be used in compiling the database, but it is very important that everyone contributes,” President Karis added. “Many of you, or your parents or grandparents, were forced to leave your homeland, and not everyone survived the journey. Thousands died in their search for freedom. By collecting information for the institute about your own families and about those who disappeared or are thought to have lost their lives on the journey, you will be contributing to the compilation of the database.”
This future store of information will be updated and added to over time as new details come to light. The initial version of the database – which will include archive entries and other materials from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, the United States, Canada and Australia – is hoped to be launched by autumn 2024.
“Here today is the right place and time to announce the task that the Institute of Historical Memory is undertaking,” said President Karis. “Because the Estonia Houses around the world were beacons of freedom which, though far from home, kept the flame of Estonian independence alive. You all know what it means to be political refugees and how important it is to document the crimes that were committed during the occupation.”
President Karis is the patron of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.
Everyone is invited to provide the institute with information about their own fates and those of their families, friends and acquaintances in World War II. See here.
