Message from AESL PRESIDENT 2024
Fellow Estonians
We have some important dates that we celebrate every year.
- On 24 February, we celebrate Estonia’s birthday – the Day of Independence.
- August 20 celebrates our re-independence and escape from the soviets in 1991.
- We also have family birthdays and other celebrations; many of us celebrate Christmas and Easter, and the New Year.
But we also need to remember some of the tragedies – the deaths of our mother, our father – other family members.
For Estonia and our Baltic brothers and sisters (Latvia and Lithuania), 14 Jun 1941 is a very sad day. It is also the reason why many of us are in Australia now.
It was the day when the russian army, who had invaded our homeland, took many people off to Siberia, to prison camps, to be worked to death, or to be shot.
As written by Mr Pauls Raudseps, Commentator for Latvian weekly news magazine “Ir” . .
The trucks with armed soldiers and secret policemen came for whole families. They were given only a few minutes to pack some things and then taken to the railway stations, where the men were separated from the women and children. Everyone was forced to get in cattle cars headed east. Able-bodied men were sent to concentration camps in the far north and far east where they were often worked to death in the mines or the forests. Women, children and old people were transported to isolated Siberian villages thousands of miles from home, where they worked for years on the edge of starvation in the local collective farms. Thousands of deportees died in the camps or in exile. Those who survived had to live with the trauma for the rest of their days.
These deportations were not the only crime committed by the Soviets against the Baltic peoples during almost 50 years of occupation. In 1949 a larger mass deportation took place, sending more than 90 000 people to Siberia. Over the course of those years tens of thousands of others were jailed, exiled, tortured and killed for refusing to submit to the Soviet regime and its inhuman policies. The economies of the Baltic States were exploited for the benefit of Moscow, leaving the populations, whose standard of living before the Second World War had been comparable to that of Finland, living in the absurdity and poverty of a planned economy. The cultures of the three Baltic States were subjected to russification and Soviet ideology. Cities were flooded with immigrants from the rest of the Soviet Union. No wonder many Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians began to fear for the very survival of their nations.
For some of you, June 14th is the story of your family members, and this day has an intense personal meaning as well.
Few of us alive today would have been there at the time – it was 83 years ago.
We did not personally experience this. But we know that it happened !!
Many younger Estonians never heard of this, as teaching about this (or even mentioning it) was banned from Estonian schools until after Estonia had regained independence.
But what happened then is happening again now – in the Ukraine, and also in other parts of the world.
It may be difficult to believe that the crimes of the Stalinist regime could be repeated today, yet they are. What happened 83 years ago in the Baltic States is happening right now in Ukraine.
Just as in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania those many years ago, even now Ukrainians are being deported, families separated, political opponents of the occupation regime imprisoned, tortured and killed at the behest of a ruler in the Kremlin. The Stalinist playbook has been dusted off and put to increasingly bloody use by the once and always KGB officer Vladimir Putin. The Russian president may have replaced a murderous socialism with a bloody nationalism, but he believes in Empire just as much as his predecessor, the general secretary of the Communist Party.
We do not know everything about what is happening in those occupied territories, but what we do know is a stark and tragic reminder that we forget the crimes of the past at our peril, because, if we let down our guard, they are likely to be repeated.
And while these deportations are occurring, the ethnic cleansing has already started.
But this day is about more than just remembrance.
Those of us whose families have come from Europe, whose families have experienced such horrors, must remember them; and we must also tell our stories to others, to prevent these from happening again.
So we need to learn about our own families’ histories, and we need to share these, pass on the stories, to prevent the same happening to our children, or their children, or to anyone else.
We must not forget our past – as has been often stated: “those who ignore history are due to repeat it”
Remember what happened in your own country, and work to stop it happening again;
Support Ukraine, and Help to fix current problems in the world.
Long live Free Estonia!
Dr Juho M. Looveer
President, AESL
14 June 2024
Sõnum AESL Presidendilt 2024
Kaaseestlased
Meil on mõned olulised kuupäevad, mida tähistame igal aastal.
- 24. veebruaril tähistame Eesti sünnipäeva – taasiseseisvumispäeva.
- 20. augustil tähistatakse meie taasiseseisvumist ja põgenemist nõukogude eest 1991. aastal.
- Meil on ka pere sünnipäevad ja muud pidustused; paljud meist tähistavad jõule ja lihavõtteid ning uut aastat.
Kuid me peame meeles pidama ka mõnda tragöödiat – oma ema, isa – teiste pereliikmete surma.
Eesti ja meie Balti vendade ja õdede (Läti ja Leedu) jaoks on 14. juuni 1941 väga kurb päev. See on ka põhjus, miks paljud meist on praegu Austraalias.
See oli päev, mil meie kodumaale tunginud Vene armee viis palju inimesi Siberisse, vangilaagritesse, surnuks töötama või mahalaskmisele.
Nagu kirjutas Pauls Raudseps, Läti iganädalase uudisteajakirja “Ir” kommentaator. .
Relvastatud sõdurite ja salapolitseinikega veoautod tulid tervetele peredele. Neile anti vaid mõni minut, et osa asju pakkida ja seejärel viidi need raudteejaamadesse, kus mehed naistest ja lastest eraldati. Kõik olid sunnitud istuma loomavagunitesse, mis suundusid itta. Töövõimelised mehed saadeti kaugel põhja ja ida pool asuvatesse koonduslaagritesse, kus nad sageli kaevandustes või metsades surnuks töötati. Naised, lapsed ja vanad inimesed veeti isoleeritud Siberi küladesse tuhandete kilomeetrite kaugusele kodust, kus nad töötasid aastaid nälja piiril kohalikes kolhoosides. Tuhanded küüditatuid surid laagrites või paguluses. Need, kes ellu jäid, pidid ülejäänud päevad traumaga elama.
Need küüditamised ei olnud ainus kuritegu, mille nõukogude võim Balti rahvaste vastu peaaegu 50 okupatsiooniaasta jooksul toime pani. 1949. aastal toimus suurem massiküüditamine, mille käigus saadeti Siberisse üle 90 000 inimese. Nende aastate jooksul vangistati, pagendati, piinati ja tapeti kümneid tuhandeid teisi, kuna nad keeldusid allumast Nõukogude režiimile ja selle ebainimlikule poliitikale. Balti riikide majandusi ekspluateeriti Moskva hüvanguks, jättes elanikkonna, kelle elatustase enne Teist maailmasõda oli võrreldav Soome omaga, elama plaanimajanduse absurdsuses ja vaesuses. Kolme Balti riigi kultuurid allusid venestamisele ja nõukogude ideoloogiale. Linnad ujutati üle ülejäänud Nõukogude Liidust pärit immigrantidega. Pole ime, et paljud eestlased, lätlased ja leedulased hakkasid kartma oma rahvaste püsimajäämise pärast.
Mõne jaoks on 14. juuni teie pereliikmete lugu ja sellel päeval on ka intensiivne isiklik tähendus.
Vähesed meist, kes praegu elus, oleksid sel ajal seal olnud – see oli 83 aastat tagasi.
Me ei kogenud seda isiklikult. Aga me teame, et see juhtus!!
Paljud nooremad eestlased ei ole kuulnud sellest kunagi, sest selle teemaline õpetamine (või isegi mainimine) oli Eesti koolides keelatud kuni Eesti taasiseseisvumiseni.
Kuid see, mis juhtus toona, kordub nüüd – Ukrainas ja ka mujal maailmas.
Võib-olla on raske uskuda, et stalinliku režiimi kuriteod võiksid täna korduda, ometi on see nii. See, mis juhtus 83 aastat tagasi Balti riikides, toimub praegu Ukrainas.
Nii nagu aastaid tagasi Eestis, Lätis ja Leedus, küüditatakse ka praegu ukrainlasi, eraldatakse perekondi, vangistatakse, piinatakse ja tapetakse Kremlis valitseja korraldusel okupatsioonirežiimi poliitilisi vastaseid. Stalinistlikust näidendiraamatust on tolmu pühitud ja üha verisemalt kasutusele võtnud kunagine ja alatine KGB ohvitser Vladimir Putin. Venemaa president võis asendada mõrvarliku sotsialismi verise natsionalismiga, kuid ta usub impeeriumisse sama palju kui tema eelkäija, kommunistliku partei peasekretär.
Me ei tea kõike, mis neil okupeeritud aladel toimub, kuid see, mida me teame, on karm ja traagiline meeldetuletus, et unustame mineviku kuriteod enda ohus, sest kui me oma valvsusest alla laseme, võivad need korrata.
Ja kuigi need küüditamised toimuvad, on etniline puhastus juba alanud.
Kuid see päev on rohkem kui lihtsalt mälestus.
Need meist, kelle perekonnad on pärit Euroopast ja kelle pered on kogenud selliseid õudusi, peavad neid meeles pidama; ja me peame oma lugusid ka teistele rääkima, et need ei korduks.
Seega peame õppima tundma oma perede ajalugu ja neid jagama, lugusid edasi andma, et vältida sama juhtumist meie laste või nende laste või kellegi teisega.
Me ei tohi unustada oma minevikku – Nagu on sageli öeldud: “need, kes ajalugu ignoreerivad, peavad seda kordama“
Pidage meeles, mis juhtus teie kodumaal, ja töötage selle nimel, et see ei korduks; Toeta Ukrainat, ja aita lahendada praeguseid probleeme maailmas.
Elagu vaba Eesti!
Dr Juho M. Looveer
President, AESL
14. juuni 2024