Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Mustjala on the way to Vohma - July 7th 2010

Mustjala - thoughts and photos from Sylvia Ounpuu




Our first stop on the way to Vohma was Mustjala. This is a small town 11 KM west of Vohma where the Ounpuu's church was. It was also the location of the training grounds of the German army where Albert Ounpuu was training to go to the front in Eastern Estonia on August 16th, 1944.

We first visited the church - Kaatariina Kirku where the Ounpuu's attended - but not frequently during war time. We were not able to get into the church as the minister was not there - he lives 35 KM away. Unfortunately, we were not able to see birth/marriage and death records as a result. The church is still active and also is the location of concerts.



Photos: Kaatariina Kirku: Stephanie, Luis, Vyv, Reet, Alex and Ernst at front door.


We bought provisions for lunch - dark Estonian bread and cheese at the single Mustjala Pood (store) in town. It was one of those places that sold about everything including... see photo below.

Photo: Colgate items well placed!

Before leaving the town we explored swinging Estonian Style. Now an "extreme" sport where the goal is to go 360 on the longest swing! We tried this 6 person swing in the Mustjala school grounds. Not sure I wanted to go higher than we were!



Outside of town, was the church cemetary. This was one of the most interesting and moving parts of the visit for me. Estonian cemetries are wooded spaces not like ones here. There are much less manicured but very peaceful spaces. This is where we saw the gravestones of many relatives on the Ounpuu and Heinmets sides. They are cared for by Siama. The new graves have sandy boxes in front of them that she rakes and removes leaves etc. We were also able to visit Uncle Uuno's grave - Ernst's youngest brother. Who "came home for his final rest".




Great grandpa Mikkel Ounpuu, Uuno Ounpuu and Kallas family - except the one who survived my great uncle - ?? (dad need help here)

Full tomb of Mikkel Ounpuu.

Also Marie Heinmets - great grandmother (?) and Hilda Ounpuu's brother Elmar and wife Ella Elizabeth. These are the parents of Saima and Mai.



Not to be disrespectful, but we could have had it worse growing up in Toronto with another "tree" name!

Next time I go - I would like to be able to see the Kirku records and spend more time in the cemetary taking care of the less cared for grave sites of my ancestors and identify the Ounpuu's/Heinmets I saw there that we did not know who they were - Addelle, Matti, etc...

We helped Saima tidy the graves and than went to Touste her summer homestead that is next to her father's homestead - and my grandmother Hilda's homestead. Saima had beautiful flower and vegetable gardens like my grandma and grandpa Hilda and Albert. There was also an above ground "root" cellar - built of brick, covered with dirt and grass (see back of middle photo below). Most farms had these storage spaces to keep food.



Saima at her country home. When I look at her she reminds me of grandma Hilda.

After visiting Saima's home, we went to Vohma. (next link)













We saw the foot print of grandma Hilda's house and the barn which is still standing - see below.








Sunday, July 11, 2010

Last few days in Estonia



Three generations of Laats.

Last days, by Vyv
Thursday July 8, Saaremaa to Tallinn:
We visited the home of Mae Heinmets (dad's first cousin on his mom's side) in Kurressare. Most homes are still heated through long cold winters with wood burning stoves that are also used for cooking. Everyone has a vegetable garden. The homes we visited were smaller than we are used to, and much simpler in decoration and design. It made me think that we certainly could live happily with much less.
We visited the Kaali Meteorite Crater on the way to the ferry. The main crater is 110m wide; there are 8 others in the area.
We also stopped in the town of Haapsalu to visit a Rehab Hospital; Sylvia had met the director and therapists of a brand new gait lab at her meeting in Brussels last week. While she was touring the facility, we walked around the pretty seaside town.

Friday July 9:
On our last full day back in Tallinn, my second cousin Sirje joined us in the bus for a driving tour of the suburbs of the city.

Photo - Luis in the Convent at Pirita - where we toured the ruins of a large convent.
We visited Pirita, where some locals who have been financially successful since the 1991 liberation live. There were many new homes situated near the sea with green space and fantastic Finnish influenced architecture. Also in Pirita we visited the site of the sailing events of the 1980 Moscow summer olympics. We stopped in Kadriorg, a beautiful park




Photo - in front of the Kadriorg Palace and Gardens.



where the presidential palace, government house and national art museum are located. We had a quick tour of Sirje's apartment in a communist era building down town.

Photo of Kitu Ernst from Sirje's photo album.


Our last evening was spent at a restaurant with extended family, 23 in total. It was another surreal experience; to share blood lines with most of the folks in the room who had experienced lives so different than our own based on the actions of my grandpa, Albert Ounpuu, 65 years ago. We could see family resemblances in their faces and there was a warmth and connection in the room.
Photo of most of the group at dinner.



Jonas' family.



Photo - Cousins out for dinner - Ernst and Maia, his first cousin, daughter of Grandpa Albert's sister.

On the walk home we stopped at Reet's (dad's wife) apartment house. Reet's dad was with the Bank of Estonia in Tallinn, and they lived right down town in a beautiful old apartment building. Her home was much like she remembered it. We snuck into the guarded building when a resident left and went up to the 5th floor door where Reet lived. We debated about knocking to go in and see with the offering of a rose - but it was alreay 11:00 PM!!! See Reet at appartment door below.
Photo - outside of the Eesti Pank - workplace of Reet's Dad.

Photo - Balcony from Reet's appartment in Tallinn.
Photo: Reet standing in front of her childhood appartment door!
Saturday July 10
Back to our lives in Canada and the US but a little bit changed forever with a new awareness of my roots. Thanks to Taffy for suggesting the trip, and to Dad for the planning and facilitating. It was amazing.
Dad and Reet spent an additional day to drive south to Reet's birth town and will fly home to Toronto on July 12.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Explaining the Context and Exploring Ernst's roots, July 7, 2010

By Vyvyan: With centuries of occupation by Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Poland, Estonia achieved independence from Russia with the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty in 1919, at the end of the First World War. The country enjoyed a brief period of economic growth and increase in achievement of secondary education. On the political front however, there was fear of communist subversion and the emergence of authoritarian rule. Estonia’s fate was sealed when Nazi Germany and the USSR negotiated a secret pact in 1939 that divided Eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of influence. Estonia declared itself neutral, but was forced to sign a pact with Russia. Thousands of Russian soldiers arrived in Esto, along with military naval and air bases. Tens of thousand were conscripted and sent not to fight, but to work (and usually die) in Siberia. Thousands, including women and children were sent to gulags (horrific work camps aka concentration camps without the gas chambers.) When Germany occupied Esto, about 55,000 Estonians were conscripted into the German Army. Towards the end of the war, teens as young as 16 (the cousins that would accompany dad and his family) and men as old at 50 (including my grandpa, Albert Ounpuu) were included in the draft. The Nazis retreated in September 1944. With neither German nor another period of Russian occupation presenting a viable future, thousands of Estonian families devised plans to flee to Sweden and Finland. This history sets the stage for our dad’s story.

August 16, 1944 - Setting the Stage
Albert returned from the German army training camp in Mustjala on an overnight leave before being deployed on the front in Narva near the Russian border in eastern Estonia. Albert believed that if he went to Narva he would not return alive. He was granted the leave upon his request to catch fish for his family to eat while he was away. The Germans had confiscated all personal boats but allowed them out occasionally on request. His secret plan, known only to Hilda and Albert’s mother Maria (who was living with them at Kitu, the farm) was to escape Estonia that night via the sea.
The trip was approximately 150 km, or 90 miles across the wide open Baltic Sea. Albert had been sinking his gasoline rations in metal drums off of a rock outcropping in the middle of Kudema Laht (a bay) about a mile from their farm.
Albert left to allegedly head out to sea to fish. Actually he raised his sunken gasoline stores, and then feigned motor problems to not make any noise and rowed in to a small island in the bay. There he met the family.
Hilda (41), Erna (16), Ernst (12), Uuno (9) gathered under the pear tree at 9:30pm to say good-bye to Vana Ema Maria. Ernst was wearing his new wool suit…the first pair of long pants he had ever owned. Other than the clothes they wore, they took a smoked ham, fresh water, and a bottle of whisky that Albert planned to drink to celebrate his 48th birthday when the landed in Sweden on August 18. They also had a compass and the map of Eastern Europe torn out of Ernst’s 2nd grade school book. There were also 3 teenage cousins of dad who had also been drafted, including one who was to be navigator. He was stopped by a German patrol and sent home under the mandated curfew. He did not make it to the beach at their designated meeting time and was left behind. The family walked the mile from the farm through the woods to the beach and rowed out into the bay in Ernst’s small sailing boat. Lucky for them it was an overcast night; the glow of the midnight sun did not illuminate them to the border guards.
As they headed out, the wind and surf picked up, and it started to rain. It was a mixed blessing as the storm provided cover but it made it virtually impossible to navigate. Figuratively speaking, the stars were aligned that night; after about 36 hours at sea the family landed on a tiny island, Sandon, about 3/5 of the way to Sweden. It had a staffed lighthouse, located about 50km off the coast of Sweden. The odds of hitting the island in the huge sea were miniscule; the wind from the northeast was working against their small motor's effort to take them north to Sweden's shores. Albert arrived with gasoline burns on his hands and legs from trying to pour the gas from the large storage container into the fuel tank in the rough sea. The rest had spent the night bailing the boat as they were continuously swamped, but were unhurt. Albert’s celebratory whisky bottle had broken from the rough action of the boat.
A few days later when the provision boat arrived, they were taken from the island and processed in a refugee camp in Gotland and then to Stockholm. Their belongings were burned and they were issued new clothes. The Swedes assigned them to refugee housing. The Ounpuus lived in Sweden for 5 years where Dad and his siblings attended school and Albert and Hilda worked to save money.
They had thought that the Americans and the allied forces were going to free Estonia, but instead an agreement was signed and Estonia became part of the Soviet Union. Sweden was too close to the enemy and they feared forced return to the Soviet repression they knew. Their goal became saving enough money for passage to Canada.
Dad’s older brother Edgar was of draft age in 1944, and had fled first to Sweden and then to Canada, a few months ahead of his family in both cases. His escape story is very similar.
The extended family we met in Esto all lived/were born under Communist rule for 50 years until 1991. For about 30 of those years there was almost no contact allowed through the Iron Curtain; those who got out did not know the fate of loved ones left behind. One relation said to me that 'It was the smart ones that got out in 1944.' I think it was a combination of smarts, creativity and lots of luck. Though they did not live in a democracy until recently and have not had as many material things and have had to live in conditions we consider primitive, there seemed to be lots of happiness and love.

Exploring Dad's Homestead in the village of Vohma, Saaremaa.
The drive from Kuressaare to Vohma is 37 km north along a mostly paved two lane country road. The island is very sparsely populated outside of Kuressaare with small farmhouses made of cinderblock with corrugated steel roofs.

Our first stop of the morning was at Mustjala church, where Dad was christened. The Ounpuu family traveled the 7km to the church from Vohma only for special occasions. The church sat among wildflowers, lots of clover and big trees, a very pretty setting. The doors were locked so we could not get inside; through the keyhole the church looked lovely. The town consisted of a community hall, a store (with lots of Colgate product), a school house and maybe a half dozen homes. Also, key to every town is a Kiik, or town swing. Apparently there are now world championships in 'Kiiking' where you go 360 degrees around the top bar.

Our next stop was the Mustjala cemetery. Set in the woods like others we've seen in Esto, we were able to visit the burial sites of dad's brother Uuno, Mikael Ounpuu (dad's grandfather), Ado and Maria Heinmets (Hilda Ounpuu's parents), and many other parents of Toronto Esto friends. Uuno's request was to have his ashes returned to his home (he died in Toronto in 1996.)
Our next stop was Dad's farm in Vohma, a tiny 'town' of maybe 200 people.

Photo: Kitu Ernst meets Kitu Milvi (current land owner) who knew Ernst as a child and whose mother recalls seeing Albert Ounpuu walking to his fishing boat the night of their escape.


Photo: barn building that Ernst built with his dad in 1942 - including making these bricks. They hid a shot gun under the eave, punishable by banishment to Siberia.





Photo: Sylvia, Ernst, Vyvyan and Stephanie under pear tree (same one) which was departure point of family at the farm.






We were hosted at the Ounpuu farm, Kitu, by the current owner, her daughter and grand daughter Triin. The well from Dad's time was still there, as was the barn. A new house had been built onthe foundation of the original. The birch and pear trees that dad remembered were bigger, but still standing. The big rock at the end of the drive had not changed.

It was surreal and moving to share this visit with Dad, to see where he grew up and how his family lived before the war changed everything. I will never forget the excitement and emotion in Dad as one memory after another was uncovered.

Our next stop was Vohma's elementary school. The librarian/historian pulled out an old photo album in which we found a photo of dad from grade 1 class of 1939-40, the youngest photo of him we've ever seen. We also found photos of his sister Erna and brother Edgar and several friends. Very cool. Dad attended the school for 2 or 3 years before the war when German sodiers took over the building to use as a barracks.

We also visited Panga Pank, (Pank =cliff, so the cliffs at Panga), the highest point on the island of Saarema and the beach where Grandpa's fishing boat was launched on the night of their escape. On a beautiful day the surf was rough and the sea stretched to the horizon; it was hard to comprehend heading out from there with my family at night in a storm in a tiny boat with the goal of landing on the other side.

Luis' version of 07 July 2010


Hey everybody,
It’s Luis; here is an update of what we did today. Today we had a drive around of where my grandpa used to live before he left Estonia. We visited a graveyard where some family relatives are buried it was very very buggy and had lot’s of mosquito’s so I got bit a lot. Then we went to visit where grandpas old house was, he owned a farm when he was young. At the age of twelve he left on a boat a month before the Germans attacked. Then after we went to visit grandpa’s old school where they had dormitories and a dance room and a kitchen. We looked at pictures of grandpa when he was young and some other family members. We also saw this swing which was really cool that could fit six people on it.
Then we went to a bunch of cliffs that had this really cool sundial. That told use the time. Then we went to an area by the cliffs where we had a snack of Estonian bread and some cheese. We went to the town where grandpa was born and he showed us the park that he used to play on when he was a little boy. We had a little drive and I spent most of it reading my book. When we got back to the hotel me and my mom played ping pong for about twenty minutes until we went back to start writing this post.
Yours
Luis Ounpuu Antebi!!
PS. Happy 40th Birthday to Nancy Gulliver!!
Standard shift 9 seater!

July 6 Tallinn to Saarema

Ernst, Syl and I picked up the party bus in the am and we managed a 9:00am start from the Radisson Blu downtown. The route west out of Tallinn was straightforward and the traffic light. We were heading to the western edge of the mainland to a ferry terminal that would carry us to the largest of Estonia's over 1500 island's, Saaremaa, to explore Dad's birthplace.

Driving onto the brand new Regula.

Stephanie and Luis on the Regula to Saaremaa.

Saaremaa is known today as a holiday destination for Esto's, Finn's and Swede's. It is pancake flat, covered in fir (juniper & pine) and birch trees and sparsely populated. We are staying in the only town with a significant population, Kuressaare on the south western side.
The trip, including a 45 minute highly modern ferry ride took a total of 5 hours. We spent the balance of the afternoon exploring the Kuressaare castle. There were wonderful exhibits inside including many photographs and items of early life on the island. There was an educational disply including videos of World War 2 on Saaremaa with a time line of events. It was really interesting - also noted an Ounpuu listed in one of the stories.

Photos: inside the castle - Ernst, Reet, Alex and Vyvyan and Vyv, Ernst and Reet on the bridge over the moat.

We were joined at dinner by two of dad's cousin's, Mai and Saima. They are two of 8 of Elmar Heinmets' children. (Elmar was Hilda (Ernst's mom) brother.) He and his wife and 8 children did not make it out of Esto in 1944 despite trying; traveling with a family of 10 was cumbersome and expensive. Both Mae and Saime reminded Syl, Taffy and me of our grandmother Hilda in their looks and genuine warmth and friendliness. We ate a typical Esto meal, Reet sampled the wild boar, in a restaurant converted from an old windmill (1899) that was in use to grind grain until the 1980's.

The next moring - July 7th we left town to drive north to Vohlma.
Dad was born in a small village on the north side of the island open to the Baltic Sea, called Vohlma in 1932. That is where we will explore tomorrow.









Monday, July 5, 2010

Day in Tallinn, 05 July 2010

Post by Luis: I have loads to tell about today.

Today we had a tour bus ride around Tallinn. Each bus ride is an hour long. We went to different places such as the Olympic village, the botanical gardens and even some ruins. Then my mom went shopping at this market, we met this nice lady at a stand and my mom took about a half hour to decide what she wanted to get. Then we went to the old town because we had a private walking tour of the old town. We had a really nice tour guide who told us lots about the town and stores (I even got a picture of the prime minister back of his head).
My pictures include a statue of a man named Voldemort (not Voldemort from Harry Potter), a horse place, a view of the entire town, and a really cool piece of art and many many many more. After we went for dinner at an Italian pizza place which was really good. We then walked back to the hotel to have some down time.

Yours
Luis Ounpuu Antebi

Further highlights about the tour:
Eero our guide is a 40'ish typical Esto man who did a great job of explaining Esto history
Some shared highlights of the day:
* Tuomiokirkko Church which had the family crests of those buried in the church covering the wall;
*Freedom Square monument is glass to represent the fragility of the Freedom of Esto and the ice of cold winters, the cross at the top represented the medal of honor given to fallen soldiers
* The absolute center of the main square in the lower town where you can see 5 church spires;
*Eero's comment referring to the Soviet occupation and why to this day tension remains between the Estos and Russians; "Russians in Esto feel that they liberated Estonians from the Nazi's whereas the Esto's feel that the Russians occupied their country".
*Big rock that was used to block the route of Russian tanks in 1991 at the end of the Singing Revolution was displayed as a monument to the event. We stood on the spot where the singing revolutionaries stood and parted to make a path for the parliamentarians to leave the parliamentarians in peace.
*Kunstikauplus Lohvik Art Shop Cafe, a pottery studio in the upper town off the most traveled routes where we had a break
*interesting that the Russian Orthodox church remains a huge fixture across the square from parliament
We had a delicious Esto dinner in the lower town with Sirje and Teele, (daughter and grand-daughter of Maia who is daughter of Hilda, sister of Albert Ounpuu (dad's dad). got that?!!
*The old city in Tallinn was built in the 1300's and was largely untouched by the second world war. As a result there is HUGE collection of old buildings and a labirynth of corridors and cobblestone streets to explore.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Tower - Toompea Loss


Hi All,
When I was a kid, my grandparents had a little statue of a tower with the Estonian flag on it. I believe that the same statue ended up in our house on Yorkminster Rd, and then it was transferred to Kestell Lane. Here is a photo of said tower. It is attached to the Parliament Buildings (pink building), and the flag continues to be raised each day. We had a great walk through the old city today. Beautiful weather…

Taffy