ESTO 2019: Documentary "Class of 1943 - Remember Us When We Are Gone"
Sunday 30. June 2019 at 13:15 - 14:07
Estonian National Museum, ERM, Jakob Hurt´s Hall • Muuseumi tee 2, Tartu, Estonia
Online ticket sales has ended.
EstDocs @ESTO presents a documentary by Helga Merits, daughter of Paul Merits who was one of the students in class 4 B in the Tartu Boys Gymnasium who was drafted into the German army in 1943.
Film based on incredible archival footage, tells the story of young men. The Russians occupied Estonia in 1940, the Germans only a year later. Conscription remained; the Germans needed young healthy conscripts as badly as the Russians had, and so, in the summer of 1943, the boys of class 4b of the Tartu Poeglaste gymnasium were drafted into the German army. Those who didn’t comply with conscription were considered to be deserters and deserters were shot. There was no escape. The boys witnessed the horrors of the Eastern front and the hardships of the prison-camps. Miraculously some survived.
Languages: English and Estonian
Text: Estonian/English
Length: 52 min
Country: Netherlands/Estonia
Year: 2012
Estonian National Museum, ERM, Jakob Hurt´s Hall • Muuseumi tee 2, Tartu, Estonia
