Conference: The Great Escape of 1944 – The Baltic Experience

Thursday, September 19
Tartu College, 310 Bloor St W

10:30 Registration, coffee

Session 1
11:00-1:30
Opening remarks: Piret Noorhani, Andres Kasekamp
Patrick Rang (Estonian War Museum), An Exploration of the War Events in Estonia Paving the Way to the Great Escape in 1944
Hiljar Tammela (Estonian Institute of Historical Memory), Composition and Fate of “Estonian Refugee Armada” in Sweden (1943-1945) 
Meelis Saueauk (Estonian Institute of Historical Memory), What Happened to Those Who Couldn’t Escape?
Documentary film: “Fleeing: Departure Into the Unknown” (EMI, 2024, 51 min)

Lunch 1:30-2:15

Session 2
2:15-3:45
Julie F. Gilmour, Canada and the Displaced Persons, 1944-1954. Policy, Family, and Displacement 
Kadri Tüür (University of Toronto), Newcomers Adapting in Canada: Plays by Raissa Kõvamees
Tiina Kirss (University of Tartu/Estonian Literary Museum), From Traumatic Memory to Postmemory: the Great Escape of 1944 in Estonian Life Stories
Helga Merits (Merits Productions), What We Want to Remember?

Coffee break 3:45-4:00

Session 3
4:00-5:00 
Keila Kopvillem (VEMU Estonian Museum Canada), Investigating the Refugee Experience Through Newspaper Classifieds
Ellen Valter (KESKUS/Estonian Arts Centre), FILMIST Stuudio: Oral History Through Generations & Geography

5:00-5:30 KESKUS site visit: dubbed “Estonians’ Project of the Century” with a design already winning Canadian Architect Award of Merit, come take a tour of the KESKUS International Estonian Centre construction site, Centre slated to open in 2025

7:00 Documentary film: The Paradox of Seabrook Farms. Shattered dreams. Restored hopes (Merits Productions, 2024). Canadian premier!
Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Ave)
Doors open 6:30 
Tickets $20/$10 (students): https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/film-screening-the-paradox-of-seabrook-farms-tickets-996544109257?aff=oddtdtcreator.

Friday, September 20
Tartu College, 310 Bloor St W

10:30 Registration, coffee

Session 4
11:00-1:00
Piret Noorhani (VEMU Estonian Museum Canada), Our Relics: Bringing Homeland Along in a Suitcase
Andris Ķesteris (Baltic Canadian Council), Memory: Magical or Mystical. Reflections on a Baltic Family History
Maira Bundza, The Fate of the Jānis Krēsliņš Collection
Petra Grantham (Canadian Baltic Immigrant Aid Society), Collecting and Preserving the Stories of Baltic Germans in Canada

Lunch 1:00-1:45

Session 5
1:45-3:30 
Maria Spann, Children of the 1944 Estonian Mass Flight

Tiina Otema, On kuu kui kuldne laev / The Moon Is Like a Golden Ship: A Baltic Collaboration – Juhani Püttsepp, Gundega Muzikante, Tiina Otema

Antanas Sileika (novelist and memoirist), Antanas Kills Tony. Ambivalence in a Bi-national Life

Anne Remmel (VEMU Estonian Museum Canada), Resilience, Scars, and Heritage in My Book “Two Worlds Within: A Memoir of Dual Identity”

Coffee break 3:30-3:45

Session 6
3:45-4:45
Camille Intson (University of Toronto), Performing Remains: Photography and the Intergenerational Imagination
Reet and Tom Mae (Mae Productions), Great Baltic Escape 1944: Short Film Triptych

5:00 Tour of VEMU archives: come and see the biggest Estonian collections outside of Estonia