The Last Train From Estonia
Jaak Jurison
Kurni Press 2016
206 pages English
Every Estonian can write a remembrance of that time.
Those of us who did not huddle in the ‘big bunker’, we can write it from the POV of a generation removed. I could, I should.
Jurison’s plain speaking narration, collected memories- he had help to detail the gaps, brings the reader with him and his mother on their flight from Estonia.
His Father, a Pharmacist, arrested, tried and sentenced to Siberia for eight years never did make it home.
With Jaak, little Jässu, feel the foreboding of a young boy observing the comings and goings of his family, conversations overheard, the rhythm of life changing.
There is food to enjoy, berries and apples and green beans from their garden in Nõmme. Later, we will throw up a delicious restaurant dinner, using ration stamps saved for pork roast, potatoes and sauerkraut, greasy flavours too heavy for people who are starving. Wait until you taste the Mukifuki.
It is very difficult to read the description of the massive air attack on Tallinn by the Russians on March 9th 1944, Estonia’s 9/11, the writer using the current lexicon.
How did Estonians everywhere on this planet get on with it
after living through that HELL?
After the war, in England, where my parents paid their tithing for two years, the Yorkshire moors were ablaze in red aurora borealis,
my Father remarked: “Mis on nüüd lahti?”
When there is finally no choice but to leave, we pack up a suitcase and the rucksack using the list of things requested and never received by Mr. Jurison Sr. when he was in prison and begin bumping towards the west, like Morrison sang: “the west is the best . . . get here and we’ll do the rest.”
Horse wagon to lorry, to another farmer’s wagon, a tippy raft on pontoons, walking, stopping, settling onto dog poop in a dark warehouse, more walking, more waiting, then ship (not the big one that was on fire in the harbor) the last train into what was to become East Germany and finally Camp.
The War ends when the Americans arrive.
Their entrance, right out of Hollywood, should make you smirk.
Jaak Jurison emigrated to the United States after completing his Gymnasium Diploma in the DP camps. He now basks in southern California with his Siret.
In the epilogue, he writes tribute to the teachers in his life and the value of an education, no debate there.
The cover of this book is worth your consideration, a whimsical watercolour.
Sini-Must-Valge, easy to execute in ultramarine wash.
A forest of fir trees sets up the foreground, the panorama of a railway track.
The German troop train is heading towards Haapsalu, a Russian tank follows.
Five stars***** for ‘The Last Train from Estonia’, because it reminds us again, how fragile is our freedom?
Rita E. Komendant
Thunder Bay
Book Review January 1, 2019 The Last Train From Estonia
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