I'm looking for information on my father Paul Me(e)rits. As I know very little about his wartime years and the years shortly after I do hope someone could give me some information concerning him, or his regiment, or on some of the places he had to stay.

This is the information I have gathered so far:

Paul Me(e)rits was born in Tartu, 1925. He lived on Elva street and went to the XV elementary school in Tartu and afterwards to the Tartu Poeglaste Gümnaasium. During the summer of 1943 he was doing agricultural work at the Villemi state farm. He must have been part of the Tartu Self-Defence for some time, but left for the defence service end of November 1944. (Was he part of the: "Esimene Eesti Julgeolekupolitsei pataljon"?)

I don't know where he went thereafter, but as my father once had written down some names of places he had stayed, I guess he stayed at Tseronde for some time. In the summer of 1944 he must have stayed somewhere near or at Järve (Tallinn).

On the 23rd of September 1944 he left Estonia for Germany on the ship Wartheland.

Where and when he came to Germany I don't know. Somewhere he had written down “Putlos” and “Luschenhof” (or should it be Luschendorf?) and something about the Nordfront, Memelline. I only know he was taken prisoner at Hagenow/Hagenau on 03.05 1945. He was (at that moment) part of the 1. Estn. Res. Rgt., 5 Bttr., 6. Komp. (Does this mean he was part of the 20th division?)
During the winter of 1945/1946 he must have been at Zedelgem POW-camp and he went or was taken to Borghorst in March (?) 1946.

Later on - and perhaps some people have met him there - he went to the Baltic University in Hamburg to study theology. In 1949 (?) he went to a hospital in Geesthacht (Edmunstal) and had to stay there for almost three years.

As I understood he was in the early fifties the Estonian student leader (in Bonn).

In the fifties he travelled to Estonian communities in Sweden, France and England. I understood from a photograph published in the newspaper Eesti Rada of August 1952 that he must have been in the parliament in exile - but I don't know much more about it.

I would be very thankful if someone who either has known my father or his regiment, or the places he stayed would react - as I would very much like to know something more about the life of my father, especially about his wartime years and the years shortly after.

Thank you in advance,
HELGA MERITS

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