Hi from Bucharest.
Today I'd like to tell you some facts about Estonia. It's a small country in Northern Europe and a young full member of the European Union (since 2004). The capital is Tallinn. As you know I'm from Bucharest in Romania and as I have already told you I'm very interested in Human Rights and Freedom and the situation of people in other countries with a young democracy and a long way to reach standards which are "normal" in other countries of the world. In countries like the USA which have a long democratic tradition and history. Although the situation is getting better in Estonia there are still many problems regarding freedom and humanity. Estonia has a very sad past.
Once invaded by the Soviets, then the German army then re-taken by the Soviets, Estonia has an unstable, highly politicized history that is rife with human rights abuses. First recognized as an independent nation in 1920, it was not long before World War II broke out, at which time this nation of less than one million found itself entirely defenseless against a colossal enemy to the East.
During the Soviet occupation from 1940-1941, thousands of Estonian citizens were falsely prosecuted for political crimes, despite the perfect legality of their actions under sovereign Estonian law (which had been strictly anti-communist). Estonians were imprisoned, tortured, executed and deported. While this attack upon the populace was an obvious attempt to sovietize Estonia as rapidly as possible, Russia’s efforts were in vain; the rapidly advancing German army was to be no match for the Soviet occupation. The Soviets’ last-ditch crime against humanity was the massive forced relocation of Estonian citizens to inside the Soviet Union, before the Germans rolled in.
But the German occupation (1941-1944) proved no less grim. As with most other nations, the Nazis hit the ground running. By the end of WWII, less than Estonian 12 Jews who had remained in their country survived the Holocaust. Estonia was also a killing ground for foreign Jews, hosting a concentration camp in Jägala in which nearly all of the prisoners were shot dead upon closure of the camp.
The working conditions were deadly. In many cases, that was the point of the forced labor. Nazi work camps in Estonia were designed for brutality. Many died without being executed.
Vaivara was another concentration camp location that had to be evacuated when the Soviets were poised to re-capture Estonia. It is reported that 2,000 recently evacuated prisoners were shot, and their bodies burned. There is extensive documentation of Estonian police battalions and so-called “Freedom Fighters” who aided the German army in rounding up local Jews and other victims.
Indeed, the Jews weren’t the only victims. The small Roma population was hit hard, although their rate of survival was better than that of the Jews. In addition, six thousand ethnic Estonians were slaughtered and Soviet prisoners of war were murdered (needless to say, Germany had chosen to disregard international treatises on humane prisoner treatment).
Soviet re-occupation involved another bout of killings and arrests, and the regime’s human rights abuses continued throughout the term of the oppressive, dictatorial regime up until the restoration of democracy in 1989.
The memory of the Soviet occupation is bitter enough for some to be vying for the criminalization of the hammer and sickle – the Nazi swastika is already illegal. Estonia’s large Russian minority still uses employs imagery by waving red flags at public events. Indeed, the abuses of human rights may engender a restriction on free speech among the ethnic Russian minority group.
Some resources:
Best wishes and let the sunshine in...
Svetlana
