We pulled up to the dock and sure enough there were two small cargo ships docked.
We picked the first one, painted black and brown. We were able to claim a space in front of the ship. | made of way right to the front where | could look into the water a down to the other smaller ship, where couple of noisy drunk home defense soldiers were partying on deck. All of the sudden one of them took a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin and tossed it in the water between the ships. Seconds later the explosion made our ship rock a bit and dead fish surfaced all around us. The drunks roared with laughter until a very proper looking lady admonished them and they acted like little schoolboys caught in the act.
We were still docked when the rocking of the ship had some people already seasick. The small ship had only one head (toilet) and soon the floor was filled with puke. So going to the toilet became a real problem. Finally they pulled up the walkway unfastened the ropes and by blowing the loud ships whistle (which made my sister cry) we started to move into the mid river and minutes later into the Baltic Sea.
Little did we know that it was the last time we would see our beloved home-land. Mother never saw it. But Sigrid ended back there and did become a Doctor and openly anti-communist. I don’t know how she survived it and saw Estonia becoming free before she passed. More about her how she was separated from us later.
Crossing the Bay of Riga (Latvia) the city was burning in the distance. We traveled with no lights on so as not to attract Soviet submarines. Earlier two ships were hit by torpedoes one limping to Libaw Latvia but another ship went down (in 7 minutes) with over 5000 fleeing mostly women and children and wounded soldiers. It was a hospital ship with large red crosses on the side.
Later that day we docked next to the wounded ship. We unloaded on the dock wondering what next? While waiting | wandered into street next to the dock and remember admiring a box of colored pencils and some books at the window display. When I got back mother had a fit.
Rumor was that the Germans were going to make a last stand here, which they did. It was the last place to surrender. Which leads it to Sigrid. A group of high ranking officers had a table there checking our Documents and asking if anyone was a Doctor or a Nurse (mother told to Sigrid to keep quiet but…) Sigrid informed them that she was a graduate Nurse on the way to be a Doctor. How ego at times gets us in trouble. Now this Sigrid told me years later:
She was separated from us with a handful of other Doctors and Nurses and prepared the facilities for the “Last Stand” This Pocket held out until May 8 1945 when they finally capitulated.
The future looked grim for all of them (most were shot) The Political Commissar was interrogating Sigrid, halfway through asked if she was Estonian (He had been in Estonian Army drafted into Red Army when the Russians were there the first time) He wrote her a Safe Pass to travel back to Estonia (about 100 KM) and said “Get lost and keep your mouth shut.” And thus escaped the firing squad.
She did became a Doctor with her own clinic. Married a Doctor and her two Children became Doctors, her son a well known international one. She loved Jazz and other stuff forbidden and was full of life to the end and saw the Estonian flag fly over her beloved land again.
Back to our flight: We were loaded to the torpedoed Hospital ship ( the hit was about 10 feet above the waterline, the torpedo had porpoised). With the ship already full of wounded and the existing refugees with us it was really loaded and we were all told to move to the undamaged side of the ship and slowly the ship leveled and that’s how we very slowly crept into the naval port next to Danzig (Gdansk). At least the toilets were cleaner and they even had some hot
food. We unloaded and were separated into groups. My German was already becoming handy and my mother’s way of acting demanding respect also worked most of the time.
To be continued…
Editor: To this date, we have not found any additional material in any of Avo’s files.
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