In February 1945, as preparations for deportations began, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (hereinafter: SARK) of the Estonian SSR identified 361 Germans, including 268 adults and 93 children. That summer, the figures were revised to reflect 370 Germans, of whom 106 were children. However, according to the Baltic German registry (Heimatortskartei für Deutschbalten) compiled in Germany, as many as 562 Germans remained in Estonia who had neither relocated nor fled. The criteria and methods used to identify these individuals, as well as their exact identities, were not clarified by the registry's compilers, writes senior researcher at the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory and associate professor of archival studies at the University of Tartu, Olev Liivik, in the historical journal Tuna.

Although archival materials provide details on the Germans identified by the authorities of the Estonian SSR, this does not imply that the security organs had accounted for every person of German ethnicity living in Estonia. Moreover, immediately after the war, repatriated Baltic Germans began returning to Estonia under certain conditions. Those individuals were generally not deported or subjected to repression in 1945 or later. Baltic German jurist Dietrich A. Loeber estimated the number of post-war repatriates living in Estonia and Latvia at around 800, although he did not specify the data sources for his estimates.

Thus, the 1945 deportation of Germans cannot be considered the final expulsion of Germans remaining in Estonia, contrary to claims by historian Indrek Jürjo, who, based on documents housed in the National Archives, authored the first comprehensive overview of the deportation of Germans.

The most significant contribution to research on the deportation of Germans has been made by Aigi Rahi-Tamm, whose scholarly work has focused on the preparation and execution of this operation. In recent years, there has also been further study on the national identity of those deported and detailed examinations of some of the individuals sent away.

This article seeks to answer several key questions: How were deportation lists compiled? How was the national affiliation of those to be deported determined? How did the gender and age distribution of the deportees break down? What were their family backgrounds and origins? What occupations did they hold? Which regions of Estonia were they from? What were their connections to both Estonia and Germany?

The aim of this analysis is to provide as comprehensive a picture as possible of those deported as Germans and to correct and clarify existing knowledge about Germans who were expelled from Estonia. The primary sources for this study are documents housed in the National Archives related to the deportation of Germans and the Estonian Database of Communist Victims, which contains a diverse collection of data from various records and personal documents regarding those deported.

Deportation of Germans and the lists

At the end of World War II and in the immediate postwar years, approximately 12 million Germans from Central and Eastern Europe fled or were expelled from their homes. They were collectively punished for alleged collaboration with the Nazis and as retribution for the suffering inflicted on non-Germans by the Nazi regime. Most of these refugees moved westward and settled in West Germany. However, some Germans were involuntarily taken eastward; several hundred thousand civilians were deported from Soviet-occupied territories, primarily from Romania, Hungary and Poland, to the Soviet Union, where they were used as forced laborers in labor battalions or prison camps.

The deportation of Germans from Estonia on August 15, 1945, was one episode within the broader policy of violence and persecution directed against Germans in Europe. This deportation has also been considered a continuation of the Soviet Union's mass repression of Germans as a hostile nationality, which began in the summer of 1941 after the outbreak of war with Germany.

The order to deport Germans from Estonia was issued on February 7, 1945, by Vladimir Chernyshov, the Soviet Union's deputy people's commissar for internal affairs. Unlike typical Soviet deportations, which often targeted entire families based on the "guilt" of a single member, this operation allowed the non-German family members of deported individuals to remain in Estonia, and many took advantage of this provision. Exceptions were also made for persons unable to work and for adopted children, provided someone in Estonia took responsibility for them.

Documentation on the preparation for the deportation is unevenly preserved: there is relatively abundant material from June to August 1945, but very little from earlier months. Archival documents indicate that most of those to be deported had been identified by the end of June 1945. On June 22, 1945, district police chiefs in Tallinn and field operatives in the counties were instructed to visit the known residences of Germans and record their details on a special form. These forms, completed in late June, formed the basis of the deportation lists, with notes added during the deportation process on whether individuals and their family members were ultimately deported or spared. In some counties, new names were added to the lists during the operation. While additional lists were created in the course of the deportation, these later lists were less comprehensive and did not cover the entire country.

Neither the lists nor other deportation-related documents reveal exactly how Soviet authorities identified those to be deported. It is possible that some Germans were identified during a population registration process that began immediately in 1944 when the Red Army occupied the region. This registration was mandatory for Estonian residents and had to be completed quickly. Registrants were required to present identification documents, though even those without papers were recorded. Before the registration process concluded, the issuance of passports and registration in house books began in Tallinn in December 1944.

House books, sometimes associated with Soviet rule, actually predated Soviet occupation, as they were maintained in Estonian cities and towns during the interwar period. However, unlike earlier versions, Soviet house books required the recording of residents' nationality. How individuals without documents indicating nationality were registered in these house books remains a subject for further study.

Proving national affiliation

In Tallinn, the registration of Germans was primarily based on Soviet-issued passports. Nationality was also documented in temporary certificates issued by Soviet authorities, which were used to confirm German ethnicity in twenty cases within Tallinn.

Outside the capital, the range of documents used to establish nationality was more diverse. Commonly used were identity documents from the periods of the Republic of Estonia and the German occupation, although Soviet passports and temporary certificates had also been issued. References were also found to military service cards, certificates from local municipal administrations, lists of village residents and even personnel records, such as in the case of Arnold Dettenborn, who worked as a supplier at the Järvakandi glass factory.

Some documents found in the lists were not suitable for proving nationality. For example, Karl Schaffrik (Šaffrik), deported from Viru County, had his nationality verified based on an "Estonian passport" issued by Vao Parish on November 13, 1937, which would have been an identity document at that time. However, identity documents issued then did not include an indication of nationality.

In Harju County, attempts were made to verify nationality based on at least two forms of identification, and if that was deemed insufficient, interviews with the individuals in question were conducted. The Aalde family, who changed their surname from the more Germanic-sounding Detloff to Aalde in 1940, was nevertheless not spared from deportation. The nationality of former glassblower Julius Aalde was established solely based on an identity document from the Estonian Republic period, while his wife Emma's nationality was also confirmed with a German occupation-era identity document. The couple's two adult daughters, living with them, were considered German "based on their parents," but for one daughter, it was noted that she was "Estonian according to a special certificate." Nevertheless, both daughters were ultimately removed from the deportation list.

In Anija Parish, Voldemar Funke's nationality was not documented in his "German passport"; it was claimed that he was German based on verbal statements, either his own or from another person, despite his mixed heritage – his father was German and his mother Estonian. As a result, he was deported without documentary proof of his nationality.

Similar cases to Funke's occurred across Estonia, with over twenty instances in total. It is often unclear whether deportees self-identified as Germans or whether oral testimonies were obtained from other sources. What is certain is that if one family member was documented as German in an identity document, security officials had reason to consider other family members as Germans, even in the absence of documentation.

A noteworthy example is the case of brothers Adolf and Artur Votske (Wutzke) from Konguta Parish in Tartu County, whose nationality was confirmed by their Estonian wives. It is possible the wives were unaware of the implications of their testimonies. To their defense, it should be noted that the brothers, who were born in Volhynia, Ukraine, but raised in Estonia, were of German descent and likely identified as Germans themselves.

The absence or use of less common documents to prove nationality could mean, in the eyes of Soviet officials, that the individual was stateless. In Tallinn, five such cases appear to have occurred. In two instances, the nationality of deportees was verified by documents issued by the department of visas and registration for foreigners under the police administration, and in three cases by special police certificates, which may have been the same type of document.

While no information was found regarding the citizenship status of Wilhelmine Foelkersahm, a noblewoman from Latvia who had lived in Estonia since the 1920s, Lydia Eppelbaum appears to have lost her Soviet citizenship in 1941 due to her relocation to Germany. For Herbert Taube, with Volhynian roots, it was noted upon his arrest on August 15, 1945, that he held a non-citizen passport.

Number and gender-age makeup of those deported as Germans

According to data from the Estonian SSR's SARK, 407 individuals were deported during the operation targeting Germans, of whom 261 were identified as being of German ethnicity. Earlier reports had indicated that there were 370 Germans living in Estonia, but this does not imply a significant decrease in their numbers; rather, children under the age of 16 were not specifically counted in the deportation figures but were categorized as "relatives living with Germans." This approach sometimes led to entire families with both parents of German descent living in rural areas being grouped in this category.

Other discrepancies, though less significant, were also noted. For example, while 105 deported Germans from Tallinn can be identified from the deportation lists, there is confusion regarding the total number of Germans deported from outside Tallinn. For instance, the final deportation report lists three Germans and two non-German family members deported from Lääne County, whereas the corresponding list includes two Germans and one non-German family member.

Such inconsistencies suggest that some individuals recorded on the lists may have ultimately not been deported, while others identified during the operation may have been placed on the deportation trains without appearing in statistical reports.

The Estonian Database of Communist Victims identifies 262 Germans aged 16 and older who were deported. Their distribution across counties varied, with only one German deported from Saare County and 45 from Tartu County according to the database, despite security agencies initially planning to deport 47 and ultimately reporting 43 deported from this county. Notably, one individual, Evi Joste, allegedly deported from Tartu County, remains little more than a name; no birth date, patronymic or other identifying details are available, suggesting a possible error or fictitious entry.

In Viljandi County, one fewer individual was deported than planned (12 intended versus 11), and in Järva County, the numbers were 15 and 14, respectively. Viru County saw 17 Germans deported out of an intended 18, with an additional two from Narva. From Võru County, 21 were reported deported in the final report, but only 17 adults have been confirmed. Other counties met their targets according to reporting: Pärnu County deported 21, Harju County 14 and Valga County eight Germans.

The SARK reports do not specify the gender distribution of the deported, but preparatory documents indicate that approximately 70 percent of the deportees were women. The Database of Communist Victims lists 69 men and 192 women among the deported Germans, including 23 men and 82 women from Tallinn. The majority of those deported from outside Tallinn were also women, including most of the non-German family members deported with them. This gender imbalance was characteristic of the German ethnic group in Estonia historically; for instance, the 1922 Estonian census recorded 159.6 women for every 100 men among Germans.

The average age of the deported Germans was slightly over 50, excluding children under 16. In many counties, the proportion of those under and over 50 was roughly equal, although in Tartu County, younger individuals dominated, while in Tallinn, older individuals (primarily women) were in the majority.

Among the deported Germans, 37 individuals were over 70 years old, including seven men, while nine were under 20. The oldest deportee was 88-year-old Emilie Opitz, who was deported from Pärnu with her unmarried sister, 83-year-old Emma Schmidt.

Origins

Based on the Estonian Database of Communist Victims and the deportation lists, only 105 of the 261 German adults deported were born in Estonia. This figure can be supplemented with up to 15 individuals whose parents were temporarily away from their homeland at the time of their birth or who had at least one parent originating from Estonia. Among those born in Estonia, more than half were from urban areas, including 19 from Tallinn, 15 from Narva and 10 from Pärnu. In rural areas, Tartu County stood out, with 21 deported Germans, six of whom were from Tartu.

Most of those born outside Estonia originated from within the borders of the former Russian Empire, while a smaller group, numbering around twenty, came from "foreign" territories, predominantly areas of the former German Empire. Among those from the Russian Empire, the Saint Petersburg Governorate and areas of present-day Latvia, including major cities like Saint Petersburg and Riga, were particularly well represented, with more than twenty deported individuals born there.

More distant regions, particularly present-day Ukraine, also featured prominently; however, due to changes in administrative and state boundaries, individuals from these areas may have had their birthplace recorded in later documents as Russia, Poland or Ukraine (including both Tsarist-era provinces and post-World War II oblasts). This is particularly true for Volhynian Germans, who were brought to Courland and Livonian estates as agricultural workers in the years leading up to World War I.

By the time of the deportation, Estonia's German population was largely composed of German colonists and their descendants, who constituted a significant proportion of those deported from southern Estonian counties. More than 80 adults could be classified as Volhynian Germans, with over 50 born outside Estonia; the remainder were locally born children and their descendants. Including minors, nearly one-third of deportees had at least one parent with Volhynian heritage.

Volga Germans shared a similar migratory background, although only six adults with this heritage were identified among the deportees in the Communist Victims Database. In addition to Volhynian and Volga Germans, the deported population included descendants of German settlers from the Saint Petersburg Governorate and potentially other regions, whose migratory backgrounds warrant further detailed study.

Marriage and family

The deportation of Germans from Estonia highlighted a particularly high rate of ethnically mixed marriages. This trend was already well-documented among Estonia's German population; according to the 1934 census, 41.3 percent of married German men and 35.9 percent of married German women were in mixed marriages, with about one-third of these marriages involving Estonian partners.

The deportation lists often included the names and nationalities of non-German spouses living in the same household as the registered German deportee. However, with rare exceptions, spouses added to the lists during the operation were not typically included in the deportations. Despite these limitations in documentation, it is estimated that the rate of mixed marriages among deportees – whether married at the time or previously – may have reached as high as 90 percent.

Among both men and women, marriages with Estonians predominated. Of the 192 deported women, 64 were married, according to the deportation lists: 46 to Estonians, nine to Germans, eight to Russians and one to a Czech. For the approximately 70 to 80 other deported women listed with their previous surnames in the Communist Victims Database, but not their spouses in the deportation lists, it is likely that many were widowed by the time of deportation.

These widows primarily had Estonian and German surnames, though there were also about twenty with Russian surnames. Determining their exact ethnic backgrounds requires more in-depth research, but previous studies correctly noted that among Germans who remained in Estonia, marriages with Estonians were more common than with Russians.

Of the 69 deported men, at least 16 were married to Estonian women, seven to Russian women and four to women of other nationalities. The remaining 42 were either widowed, divorced or unmarried by 1945. Among women, an estimated 30-40 were single, including five under the age of 20, some of whom were single mothers or in common-law marriages.

Family ties among deportees often included siblings, mothers and children and some fathers with their adult children, frequently living in shared households. For example, from Tallinn, the unmarried siblings Arno and Paul Kässner, and their sister Lydia, were deported together, with ages ranging from 57 to 70 years. Mixed families were also common, with children – or at least one child – of German nationality.

There were also exceptions to the typical family patterns. The Elian (Iljan) family saw the mother, Elisabeth Wilhelmine, deported with her adult daughters Edith and Ellen, who were classified as Germans, despite their father, Elio, being a Jewish victim of the Holocaust in Estonia. In reality, Elisabeth Wilhelmine Elian herself had no German roots; both her parents were Estonian, but she had apparently become Germanized.

Conversely, the deportees included "true" German families such as the Klukas, Schaffrik, Schmidke and Schultz families, where both parents were born in Volhynia and their children were born either in Volhynia or in Estonia. Among these colonist families, siblings, half-siblings, in-laws and extended relatives were sometimes deported together. For example, widow Albertine Peetso was deported to Russia with her son Karl Gutsch, daughters Rosalie Kruusla and Alvine Käsi and several grandchildren and an Estonian son-in-law. Luise Krieger (Krüger) was deported with her unmarried daughter Johanna and her married daughters Elfriede Raudpuu and Josephine Urgard.

With few exceptions, younger generations of colonists deported to Russia had often married Estonians, leading to their gradual assimilation into Estonian society and, over time, the loss of their German ethnic identity despite being classified as Germans.

Occupation

Although the 1945 deportation's sole criterion was ethnic nationality, the occupation and workplace of those registered as Germans were also documented. Notably, many deportees were not employed. Among the over one hundred unemployed deportees, the records frequently list three categories: "unemployed," "housewife" and "dependent," the latter generally referring to women supported by their husbands. The designation "unemployed" applied to both men and women, who may or may not have been elderly.

Among those who were employed, there were some manual laborers, though their numbers were relatively small. This group included caretakers, school custodians, cleaners, laundresses, guards and some agricultural laborers, primarily those working on state farms (sovkhozes), who were typically German colonists or their descendants. Among the paid agricultural workers were also two tractor operators, a gardener and a dairy worker. Additionally, there were around twenty farmers, many of whom may have struggled to sustain their families solely through farming, as indicated by some household members working as paid laborers.

More common among the deportees were skilled workers and individuals in higher-status occupations, such as locksmiths, seamstresses, tailors, hairdressers, drivers, a watchmaker, a technician, a draftsman, a cook and a baker. For a few, their workplaces were also documented.

Rudolf Fuchs, who had worked at the Narva cotton mill for two decades and briefly relocated to Germany as a repatriate, was employed at a textile factory in Keila at the time of deportation. Friedrich Vieweger was a foreman at the Põhjala rubber factory, while Adolf Kessler from Pärnu was listed as the head of a plant breeding station and a chemical plant restoration engineer – roles inconsistent with his background as he had claimed to be a pharmacy master in the early 1930s.

Among the deported Germans were also cashiers, supply managers, clerks, secretaries, accounting officials, three bookkeepers, a store manager, an assistant manager and an office manager. The oldest deported official was 76-year-old engineer Georg Metzler (Metsler), who was still employed at the People's Commissariat for Light Industry in 1945.

Other deportees included four orderlies and one nurse. A well-known doctor, Selma Brunnov, escaped deportation because she was traveling on the day of the operation. The deportees also represented the education and culture sectors, with five teachers and kindergarten workers, as well as musician Kurt Brinkmann, a violinist who worked with the Tallinn radio orchestra. Noteworthy among the deportees was the prominent Baltic German artist Caroline (Lilly) Walther, aged 79, who continued to work as a restorer despite her advanced age.

A notable exception among the deportees was priest Alfons Werling, who at the time led the Catholic Church in Estonia (as its administrator). His foreign background may have attracted Soviet scrutiny, but based on nationality criteria, he should have been exempt from deportation, as his Soviet passport listed him as a Luxembourger.

Ties of those deported as Germans to Estonia

Researcher of Stalinist repressions J. Otto Pohl has highlighted a 1945 spring report from the Soviet Union's People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs indicating that 361 Germans in Estonia had been identified as Soviet citizens evacuated from Leningrad and other parts of the Soviet Union to Estonia by the German authorities during the war. Historian Indrek Jürjo also pointed out that the deportees included both Baltic Germans who had remained in Estonia and Germans who had migrated to Estonia from the Soviet Union in the closing years of the war.

It is important to emphasize that some of the deportees were not considered Soviet citizens even by Soviet criteria; they were stateless individuals. Furthermore, during the German occupation or shortly afterward, only two women with Russian surnames – Sofia (Sophie) Neronova and Jelena (Elena) Poletajeva – arrived from the Soviet Union to Estonia. This suggests that the number of deportees with Soviet backgrounds was so minimal that they do not merit particular emphasis in discussions of the deportation's demographics.

While there were almost no Germans arriving from the Soviet Union during or immediately after the war, this does not mean that the other deportees had a longstanding or deep connection with the Soviet Union. Many of the deported Germans had been born outside Estonia and often had migratory backgrounds, such as Germans who had moved to Russia during the Tsarist period and later returned to Estonia either before World War I, during the war or after the Bolshevik Revolution. The exact timing of their return to Estonia may remain unclear, especially in cases that do not involve optants.

Genealogical research can sometimes shed light on individual cases. For example, Johannes Altsepp, an Estonian who accompanied his German wife Emilie into exile in 1945, had met her in East Prussia, where he was captured by Germans while serving in the Russian army during World War I. The couple married in Germany and later moved to Estonia. Similarly, Elsa Tammearu, a deported German, and her husband Jaan met in Germany, where he had been a prisoner of war; they moved to Estonia, Jaan's homeland, in 1937.

The last individuals to return to Estonia from beyond its eastern border and subsequently be deported to Russia as Germans in 1945 reportedly arrived from Soviet Russia in the mid-1920s. Among them was musician Voldemar Aarelaid (formerly Ahlmann), who moved to Estonia in 1924 with his German wife Dagmar after marrying her in Petrograd in 1923, possibly as part of the optant process. Aarelaid fled westward in 1944, but ironically, his wife, who remained in Estonia, was deported in 1945.

Glassblower Emanuel Meissner also returned to Estonia with his wife and young son in the early 1920s. According to his daughter, who was born in Estonia, the family held Russian citizenship and needed to renew their residence permits annually. It is uncertain whether the Meissner family ever received Estonian citizenship, as no documentation of such exists.

Among those deported as Germans were up to forty individuals who had acquired Estonian citizenship through naturalization, including former Russian subjects and, in some cases, citizens of Germany, Latvia or other states. An additional 26 individuals appear to have remained stateless, as indicated by their applications for Nansen passports. Many of these stateless individuals were of Volhynian German descent, although some had obtained Estonian citizenship in the 1920s or 1930s, possibly due to being listed in village records during the Tsarist period, which provided a pathway to automatic citizenship.

The reasons for statelessness among these individuals are not always clear in archival documents. Human factors such as indifference or bureaucratic obstacles could have played a role, but for some, there may have been little incentive to pursue naturalization, even though stateless persons were required to renew their residence permits annually and faced potential restrictions on their place of residence under martial law.

For many Germans in agriculture, their ties to Estonia were not rooted in land ownership, which sometimes led to declarations of having no movable property and allowed for relatively easy emigration if working conditions worsened. Limited proficiency in the Estonian language may also have posed a barrier, as language fluency was a requirement for citizenship applicants, with verification provided by local authorities. However, the documents often do not specify the level of language proficiency attained.

Estonian-language petitions and requests in the files may have been written by others on behalf of the applicants, making it difficult to assess their actual language skills. Occasionally, applicants themselves hinted at their proficiency. For example, Regina Dumpff, a Baltic German noblewoman, admitted in a well-written application in Estonian that she was still learning the language but was taking lessons and could already speak some. Dumpff, born in Tartu in 1886, spent years in Russia as a child and later studied in Germany, returning to Estonia in 1922. She finally obtained Estonian citizenship after multiple attempts in 1933.

Some foreign nationals who had become Estonian citizens had long-standing ties to the country, sometimes spanning generations. For instance, Lydia Kässner, mentioned earlier, was a German citizen until 1933. In her application for Estonian citizenship, she explained that she was of Estonian heritage on her mother's side and had lived in Tallinn since birth, except for being deported as a German subject during World War I – a situation made tragically ironic by her second deportation after World War II.

Similarly, Hilda Finder, a single woman working as a bakery sales assistant, asserted in a 1931 application that she was only nominally a German citizen, as she had been born and lived her entire life in Estonia and spoke Estonian far better than German. While she may have exaggerated, local authorities confirmed her fluency in Estonian.

For some, obtaining Estonian citizenship seemed more a matter of necessity. Johan Laufenberg, a German subject, stated in a 1937 petition that he would have to resign from the Tallinn Volunteer Fire Brigade if he was not granted Estonian citizenship, a role he had pursued since adolescence, following his father and older brother.

Others, such as Boris Oleg Ernst Drachenfels, a Baltic German noble who adopted the name Kaljuveri, were among the few who took on Estonian names during the era's name-changing campaigns. The campaign primarily targeted Estonians with foreign-sounding names but was also adopted by a few Baltic Germans as a show of loyalty or for career advancement.

Among the deported Germans were individuals who had similarly adopted Estonian names. Alide-Pauline Hoppe, a single craftswoman from Valga County, changed her surname to Lootus (meaning "Hope") in 1936. The Detloff family became Aalde in 1940, while Karl-Viktor Galvin, a Narva-based watchmaker and his family took the surname Rünne. Three German colonist families also changed their names: the Verth family became Väärt, the Wutzke family from Sangla became Pärnpuu, and the Mantai family split between the names Mäepere and Mandre. Such name changes may reflect acculturation processes deserving of further study.

Ties of those deported as Germans to Baltic Germanness

Archives contain numerous documents related to Germans deported from Estonia in 1945, offering insight into how they identified themselves ethnically and wished to be recognized. Lists of ethnic and language-based organizations have been preserved, though fewer documents remain regarding migration, including records related to the relocation of Germans between 1939 and 1941.

From the interwar period, the German ethnic registry (or national list) was maintained in connection with the establishment of the German Cultural Self-Administration (kultuurautonoomia, or KOV) in 1925. Inclusion in this registry was voluntary but a prerequisite for KOV membership. To be eligible, one had to be an Estonian citizen and of German nationality. Children were included in a separate list, and upon reaching adulthood, they could choose to be removed from or transferred to the adult list.

According to Triin Targa, who studied Germans who relocated in 1941, the primary motivation for joining the registry was often to enable their children to attend German-language schools. For many, KOV membership may also have been a means of expressing their ethnic identity or simply taken for granted as a natural association, while others joined out of misinformation, mistakenly believing it to be mandatory.

The German ethnic registry cards identify 80 individuals deported as Germans, including children. The cards also list siblings of deportees and, less frequently, parents who relocated to Germany during the war, escaped deportation or had died by 1945. Most had been listed since the founding of the KOV, though some had opted to be removed for various reasons. For instance, Rudolf Fuchs requested to leave the KOV in September 1926 and was soon removed from the list.

Kaido Laurits notes that there was relatively active movement within the national registry in its early years, with more people joining than leaving during the 1920s. Some deported Germans joined the registry during the 1930s, but others followed Fuchs' example. By the time the KOV was disbanded in the fall of 1939, the balance was clearly negative, with more departures than new additions among deported Germans.

Many deported Germans had minor children listed in the ethnic registry, often reflecting educational preferences in mixed-ethnicity families where one parent was registered as German and the children were to receive German-language schooling. Changing one's declared nationality to join the registry was also possible. For example, Adolf Drews, born into a German-Estonian mixed family and married to a Russian woman, changed his declared nationality from Estonian to German to enroll his children in German-language schools.

While the expectation among the German community was for their children to attend German-language schools, this goal was only partially realized. In the mid-1920s, 16.6 percent of primary school children and 5.1 percent of secondary school children from German families attended non-German-language schools, according to German community data. In rural areas, where access to German-language schools was limited, nearly 60 percent of German children attended non-German schools, likely influenced by school proximity.

Some families' unmet educational preferences may have led them to leave the registry. Financial considerations also played a role, as KOV members were subject to a cultural tax, though it was progressive and did not overly burden poorer Germans. Those who did not participate in German cultural activities or whose children did not or could not attend German-language schools may have concluded that paying the cultural tax was not worthwhile.

The registry cards reveal that some individuals without a legal right to KOV membership were nevertheless included. For instance, in 1926, Volhynian German brothers Julius and Rudolf Fenske, who lacked Estonian citizenship, were added to the registry but were removed in the early 1930s. It remains unclear whether this was mandated by the Ministry of the Interior, which oversaw the KOV, or done voluntarily.

The removal of Elisabeth Gittel (later Tšursin) from the registry in 1927, on the grounds that she was Estonian according to her identity documents, is puzzling. Gittel had been added to the registry as an adult, along with her father, likely a German from Poland. Her mother, from Jamburg County, may also have identified as German, and their working-class family belonged to the German-speaking Narva St. John's congregation.

The records of Lutheran congregations provide valuable context for associating deported individuals with their German heritage, even in cases where it might appear that they were deported due to a mistakenly documented nationality. For example, Wilhelmine Muga from Lääne County argued to Soviet security officials that she was ethnically Estonian and had received an identity document marked as German during the German occupation solely because of her fluency in the language.

While her parents may not have been of German descent, Muga's birth was recorded in the German-speaking congregation of St. Nicholas Church (Niguliste) in Tallinn in 1882, and she was later married there. During the Estonian Republic era, her family belonged to the German-speaking St. Olaf's (Oleviste) congregation.

In some cases, church records show that the parents of deported Germans were ethnic Estonians who had joined German-speaking congregations or parishes. This was true for Elisabeth Wilhelmine Elian, as previously noted, and also for Mart(h)a Julie Simon. Her parents, Michael (Mihkel) and Catharina (Katariina) Büttner (later Pittner), belonged to the Tallinn St. Mary's Cathedral congregation, where Mart(h)a Julie's birth was recorded in 1879.

It was not uncommon for Estonian spouses to join German-speaking congregations after marrying a German partner, as evidenced by Johannes Simon, who became a member of St. John's congregation.

However, the movement between congregations was not strictly one-way from Estonian to German. The opposite trend occurred, particularly among German women of non-local origin who married Estonians in rural areas, and, less frequently, in towns. There are also isolated cases in church records of individuals transferring from a German parish to an Estonian one.

Some German colonist families lack records indicating their membership in a German congregation or parish. This absence should not be considered definitive proof against their German identity, as among the deported Germans were likely Catholics and Orthodox Christians, whose affiliations and identities remain to be further investigated.

Attitudes among the deported to German relocation

When considering the attitudes of those deported as Germans in 1945 towards the earlier resettlement campaigns of Germans, and their participation or lack thereof, several interesting patterns emerge. Notably, none of those deported later left Estonia during the first resettlement wave from October 1939 to May 1940. According to existing data, only three individuals participated in the second wave of resettlement to Germany between February and April 1941.

Among these three were Rudolf Fuchs and his daughter Lydia Eppelbaum, who relocated to Germany with her family in 1941 but returned to Estonia during the German occupation. Another returnee was Rosalie Zimmermann, a Volhynian German widow aged 72 at the time of departure. She acquired German citizenship in 1942. Generally, those granted Reich citizenship were not permitted to return to the Baltic states unless specifically needed. While the exact reasons for Zimmermann's return are unclear from documents preserved in the German Federal Archives, it is plausible that her daughters, married to Estonians and residing in Estonia, as well as her grandchildren, influenced her decision.

The National Archives' lists of resettled Germans also include Katharina Bol(t)z from Harku Parish in Harju County, although she never actually relocated to Germany. In the autumn of 1941, she briefly attracted the interest of the German security police due to an alleged report she made concerning a chameleon-like local militia forest warden supposedly linked to communist resistance. Upon investigation, Bolz denied any recollection of such a warden and despite the incident seeming trivial, a file was created, later drawing Soviet security's attention to her intended relocation in 1941.

This episode underscores how documentation from the German occupation period could have guided Soviet security interest in individuals like Bolz, who lacked identity documents explicitly marking her nationality.

Others may have considered emigration plans, though confirmed cases are rare. For instance, Georg Heitmann, head accountant at the Kärdla textile factory, obtained the necessary documents to appear before the German-Soviet resettlement commission but ultimately did not proceed and remained in Estonia with his family.

The Soll family's deliberation over whether to leave for Germany illustrates the complexity of these decisions. Hans Soll wrote to the Estonian government on October 10, 1939, after hearing from his German wife, Selma, that she was expected to prepare for permanent relocation to Germany. He sought guidance on whether, as an Estonian, he was also obliged to leave and whether his children could continue attending Estonian schools if they stayed. The government replied weeks later, indicating that Soll was not required or encouraged to leave. By then, the family had likely already made their decision, potentially aided by Selma's Latvian heritage.

Soll's letter suggests that his wife was not influenced by general resettlement propaganda but instead by direct, personal persuasion – perhaps intended to convey sensitive messages and warnings that could not be publicly disseminated. Gertrud Meissner recounted how her family was visited three times by resettlement recruiters, each time being warned of impending war. When later asked why he chose not to leave, her father, a manual laborer, responded that he had no desire to emigrate, believing he had little to fear.

Many of the workers and farmers who remained in Estonia, like the Meissner family, likely shared the sentiment that leaving for Nazi Germany was not a desirable option. However, among the deported Germans, there were undoubtedly individuals for whom Nazi Germany was ideologically unacceptable. Margit Schneider, for instance, exemplifies this stance; according to her relatives, her commitment to anthroposophy made relocating to Hitler's Germany unthinkable. Schneider, who founded Estonia's first Waldorf-style kindergarten, reportedly reconsidered her position in 1944, notifying her relatives in Germany of her intent to join them. However, circumstances prevented her from leaving Estonia.

There were also deportees for whom emigration to Germany was simply not feasible or desirable. This was likely the case for sisters Edith and Ellen Elian, whose father was Jewish, even though they identified as Germans. While they considered themselves part of the Baltic German community, their full acceptance within that community was questionable. When they joined the German Cultural Self-Administration in the 1930s, their registry cards were marked with the note "Vater Jude" (father Jewish).

It is notable that the registry cards of other KOV members rarely mention parents of different ethnicities. The Elian sisters were not targeted by German occupation authorities in Estonia, and it is possible they might have escaped repression even if they had fled to Germany. For many other Germans deported from Estonia, their primary concern was likely their future under Soviet occupation rather than any ideological alignment with Nazi Germany.

Finally

The deportation of Germans from Estonia in 1945 stands out as the only ethnically targeted repression orchestrated by Soviet authorities in the country, affecting the majority of the remaining German population. Preparation for this operation spanned from February to August 1945. By late June, deportation lists were finalized, though they were updated during the process itself. The nationality of those deported was typically confirmed through a note on their identification documents or other records, but in some cases, oral testimony sufficed.

A total of 407 people were deported during the operation carried out on August 15, 1945, of whom 261 were classified as Germans, according to security authorities. The remaining individuals were their family members, including children under 16, regardless of nationality. The operation primarily targeted Tallinn, with 105 Germans deported from the city, while the remainder were predominantly rural residents.

The typical deportee classified as German was a woman over 50 years old, with men over 16 accounting for only about a quarter of the total. This demographic makeup partly explains why a significant portion of the deportees – around 40 percent – were not employed. Among those who did work, skilled laborers outnumbered unskilled laborers and very few held leadership positions.

Most deportees were born outside Estonia, although a significant portion consisted of individuals born in Estonia who had returned after periods of emigration, such as during the late Tsarist era or early years of Estonian independence. Among the non-native Germans, Volhynian Germans who settled in Estonia before World War I were particularly numerous. Including their children and grandchildren born in Estonia, this group constituted the largest contingent among the deportees of 1945.

The deportees included both "genuine" German families – mainly of Volhynian descent – and Germans in mixed marriages with Estonians. Many Estonia-born Germans had Estonian ancestry on one or both sides, highlighting the complexity of their ethnic self-identification, which merits further study.

Only two deportees were Germans who had come to Estonia from the Soviet Union during or after the war. The rest had prior connections to the Republic of Estonia, albeit in varying forms. A significant number (about 40) had obtained Estonian citizenship through naturalization in the 1920s or 1930s, while an equal number remained stateless.

Some of those deported had participated in Estonia's name-changing campaign of the 1930s, adopting Estonian names. Despite this, they retained connections to local German culture, such as membership in German-speaking congregations or the German Cultural Self-Administration of the interwar period. Nonetheless, nearly all of them missed the resettlement waves, with none leaving during the first wave and only three departing as adults during the second wave in 1941.

Regarding whether the deportees were representative of typical Estonian Germans in the first half of the 20th century, the answer is both yes and no. Their migratory backgrounds and prevalence of mixed marriages support an affirmative response. However, their high proportion of rural residents – at least 40 percent, compared to just 15.6 percent of the German population living in rural areas by 1930 – suggests otherwise.

The deported Germans primarily belonged to the middle and lower social strata, contrasting with the Baltic German upper class that, according to historian Jürgen von Hehn, persisted in Estonia longer than in Latvia during the interwar years. A comparative analysis of Germans deported from Estonia and Latvia would be valuable for understanding their social-economic profiles, which, based on available knowledge, indicate a predominantly lower-class, stationary population with migrant, multilingual and mixed-ethnic roots, often categorized into various national identities.

The article was originally published in the historical journal Tuna.

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