Forgotten Transports: To Estonia

“We were full of optimism and hope,” stated one of the hundred women loaded onto buses to a “work camp” that would offer each a chance to “save” their families. On September 5, 1942, the Czech women did not know of the horrors and sadness that lay before them. They were part of an original group of 1,000 Jews from the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Bohemia and Moravia brought to Estonia. In Estonia, the women, ages 19 to 25, were separated from their families and told that each group was off to a better life. When the women's first task was to sort the luggage of their families and neighbors- some pieces being clothes that they had last seen on their loved ones- each realized their fate was not necessarily as promised. However, as they reached the Jagala Camp, the first of many destinations, bonds formed and sisterhoods developed. They created a “home” and comfort for one another under the most horrific circumstances. Told through a compelling montage of still photos, shocking archival film footage, and interviews, through FORGOTTEN TRANSPORTS: TO ESTONIA the women tell their stories of the three years until their ultimate release by British troops at Bergen-Belsen. (In Czech and German with English subtitles) – C.C.P.