Taken in the Middle of the Night — Silvia Lass’ Story

MEIE KALLIS EMA, SILVIA LASS (Nee Meerits)

By Gitta Opassi

Meie Kallis (ED: Our darling) Ema Silvia was born in Voisiku, Estonia on 13 August 1912. Her parents, Helena and Anton Meerits, had nine children; five died at birth. Ema (ED: mother) was the youngest, with an older sister, Ida and two brothers, Paul and Karl Meerits. She married Heinrich Lass on 31 December 1936 in Tallinn.

During 1941 thousands of innocent men, women and children were either killed or deported to Siberia, one of whom was ema’s husband, Heinrich. With a knock on the door, he was taken in the middle of the night and Silvia never found out what happened to him or why he was taken by the Russians – she feared he was deported to Siberia. The mystery of Heinrich’s disappearance is still not known to this day. At this time ema was pregnant with Maie, who sadly never knew her father.

After Maie’s birth (16 August 1941), Germany invaded Estonia but ema told me she regarded the German army as their liberator from the tyranny of Soviet Union occupation. During the autumn of 1944 the Soviet Union army advanced back into Estonia and heavily bombed Tallinn. The German Army retreated and fearing deportation to Siberia, ema made the heartbreaking decision to flee Estonia. Her mother begged for Maie to stay with her, they would be reunited when the war ended, but ema insisted that Maie should be with her.

On 21-22 September 1944, along with thousands of Estonians, ema and 3 year old Maie, fled Tallinn. The last convoy of 5 ships were waiting in Tallinn Harbour. They were to board the Red Cross hospital ship, Moero. Ema wouldn’t board because she was waiting for her mother Helena, who was looking after Maie on their farm in Voisiku, to arrive. Vanaema and Maie arrived after Moero had left its berth. As the Moero sailed away from the harbour it was torpedoed by the Soviets in the Baltic Sea and thousands died while it sank. With mixed feelings of deep horror of seeing Tallinn burning, sadness of Moero’s sinking but with great relief that she did not board it, ema and Maie were able to board the last ship Lappland, before the Soviet Union closed Estonia’s borders. Ema never saw her immediate family again but many years later was able to make contact and write to her surviving mother and sister.

When the Lappland arrived in Gotenhaven, (known as Gdynia), ema and Maie travelled by train to Berlin, Germany and then continued on to Worms to live with her girlfriend who had repatriated with her husband to Germany just as the war started.

After World War II ended and settling into a new life in Germany, ema worked with UNNRA in Bensheim/Hessen. This part of Germany was in the American Zone. Sometime during 1946 Maie contracted measles and she has a memory of being driven to the hospital in Heidelberg in an American Army Jeep.

Ema met Johann (Hans) Behr and moved to Zweibrucken to live with him and his family, giving Maie a family environment. On 14 May 1948, Hans was cleaning a disused war tank when a “live” grenade exploded killing him instantly.

Ema was 4 months pregnant with me and, yet again, sadly lost the father of her unborn child. I too did not know my father.

— Gitta Opassi

Grief stricken, ema left Zweibrucken and moved to Camp Diez, a Displaced Persons Camp in Neiderlahnstein (now known as Lahnstein) on the Rhine.

Shortly after, I was born in Oberlahnstein (29 October 1948). Doctors advised ema to have me baptised as I was close to death with pneumonia. On recovering, the doctors advised her to leave Europe and “move your daughters to a warmer climate”. She did not want to leave Germany. Like many Displaced Persons from the Baltic countries, ema had hopes of returning to Estonia but those hopes faded when the Iron Curtain tightly closed the borders of the three Baltic countries. Again, she made the heartbreaking decision to leave her adopted homeland.

— Gitta Opassi

Ema’s preferred choice was America but not having a sponsor, this was not an option. An agent from Chile invited her to go to Chile which she considered. Luckily, shortly after, she met up with people who advised her not to go to Chile – they had heard it was a corrupt country. They were going to Australia and suggested she should go too. Having changed her mind about Chile, ema always said that she never regretted her decision to come to Australia.

Travelling by train to a camp in Senegallia, Italy, ema was required to stay here until Gitta had turned 1 years old – the ships’ authorities wouldn’t allow babies under 12 months old to travel. They then travelled across Italy to Bagnoli Transit Camp.

From Bagnoli Camp, ema travelled to Naples to board the ship Skaugum departing on 2 November 1949. During the voyage, ema was quite seasick and spent most of the time confined to bed. It fell on Maie, an 8 year old child, to care for baby Gitta. Maie’s memory of the journey was that men and women were separated and many slept up on deck because of the heat.

Skaugum arrived at Lee Wharf, Newcastle on 29 November 1949. During the journey from Naples, many children suffered from measles, pneumonia, meningitis, and malnutrition. When Skaugum berthed, Gitta was one of nine children with measles admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital.

From Newcastle, the family travelled by train to Greta Migrant Camp where they lived in army huts until 1955. It was at Greta Migrant Camp ema met Djuro Dragas who had also fled his Montenegro homeland. Djuro had arrived in Newcastle on the Fairsea on 19 August 1949.

Siiri, was born at Greta Migrant Camp Hospital on 29 November 1950, exactly a year later to the date of our arrival in Newcastle. Siiri’s birth sealed their relationship which continued for 44 years until ema’s death in July 1993.

Life at Greta Migrant Camp was good, providing an opportunity to finally enjoy stability. Ema worked at the Camp Hospital and Maie’s memory of camp life was one of freedom, lots of food and with her friends climbing Mt Molly Morgan and roaming around the vast camp area. But with ema needing to go to work, Maie was again required to take care of Gitta and Siiri.

In January 1958 at the young age of 16, Maie won the Miss Newcastle Beach Girl competition. It was an exciting time for Maie and a very proud moment for our family. Maie’s win resulted in many newspaper articles, one of which headlined “Daddy was killed during the war”.

When I read this, I asked Siiri, “If daddy was killed during the war, then who is this man?” meaning Djuro (Siiri’s father). For us, we slowly began to learn about ema’s personal losses and hardships.

— Gitta Opassi

Whilst ema had a deep sadness from the many traumatic periods in her life, both during and early post war years, she was a strong, courageous woman to survive the traumas of fleeing Estonia, leaving Germany, and the loss of both Maie and Gitta’s fathers before they were born. Beginning a new life in Australia was challenging.

Ema had close friendships and attended all social gatherings with the Estonian community in Newcastle and Sydney. She received Meie Kodu by mail to keep up with Estonian news and events (her death was published) and really enjoyed travelling to Sydney by bus with her Estonian friends to attend Eesti Maja’s activities.

In 1991 when Estonia finally regained its Independence from Soviet Union occupation, she refused to travel to Estonia because she wanted to remember her happy memories of an unoccupied Estonia and always said that the Soviets had destroyed Estonia. I hope she is “looking down from heaven” and seeing how beautifully restored and thriving her beloved homeland is now.

Meie ema (ED: our mother) is survived by her three daughters, one granddaughter and four great-grandchildren.

In 2014, Siiri and I travelled to Estonia to experience and enjoy Laulupidu. We scattered ema’s ashes in the park of Toome Hill close to the ruins of the medieval cathedral and Museum of the University of Tartu. This park was chosen because ema always spoke of her memory of “being with nature”, especially walking through parks during Autumn which was her favourite season.

Credits: Written by Gitta Opassi, with memory consults/confirmations from Maie and Siiri

This story was collected as part of a campaign in support of the Mass Flight Memorial. If you have a story to share about your family’s mass flight experience, please write to us at news@eesti.org.au