Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: nw_arizona_granny; CottonBall; Wneighbor; upcountry miss; TenthAmendmentChampion; All
Something I wanted to share with everyone...

-----------------

Preparedness pays.

This is a true story, the related to me by the individuals involved. 

During World War II, when the German Army invaded Estonia, Leo Saksen and his wife Anna, who had just had a baby girl,  thought they were prepared for the expected invasion.  They had stockpiled food and coal at a safe place near relatives in the country, and felt that they would probably be able to weather the events there.  Leo was the president of the bank there and they had been able to build a nice supply.

Just in case things went really badly, they discussed what they might do, but didn't really think they would need to.  Anna had a brother who lived in Virtsu about 75 miles away and was a fisherman and owned a Baltic Sea fishing boat.  They discussed that maybe they might have to go to him and then to the West, but they felt that it would probably not be necessary.

When Leo was at work, the German Army came and took over the bank.  He was able to send a courier with a message to his wife to 'Check on my Mother'.  She knew that this was their signal and she took her newborn daughter and started walking to their safe house about 6 miles away.  It wouldn't be till very late that night before Leo would be able to leave, as the Germans systematically went through all the bank and confiscated all the valuables - silver and gold coins, bullion, jewelry, etc. Including everything from the safe deposit boxes.  After meeting their every demand, they finally left and let he and his employees go.

Leo made his way to their safe house, arriving just about dawn, the entire area was full of German troops bivouacked there,  but there was no sign of his wife and daughter.  He frantically retraced the route to their house, and not finding them, he went to where the courier lived and was told that the message had been delivered to his wife.  For 3 days, Leo searched everywhere - ducking the German military and looking desperately for his wife and daughter.  Finally, after showing their picture over and over again he found someone who was pretty sure that he had seen them, getting in a civilian truck with a lot of others and it drove South.

Frantically, he figured that his wife remembered their conversation about going to her brothers, and he started trying to get there.  About 10 miles outside of Tallinn, there was a roadblock, and no one was allowed to go to the West.  He finally got to a train station and was able to board a train to another city that was East of where her brother was.  Two weeks of searching and traveling, wearing the same clothes, hungry and cold, he got off the train and ducked around the part of the station where the Germans were, and as he got out of the station, there, leaving from another door was his wife and daughter. 

There was scarcely time to rejoice, as rumor was that the Germans were moving West toward where her brother lived - they found someone with a horse cart headed in that direction and he was able to get his wife a ride and he walked alongside for the 15 miles to the seashore.

Anna's brother had gathered their other family members and her parents, and after waiting as long as they could, he was going to have to leave that night on the high tide during the dark of the moon. Their arrival couldn't have been any later than it was or they would have missed the boat.  They traveled out past where they thought the patrol boats might be and then turned South and were able to put into England.

From there, they signed up for a sponsor in the United States, hoping that they would be among the lucky ones.  A dairy farmer here in Delaware who had been prevented from enlisting as his farming operation was a critical  enterprise, had figured he could at least try to help some refuge family.

So, Leo, Anna and Piret (their daughter) came to America - It was a huge change of lifestyle.  He had lived very well as the president of a bank in the capital city in Estonia, and here they lived in a small 2 room house, and they both worked milking and tending the cows. 

They both worked hard, and realized that the only way to get ahead was going to require them to each work two jobs, along with milking the cows.  Leo was able to get part time work with a brick mason, and Anna took a job at a local chicken processing plant.  It took several years, but the Saksens were able to finally buy a small plot of land of their own, and as they got the money, they bought material to build their home.  A beautiful brick rancher - in the land they now called home...

Leo became a teacher of masonry and spent his free time gardening and his passion of painting - he was a master in oils and his paintings are hanging in several museums.  Anna had started teaching piano once they had been able to afford to buy her own grand piano.  Their daughter Piret became a medical researcher for a major pharmaceutical company who worked on several break-through drugs, and has retired but continues to teach other researchers even though she is now almost 70 years old.

Never did I ever see or hear them complain about their happenstance.  They never resented any of the jobs they had to do, and always were grateful for the opportunity that they had to start over in their new home country.

I guess, from their experiences, we need to remember that we need to plan, prepare, but make an alternate plan, but most of all, forge ahead and don't look back.  Don't bemoan your fate, but work to achieve new goals.

Piret and my sister have been best friends for all these years, and I felt that others, particularly as we face the times ahead, need to hear the story of the Saksens from Estonia, and hopefully think how their experiences might help them in the future through whatever lies ahead.


3,359 posted on 03/01/2009 5:11:59 PM PST by DelaWhere ("Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3351 | View Replies ]


To: DelaWhere

I guess, from their experiences, we need to remember that we need to plan, prepare, but make an alternate plan, but most of all, forge ahead and don’t look back. Don’t bemoan your fate, but work to achieve new goals.<<<

That is the truth of life.

Thank you for sharing the wonderful/beautiful story of the
Saksen family, this is the real strength of America, when one gives up all they have to come here and start over again, then I am proud to have them here.

I would like to think that I might be that strong, but one does not know, until it is done.


3,361 posted on 03/01/2009 5:27:49 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2181392/posts?page=1 [Survival,food,garden,crafts,and more)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3359 | View Replies ]

To: DelaWhere; nw_arizona_granny; Wneighbor; upcountry miss; TenthAmendmentChampion
guess, from their experiences, we need to remember that we need to plan, prepare, but make an alternate plan, but most of all, forge ahead and don't look back. Don't bemoan your fate, but work to achieve new goals.

Very good point, DW. All the planning in the world won't do any good if it doesn't come to fruition. Being able to adapt to a new situation and accept it as reality is likely the key to who survives and who doesn't. We probably can't even tell right now who will be the ones to adapt and who won't. But I'm guessing the whiny liberals who are already complaining that they don't get enough won't be accepting the loss of the old free handouts well!
3,386 posted on 03/01/2009 8:39:18 PM PST by CottonBall
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3359 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson