Sentence: Siberia - A Story of Survival

by Ann Lehtmets, Douglas Hoile

Ann Lehtmets was one of the few women to have lived through Stalin’s Holocaust and reached the Western World. One morning in June 1941, Russian soldiers arrested Ann Lehtmets in her home in Estonia, tore her from her husband and children and loaded her in a cattle truck, destination unknown. She survived her sentence in Siberia, negotiating a life where secret police, brutish foremen and hostile landladies conspired with cold, hunger and backbreaking labour to make existence difficult for all and deadly for many. Ann Lehtmets owed her life to spirit, intelligence, guile and humour. These qualities shine through on every page of her extraordinary recollections.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Soviet Union, Biography

414 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1994

Reviews

[Charlaralotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up this book in the cafe at the Tailinn City Museum. Startling, horrifying account of deportation of Estonians to Siberia during Stalin's time. Amazing first-hand account by Ann Lehtmets of her struggle for survival in less than human conditions. Yet another story that points out how essential it is to know more than one language. Because she knows Russian as well as Estonian, she is able to bargain, seek assistance, and make demands that others cannot. Inspirational & also devastating.

[Sam Dye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second reading of this bok and thank goodness I chose to do so! A passage that I ignored on the first reading was her outline of her "new Siberian philosophy" on page 239. Between my two readings I have been reading Jon Kabat-Zinn's books and doing mindful meditation so this passage hit me.

"When Gerda shook me, the sun was rising into a clear blueing sky. The nightwatchman's wife improved the early hour by coming with a litre of buttermilk. 'Be careful with those legs, and God go with you.'
I left half her gift, with a piece of bread, for the children. This was less an act of generosity to them than a gesture of tending my own. We didn't disturb their sleep. Gerda came a short distance with me, on her way to the hayfield, where our wordless farewell stopped short of tears. In a few days we had found empathy rare in a lifelong friendship. There was no knowing if we would see each other again.
I knew the way, and decided not to waste a beautiful day by hurrying. Evening would be time enough to get to Maisk, where all I had to look forward to was hard work, an empty stomach and Ustinja, the landlady, waiting to pounce with her perpetual demand. I wondered again at the strange pull that drew me back.
When there is little to look back on that does not bring pain, and even less to look forward to, there is nothing left but the present. The present--as defined in my new Siberian philosophy--is a slot in time between the past and future, neither in one nor the other, thus free of the agonies of either. One can learn to live in successive slots: a good trick, developed in the solitude of an endless winter. I intended to do so today, to live minute by minute, in this day only. I planned carefully, aiming for the halfway point to Maisk in the best walking hours. Maisk and its miseries would keep."

What she suffered in her 17 year banishment (husband put in a different prison train) in 1941 from her home in Rakvere, Estonia to Siberia in not knowing about her two children (until a letter got to her in 1948) or husband (killed in 1942 her daughter found out in 1990) is beyond summary. This beautiful and horrifying book has many lessons for us.

[Amalia Wompa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad recommended this book to me as it turns out that my great grandparents experienced similar things that the author had as Estonian deportees sentenced to Siberia. This book was real. Ann's 17 years spent in Siberia were written as if she was talking across the table from me, I could almost hear the accent. Her personality was perfect for the tragic situations she was thrust in, always persevering and still looking at the beauty around her. She was sent to a Russian land where her freedoms and family were stolen from her, yet every few chapters she would admire still how beautiful her surroundings were underneath her starving friends. A beautiful quote from the book says her ideals best, "The people are Russian but not the land, we're in God's hands." I've learned a lot from this book, not just about what I could gather from my family's history which will never truly be known, but about the forgotten souls who perhaps faced feelings worse than death in their hard and stolen lives. It's extremely rare that stories like these are told, and so I strongly encourage anybody interested in World War II to read about this special culture that is so close to being forgotten about. She left nothing unsaid regardless of its entertainment factor; and that's how I believe all memoirs should be written, as that's exactly how we live our lives.

[Kate Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this special book from an Estonian friend. I found this especially helpful in gaining a better understanding of Estonian life prior to WWII and the Soviet era.

[Kim Schulze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just re-read this. Not as good the second time, but a tale that needs telling.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harrowing