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ESTONIA

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Estonian Archives

Estland is the name for Estonia in German.

In 1934, there were 4,381 Jews in this former Soviet Socialist Republic, with most living in Tallinn, the capital city. By the end of 1942, there were no known Jews in Estonia as they were massacred by the Omakaitse, ( Latvian sympathizers) and by the Germans - the Sonderkommandos 1a of Einsatzgruppen A, Those few who lived were deported to camps by the Nazis. The "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust" published by Macmillan Publishing Company, stated that virtually all males over the age of 16 were in the process of being killed by October 12 to the 20th, 1942. About 500 Jews managed to escape to Russia and were exiled to Siberia.

Between July 17th through August 31, 1941 this massacre occurred. The Nazis conquered the country on September 3, 1941 Further information, including maps can be found at the Simon Wiesenthal Center site http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/albums/malbum/m01/a0064m2.html

After the autumn of 1942, thousands of Jews from other countries were sent to labor camps in Estonia as part of the Nazi resettlement plan. The main holding camp was Vaivara located near the Soviet/Estonian border. Other camps where Jews were sent were Theresienstadt, Vilna, Kovno and the Kaiserwald camp in Latvia. The main labor camp of the twenty labor camps was Vaivara.

The forced-slave-laborers mined shale oil and built defenses for the German army. With the Soviet Army advancing on the Baltic Republics in the fall of 1944, the camps were evacuated by sea to the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig.

On September 18 and 19, 1944, most of the remaining Jews were killed in the Lagedi and Klooga (Kaluga) camps - a few hours before the camp was liberated by an armored force of the Red Army. Fewer than ten survived. A memorial has been unveiled in Klooga and twenty-two more memorials honoring the Jews killed in Estonia during WW II are slated to be erected in the future. Some 1,500 Estonian Jews died during the war, and an estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

After WW II, some 1,500 Estonian Jews, those who had fled to the Soviet interior in 1941 or survivors from Siberia, returned to Estonia. Today, the 3,000 strong Jewish community of Estonia is one of Europe's smallest. The Estonian Jewish leader is Cilja Laud. The current Estonian community's only property is a Jewish school building

Estonia
http://www.eenet.ee/englishEENet/estonia.html

I received the following e-mail on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 from Raivo Hool hool@artun.ee I do not know Raivo but I believe his point of view is of interest in researching Jewish roots, and is the only reason why I decided to provide it on my site.

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"Hi - I read that page I mention on the subject line (http://jewishwebindex.com/estonia.htm ) and was baffled. It can't be true. I know for a fact quite many Jewish people survived the holocaust in Estonia, because either they were helped to hide by Estonians or were simply reported dead to make the German officials happy. My own granduncle killed three German soldiers with a hunting knife to rescue a group of Jewish men. (He also suggested they lose the beards and cut their hair, for it was really remarkably unwise to walk around in a Nazi occupied country wearing a thick black beard and a yarmulke.) I used to date a Jewish girl whose parents and grandparents and their grandparents have happily been living in Estonia for a long time. Etc, etc. The list goes on."

"It is not, to my mind, very smart to rely on the official data, because those were very often faked so that people would be left alone. I am not saying that no massacres took place, far from that. I am only implying that Estonia was reported "Judenfrei" because Estonians wanted Germans off their backs and the official data are just a reflection of that." Raivo

P.S. No need to quote me on any of this."

Books

Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy

"A Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Latvia and Estonia" - authored by Arlene Beare and - published in March, 2001by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Great Britain - ISBN: 0-9537669-2-6.

This is an excellent guide for researching in Latvia and Estonia. Arlene is the President of the Latvia SIG This guide points you in the right direction for researching your roots in both of these countries. Modern and old names of Shtetlach are listed.

There are also references to cemeteries, museums and libraries. Resources, addresses of archives, details and copies of documents. Holocaust information, internet advice and travel information will all assist in your research. The guide is price at £4.50 (UK) - £6.00/US $10 (Overseas includes postage) Payment with orders and is available from The JGSGB Membership Secretary, PO Box 27061, London, N2 GOT

"Encyclopedia of the Holocaust" - published in 1990 by Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, NY 10022

"SHOAH: Suur Having: Holocaust" authored by Eugenia Gurin-Loov published by ETSI Juudi Kogukond, the Estonian Jewish Federation, Tallinn, in 1994.

General
Estonian
Genealogy Information

I would suggest to the researcher of the following sites, to also check the other two Baltic Country sites, including Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Poland and Belarus and Russia as there may very well be some cross references as the country borders changed many times between wars.

Tallinn Main Square

An excellent site to find information about most European countries is at http://searcheurope.com

Global Gazetteer is a great web site. It is a directory of 2,880,532 of the world's cities and towns, sorted by country and linked to a map for each town. A tab separated list is available for each country.
www.calle.com/world/

Other sites, that should be of interest, include: http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t020/t02099.html

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x07/xm0707.html

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x32/xm3212.html

All of the Pinkasim translations are indexed at:
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Pinkas_latvia/pinkas_latvia.html

Archives - National Archives - Rahvusarhiiv - in Tartu
http://www.ra.ee/

Estonia - there are approximately 28,000 Byelorussians in Estonia. See the 1993 information from The First World Convention of Byelorussians at http://www.belaurs-misc.org/bel-diasp.htm

http://www.ngonet.ee/eva

Estonian Biographical Center - It is the only establishment in Estonia where people can get help with their genealogy research by hiring a professional.
Click here for the center's web site that offers information
english
Phone/fax +372 7 420 882, mobile +372 52 88 329

Estonian Institute Links - find General Information, State and Government, Society, Culture and more at
http://www.einst.ee/links.html?id=45

Estonia International Mail List is now available for the Republic of Estonia. This mailing list is also gatewayed from the Estonia Message Board which means that any post made to the board will be forwarded to the mailing list. To subscribe to the mailing list in List Mode send an email to: ESTONIA-L-request@rootsweb.com with the word subscribe in the body of
the message.

Estonian Jewish Community (Eesti Juudi Kogukond
Karu 16 10120 Tallinn
Telephone/Fax: (0) 662 3034

Tallinna Juudi Kogudus
esimees - David Slomka
aadress: Magdaleena tn. 9
Telefon: 55 71 54

E-mail: estonia@fjc.ru

This web site is in the Estonian language, but there are contact names that are readable in English
http://www.ngonet.ee/nationalminorities/selts/juudi/index.htm

Europages - business 2 business company directory and business in Europe, yellow pages access, international and European business directory (professional services, addresses and business classifieds
http://www.europages.net

Jewish and Kosher Estonia and the rest of the Jewish World
http://www.kosherdelight.com/KDindex.htm

Jewish Community of Estonia
Tallinn EE0090, Estonia
E-mail: estonia@fjc.ru

Latvian SIG - Anyone interested in furthering their research in the area of Estonia, is encouraged to join the discussion group of the SIGLatvia and Estonia latvia@lyris.jewishgen.org Adam Katzeff adam.katzeff@mail.bip.net

Maps

Art Source International offers a selection of antique maps, prints and globes at Art Source International

Map of towns in the Baltic provinces - http://www.angelfire.com/ms2/belaroots/Baltic_home.htm

Estonia Map
http://www.europeetravel.com/maps/

Maps of Russia and the FSU (Former Soviet Union) Republics - be prepared to stay online for quite some time, if you want to see one of the largest collections of different types of maps. This site is fabulous and offers a huge variety of maps that include such titles as Bukovina Maps; Ukraine Maps and Distances; Ex-USSR map; Maps of Europe in different eras; Russian Far East Maps; Belarus Maps; Ukraine Maps; Kazakhstan Maps: Georgia Maps; Tajikistan Maps; Crimea Maps; Uzbekistan Maps; Azerbaijan Maps; Kyrgyzstan Maps; Moldova Maps; Turkmenistan Maps; Armenia Maps; Caucuses Region Maps; Baltic States Maps including Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia; and more at
http://users.aimnet.com/~ksyrah/ekskurs/maps.html

Map of City of Tallinn -
http://www.ee/vana-tallinn/1_plaan.html

Moving Here - trace your roots from Estonia to Britain and help in finding the relevant records in your search
http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/
jewish/country/estonia.htm

Museum of Occupations - this site proclaims that it's task is to document the catastrophes and cataclysms which took place during the last fifty years http://www.okupatsioon.ee/english/index.html

Narva - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Newspaper Links
http://newslink.org/euest.html

Nomme - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Parnu - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Phone Codes - Ex USSR Phone Codes for Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Byelorussia, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan - you not only will see the phone code for each town (loads slowly) but also the proper spelling of the town name
http://phonecodes.narod.ru/N/N.htm

Rahasybl - a labor camp operated by the Germans during WW II which held Jews

Rakvere - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Search Engines for Estonia
Scroll down to 'Search Engines'
http://slavic.ohio-state.edu/people/yoo/links/default.htm

Slavophilia - a comprehensive guide to Internet resources on Russia and Central/Eastern Europe
http://www.slavophilia.com/

Tallinn - the capital city of Estonia, had a population of nearly 150,000 prior to WW II. It is a seaport on the Baltic in the southwestern part of the Gulf of Finland.

A Jewish community existed here from the middle of the nineteenth century, when discharged cantonists (soldiers who were drafted as youngsters into the Russian army and who were forced to serve 25 years) were living there after their discharge. In 1939, there were 2,300 Jews living in this city - about half of the Jewish population of Estonia.

After the start of WW II, specifically during September and October, 1941, most of the men who had been confined to the city jail, were killed at Kabarneeme, at the killing site of Kalevi - Liiva. According to the "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust", the killing was done primarily by Estonian Nazi collaborators, the members of the Omakaitse organization, under the command of Sonderkommandos 1a personnel. According to German records dated December 19, 1941, 610 Jews had been killed by that date; the remaining Jews of Tallinn were murdered in early 1942."

Upon liberations of the city on September 22, 1944, only five Jews survived, but later a thousand of the Jews who had been in exile in Siberia, returned.

Jewish Community of Tallinn
President: Semyon Melamed
PO Box 961
EE 0034, Tallinn, Estonia

Synagogue
9 Magdalena Street
Tallinn, Estonia
Tel: 02-55-7154

Tartu - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Valga - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Viljandi - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Voru - a small Jewish community existed here until WW II

Translation Service

A commercial site offering many language translating programs
http://www.worldlanguage.com

Translating Services - Click Here

Just in case you didn't think of it, contact a nearby university or college's foreign language department. They may offer to write letters and translate letters into English. A nominal fee is usually charged.

Travel Information