Forest Brother finally laid to rest in Raasiku cemetery

A recent service that accompanied the reburial of the remains of one of Estonia's Forest Brothers (Metsavennad) has finally laid to rest 60 years of the fighter's grave being concealed.
Otto Hilmar Ojamets was a World War Two veteran, more specifically of the fighting which took place in summer 1941, and was a member of the Estonian Defense League. After the end of the war he continued the fight against occupying Soviet forces as a part of the Forest Brothers movement, who mostly engaged in clandestine guerrilla warfare against Red troops, often sheltered by a sympathetic local populace.
Ojamets was finally re-interred in Raasiku cemetery, east of Tallinn.
Up to now, his resting place in the garden of his former home had been kept secret, since he was wanted by the Soviet regime. Post mortem, even those who were found "guilty" of sheltering him would have been in danger as well.
Ojamets passed away in 1963, at the age of 47, but had been in hiding from October 1944, when the Soviets returned.
Ojamets' daughter, Katri Minski, spoke to "Aktuaalne kaamera," saying: "He was being actively searched for by the Red Army."
"This was my grandmother's house, built in the 1930s," she continued, speaking of the residence where Ojamets found his resting place.
"My father built a hidden compartment there with a false wall. It was made of boards with no gaps."
This refuge proved its worth in a real-life situation.
"Once we had an electrical inspection, organized by the NKVD," Minski went on, referring to the name the Soviet regime gave to its main security organ at the time.
"Men were running through the house. My father stayed behind this wall, holding the boards together, and they ran past without noticing him," she said.
That Ojamets was being hunted was in part due to having been associated with Otto Tief's government, briefly in office in autumn 1944 between the retreat of German forces and the arrival of the Red Army, and Johan Pitka's unit. Pitka, a navy officer, had returned to Estonia from Canada in 1944 to aid in resistance and is thought to have fallen in combat that year.
"Our family members were frequently summoned to security for interrogation. I myself have been interrogated three times. I always had to say that my father had disappeared without a trace," Minski added.
A peony shrub was until now the sole grave marker once Ojamets had passed away.
"At that time, we couldn't even visit the site. We weren't allowed to place candles there. He was buried under cover of nightfall. If we had reported his death, those who had concealed his burial would have been punished for harboring a 'bandit,'" Minski went on.
Attendees at the reburial included former prime minister of Estonia Andres Tarand, and outgoing EDF commander Gen. Martin Herem, both related to Ojamets.
Famously, the last active Forest Brother, August Sabbe, continued the struggle until September 1978.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera,' reporter Vahur Lauri.