Download - Cold war sites

Vastse-Roosa Village, Vöru County , Estonia
Alfred Karmann, a local Forest Brother, helped the owner of
Forest Brother’s Farm, Meelis Mott us, with the planning of the
site and knowledge of parti san life.
Alfred Karmann used to move around from one forest hideout
to another. Once, he was shot in the arm by a Soviet soldier but
escaped. A nurse was forced to amputate his arm. The one-armed
man spent 8 years underground in forest bunkers, oft en shivering
in the cold winters. He was fi nally betrayed and tortured by the
KGB, without disclosing any of the names of his comrades. He was
sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian GULAG camp. Aft er 13 years he
was released but was forced to spend 12 years in Latvia before he
could return to his homeland. Alfred Karmann died in 2010.
Top right: Forest Brothers’ Day is held each spring (informati on
on website). One of the acti viti es uses actors to illustrate the
secret police work, such as provocateur acti ons, arrests and the
interrogati on of local people.
Middle: Visitors to Forest Brothers’ farm can taste parti san food
and moonshine.
The dish consists of salty meat in fat, which can be stored for
several months. It is very like the delicious French dish Rillett e,
which was also originally a way of preserving meat. The recipes
are basically the same, but the parti san Rillett e is more salty,
which gives a longer shelf-life.
The moonshine had an alcoholic strength of 60%. It was oft en
the only “friend” to many parti sans in the long and oft en cold
days and nights in the bunkers.
Bott om: An important part of the parti san culture was the songs.
Meelis Mött us has published a parti san songbook and is able to
provide examples of the songs.
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