The Train

      In the cattle car, there were four bunk beds at either end and in the middle of the car.

     The toilet consisted of a hole that had been chopped into the floor. The women hung bedsheets around the hole, to provide at least some privacy. On both sides of the door there were barred windows. The train was guarded by armed soldiers. The door was bolted from the outside. Every day, a roll - cell was conducted. There were 52 of us in the cattle car. Thanks to the fact that Oskar Luik had his accordion with him and played it, the soldiers guarding our cattle car were a bit more lenient. How the young women in that cattle car sang "Ma tahaksin kodus olla" (I Yearn to Be Home), to the accompaniment of an accordion, is still strongly etched in my mind.

The cattle car on Tartu
station in 1941