Maria Spann

‘Children of the 1944 Estonian Mass Flight’

In 1944, thousands of Estonians escaped from the invading Soviet Army across the sea to Sweden, Finland, Germany and Poland. My uncle and mother were seven and five years old when they were smuggled with their mother onto the boat Juhan, which made nine journeys from Tallinn to Stockholm in 1944 to transport ethnic Swedes from Estonia to their ancient homeland. My grandfather followed a few weeks later in a small rowing boat.

This book is the result of a photographic project that has taken me to Sweden, Canada, UK and USA, where I met people who fled Estonia as children, just like my mother and uncle. I made portraits of each person (siblings together if possible), and I also photographed an object – something they brought with them from Estonia or something special that they kept from that time. Then we sat down together and they told me their stories – stories that are all so different, yet all so similar at the same time.
 
Numbered 216-page limited edition of 500 / Hand-stamped book jacket with 1939 Royal Swedish Pilot Board map of the Baltic Sea on the inside / Embossed toile canvas hardback / ISBN: 979-8-218-46614-5 / 20 x 24.5 cm / Printed in Estonia by Tallinna Raamatutrükikoda / Paper: Shiro Echo by Fenner Paper

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