This year marks 80 years since the fateful autumn of 1944, when Estonia fell under Soviet occupation for decades. During the Second World War, nearly 80,000 Estonians left their homeland. The escape culminated in the fear of new Soviet repressions in the fall of 1944. The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, in cooperation with the Coastal People’s Museum, the Virumaa Museum, the Tartu City Museum, the Hiiumaa Heritage Preservation Society, and the Saaremaa Museum, organises outdoor exhibitions under the title “The Fateful Year of 1944” in eight locations in Estonia, which on the one hand provide a first statistical overview of the refugees based on the Estonian war refugee database, and on the other hand introduce local circumstances and stories. The first exhibition will be opened on Saturday, July 27 at 12:00 by the museum in Sõru harbour in Hiiumaa.  Exhibitions will follow in Virumaa, Tartu, Viimsi, Tallinn and three locations in Saaremaa. In addition, the Läänemaa Museum will open a theme-related exhibition in Haapsalu town hall in autumn. Further information about exhibitions: https://2024.wwii-refugees.ee/naitus/

“The Second World War destroyed the Estonian state and scattered our nation. Nearly seven percent of our people left Estonia as refugees. Just as every refugee has a story of their escape, every community also has a story that we try to tell through these exhibitions. In eight different places in Estonia, you can read and view tragic stories of how entire families and communities left their homeland in fear of Soviet terror,” says Meelis Maripuu, board member of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory and curator of the exhibition, under whose initiative the institute has been collecting data on refugees since 2022. 

Today, as a first step, the identities of nearly 65,000 refugees who arrived in Sweden and Germany have been checked and their previous place of residence has been determined. The main destination countries of the escape were Germany and Sweden, but from there many continued their journeys on to North America, Australia, South America and other countries.

The database collected in the first stage will be presented at the thematic conference “Estonian War Refugees in World War II” at the Haapsalu Cultural Centre on August 24, where the documentary film “Fleeing: Departure into the Unknown” will premiere, which tells the stories of Swedish refugees.  

In addition to the series of exhibitions, several other thematic events will take place in the following months, information about which can be found on the website of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.

There are eight site-specific versions of the exhibition dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Escape, which describe and convey the collected information about those who left the local community – how and with what they escaped, the number of refugees, personal stories, historical photos, etc. Each exhibition set describes the historical background of the events and presents more general statistics that the researchers of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory have compiled based on the collected data. The texts of the exhibition are presented in Estonian and English. 

The general information of the exhibition and the Tallinn part have been prepared by historians of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory: Meelis Maripuu, Ülle Kraft, Aivar Niglas. 

The cooperation partners involved as the creators of the exhibition were: Uno Trumm (Virumaa Museum), Martin Jaigma (Tartu City History Museums), Külvi Kuusk and Kadri Metsaots (Museum of Coastal Folk), Priit Kivi and Katrin Äär (Saaremaa Museum), Patrick Rang, Mart Mõniste, Enn Veevo (Hiiumaa Society for Heritage Protection).

The exhibition was translated by Peeter Tammisto, proofread by Signe Siim and designed by Anni Vakkum and Franka Vakkum. 

The material used comes from Estonian and Swedish museums and archives.