Oss and Robi, two brothers on opposite sides
This story revolves around the motorists in the last story.
The passengers in the car were Uberlt. Osvald Vaidlo of Estonian Police Battalion of German army with his wife Vilma. His younger brother Robert, later becoming a well-known kid stories writer, got to Osvald's grave some weeks after the last story events, in the ranks of Estonian Corps.
July 1941, Tiigi street, Tartu. A knock on the door means only one - call to the soviet army.
Brothers (Osvald studied trade and filosophy, Robert only filosophy) were living with their grandma, and had agreed that on the event of such a knock the younger brother, who was born in 1921, goes to answer. So at the same time his 3 y. older brother can slip out of the back door and younger one can freely explain that Osvald is not home.
But this time the call is for Robert and after a few hours he finds himself on the gathering point for new recruits.
As the recruits were not guarded the Robert decides to take matter into his own hands and takes off over the fence. Soon he's back at grandma's place.
But now he's a runaway, and these are punished hard. Under the strong advisement from granny the Robert went back to the gathering place, using same way, unnoticed. A little before Osvald had collected as much food from the town as possible and gives them to Robert. This is also the last time they see eachother alive again.
Soon the the whole Soviet army along with Robert runs back to the east and Soviet occupation is replaced with German one. So now the Osvald becomes a soldier himself. He says goodby to his longtime sweetheart and new-wedded wife Vilma (maiden nime Nöps, learning the trade of stomatologist) and joins 36th Police battalion, raising in ranks and soon becoming the chief of logistics.
The battalion is sent to Belorussia to hunt partisans and also visits the the notorious town of Novogrudok. Autumn 1942 the battalion moves to Stalingrad, being the only German unit, made of Estonians.
In the meanwhile, Robert is not doing well in the Soviet army. Because so many Estonians went from Soviet side to German one during the battles in Pihkvamaa (now just outside our south-eastern border, then it was part of our country) in July 1941, the 35 000 Estonian conscripts are sent away from the frontline to slave camps of labour battalions, where 12 000 will die.
Robert is sent to one of those death battalions. Later he tells horror stories about those times. "officers ate behind a separate table, dropping fishbones under it. One of ours broke and went under the table to pick the bits....."
Working in a copper mine Roberts finds blood in his feces, exactly on his birthday. That means bloody belly-disease and a certain death.
An Estonian working in the medical departement gives him a piece of bread (a standard procedure on this disease) an dsays that he has no chance surviving there, he has to run.
But where? As the mine situated in isolated place there were'nt any villages nearby, but also the security was next to none. So a small bunch of Estonians decide to take off together. Robert weights only 40 kg, others are weak and undernourished too.
Runaways end up near a railway where they are luckily picked up. Robert wakes up in a clean and white hospital. Turned out that the train carried sick personnel with the same disease from Airforce academy, so Robert is accidentally thought to be one of them.
As he is recovering he is also trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. So he confesses to the "fellow cadets". Russian boys answer that it's OK, but never tell it to anyone, they'll take him with them later.
He still talks, to an elderly doctor. She is sympathetic as she had several sons in the war, too. She takes care of the Robert, getting him well. He is released as one of the last patients, doctors and nurses give him some bread for the road, that's all they can do.
After being released from the hospital Robert wanders around in the collective farms in estonian villages in Siberia, where he finds a few mates he ran off with.
When the formation of the units of Estonian Corps starts in 1942, he joins and becomes a forward artillery observer. With the Soviet army he moves towards Estonia.
Autumn, same year. Osvald's 36th Police Battalion reaches Surovikino near Stalingrad, where the unit is outside of the siege, luckily. New Battalion CIC rises, Harald Riipalu, and the unit fights hard. On 31. Dec it is decided to move the Battalion away from the frontline and Osvald has to bring the retreating order to the 2nd Company of the Battalion. But he and the 2nd Company gets to be cut off by Soviet tank force from which they break out in Jan 2, 1943.
This is a war-story, but Osvald and small company is in sauna, when the tip of the Soviet attack bypasses it, so the men find themselves in enemy territory. They leave their german uniforms in the sauna and wear only the long white underwear, so the enemy soldiers see them as fellow comerades in winter camouflage. It works and soon they stop and take over a car with Soviet officers inside. Officers and papers they had were taken to Germans as a valuable catch, but their own papers had been left in that sauna.
So, soon the Red Army knows that there's a Osvald Vaidlo existing and soon they get two and two together and start questioning Robert. He's being questioned hard, fellow comerades as spies, but last time he actually did see his brother was in Tartu, when he got drafted.
Because of that sauna-event near Stalingrad Osvald has no chance to stay in Estonia by the time of Autumn, 1944, and hide his service in German army, so he decides to run with his wife Vilma to the city of Haapsalu, on the west coast of Estonia to catch a German ship evacuating from there.
Vilma is pregnant for the last weeks and they start going on 24th December. They were supposed to go day earlier, but Vilma still wants to look around and get some baby clothes for the unborn. But that delay was to be fatal - tank mows them down with the machinegun. Vilma is killed in instant, but Osvald is alive for hours.
The fellow who was riding the car on the front fender gets to escape and brings the sad news of Osvald's and Vilma's death to Osvald's mother.
Some days or few weeks later, Robert gets to see his brother's and wife-in-law's grave, but he doesn't dare to ask the villagers for their documents or personal belongings.
Robert becomes to be a well-known writer, writing stories for kids. His "Kessu" is made to TV show, which is well liked by kids for generations. But Soviet machine is still going over him - where's Osvald. Now he does know the truth, but doesn't talk about it.
Kaia Pihlak, daugther of Robert and Aita Vaidlo: "I remember when I was a kid and I was walking around in the Audevälja with my grandma. She sat on one stone fence and said: let's rest a bit, this is a nice place. Only later I found out, what this place really was."
Story in Estonian
It's such a sad story, but far too common.
The passengers in the car were Uberlt. Osvald Vaidlo of Estonian Police Battalion of German army with his wife Vilma. His younger brother Robert, later becoming a well-known kid stories writer, got to Osvald's grave some weeks after the last story events, in the ranks of Estonian Corps.
July 1941, Tiigi street, Tartu. A knock on the door means only one - call to the soviet army.
Brothers (Osvald studied trade and filosophy, Robert only filosophy) were living with their grandma, and had agreed that on the event of such a knock the younger brother, who was born in 1921, goes to answer. So at the same time his 3 y. older brother can slip out of the back door and younger one can freely explain that Osvald is not home.
But this time the call is for Robert and after a few hours he finds himself on the gathering point for new recruits.
As the recruits were not guarded the Robert decides to take matter into his own hands and takes off over the fence. Soon he's back at grandma's place.
But now he's a runaway, and these are punished hard. Under the strong advisement from granny the Robert went back to the gathering place, using same way, unnoticed. A little before Osvald had collected as much food from the town as possible and gives them to Robert. This is also the last time they see eachother alive again.
Soon the the whole Soviet army along with Robert runs back to the east and Soviet occupation is replaced with German one. So now the Osvald becomes a soldier himself. He says goodby to his longtime sweetheart and new-wedded wife Vilma (maiden nime Nöps, learning the trade of stomatologist) and joins 36th Police battalion, raising in ranks and soon becoming the chief of logistics.
The battalion is sent to Belorussia to hunt partisans and also visits the the notorious town of Novogrudok. Autumn 1942 the battalion moves to Stalingrad, being the only German unit, made of Estonians.
In the meanwhile, Robert is not doing well in the Soviet army. Because so many Estonians went from Soviet side to German one during the battles in Pihkvamaa (now just outside our south-eastern border, then it was part of our country) in July 1941, the 35 000 Estonian conscripts are sent away from the frontline to slave camps of labour battalions, where 12 000 will die.
Robert is sent to one of those death battalions. Later he tells horror stories about those times. "officers ate behind a separate table, dropping fishbones under it. One of ours broke and went under the table to pick the bits....."
Working in a copper mine Roberts finds blood in his feces, exactly on his birthday. That means bloody belly-disease and a certain death.
An Estonian working in the medical departement gives him a piece of bread (a standard procedure on this disease) an dsays that he has no chance surviving there, he has to run.
But where? As the mine situated in isolated place there were'nt any villages nearby, but also the security was next to none. So a small bunch of Estonians decide to take off together. Robert weights only 40 kg, others are weak and undernourished too.
Runaways end up near a railway where they are luckily picked up. Robert wakes up in a clean and white hospital. Turned out that the train carried sick personnel with the same disease from Airforce academy, so Robert is accidentally thought to be one of them.
As he is recovering he is also trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. So he confesses to the "fellow cadets". Russian boys answer that it's OK, but never tell it to anyone, they'll take him with them later.
He still talks, to an elderly doctor. She is sympathetic as she had several sons in the war, too. She takes care of the Robert, getting him well. He is released as one of the last patients, doctors and nurses give him some bread for the road, that's all they can do.
After being released from the hospital Robert wanders around in the collective farms in estonian villages in Siberia, where he finds a few mates he ran off with.
When the formation of the units of Estonian Corps starts in 1942, he joins and becomes a forward artillery observer. With the Soviet army he moves towards Estonia.
Autumn, same year. Osvald's 36th Police Battalion reaches Surovikino near Stalingrad, where the unit is outside of the siege, luckily. New Battalion CIC rises, Harald Riipalu, and the unit fights hard. On 31. Dec it is decided to move the Battalion away from the frontline and Osvald has to bring the retreating order to the 2nd Company of the Battalion. But he and the 2nd Company gets to be cut off by Soviet tank force from which they break out in Jan 2, 1943.
This is a war-story, but Osvald and small company is in sauna, when the tip of the Soviet attack bypasses it, so the men find themselves in enemy territory. They leave their german uniforms in the sauna and wear only the long white underwear, so the enemy soldiers see them as fellow comerades in winter camouflage. It works and soon they stop and take over a car with Soviet officers inside. Officers and papers they had were taken to Germans as a valuable catch, but their own papers had been left in that sauna.
So, soon the Red Army knows that there's a Osvald Vaidlo existing and soon they get two and two together and start questioning Robert. He's being questioned hard, fellow comerades as spies, but last time he actually did see his brother was in Tartu, when he got drafted.
Because of that sauna-event near Stalingrad Osvald has no chance to stay in Estonia by the time of Autumn, 1944, and hide his service in German army, so he decides to run with his wife Vilma to the city of Haapsalu, on the west coast of Estonia to catch a German ship evacuating from there.
Vilma is pregnant for the last weeks and they start going on 24th December. They were supposed to go day earlier, but Vilma still wants to look around and get some baby clothes for the unborn. But that delay was to be fatal - tank mows them down with the machinegun. Vilma is killed in instant, but Osvald is alive for hours.
The fellow who was riding the car on the front fender gets to escape and brings the sad news of Osvald's and Vilma's death to Osvald's mother.
Some days or few weeks later, Robert gets to see his brother's and wife-in-law's grave, but he doesn't dare to ask the villagers for their documents or personal belongings.
Robert becomes to be a well-known writer, writing stories for kids. His "Kessu" is made to TV show, which is well liked by kids for generations. But Soviet machine is still going over him - where's Osvald. Now he does know the truth, but doesn't talk about it.
Kaia Pihlak, daugther of Robert and Aita Vaidlo: "I remember when I was a kid and I was walking around in the Audevälja with my grandma. She sat on one stone fence and said: let's rest a bit, this is a nice place. Only later I found out, what this place really was."
Story in Estonian
It's such a sad story, but far too common.
posted by Reimo S at
10:37 AM
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