The website consists of an extensive photo album put together by Vaino Kallas. The photos were taken by Karl Hintzer who taught at the Tartu Hugo Treffneri Gümnaasium and was later a photographer with the Estonian war correspondents attached to German forces. His archive consists of almost 24,000 photos and it is now in Germany in the Herder Institute photo archives.
I think that many of my generation that were born outside Estonia and are interested in Estonian history will enjoy viewing the extensive photos, and no, not all 24,000 have been posted. The subject matter, clarity and overall high quality of these old photos is astounding and a testament to the skill of Mr. Hintzer.
The subject material is tasteful and is does not to my mind suggest any endorsement of or glorification of Nazi Germany or fascism. It is interesting to note that invariably, units made up of Estonians retained the old prewar style of saluting, doubtless to the irritation of the German authorities in charge.
Most poignant are the pictures of youngsters on their way to the front, many don’t look like they had started shaving, yet they managed to hold off the Red Horde at the 1944 Narva area battles for a very long time despite being heavily outnumbered.
Most accounts of these major Second World War battles suggest that every battalion defending Estonian territory faced an opposing Red Army division. For those of you unfamiliar with army organization, that meant that there were at least nine Soviet attackers to be dealt with by a single defender.
The horrendous losses by the Soviets at Estonia’s border probably go a long way towards explaining Russian past and current antipathy towards Estonians who stubbornly resisted being “liberated”. One has to wonder though at the type of commander that would simply deliberately throw wave after wave of human “cannon fodder” fueled with vodka and urged on from behind at gunpoint by NKVD units specially trained for the task.
Estonian Independence Day is almost upon us and now would be a good time to visit the web site and actually see what these people looked like, many of them seen for the last time on the way to the front.
The website has not yet been translated into English but the pictures speak for themselves. Many photos lack captions identifying people and Mr. Kallas is hoping that he will get assistance from readers in this regard.
To my mind anyway, a site well worth visiting for all age groups.