''We Lived for Estonia'' We Lived for Estonia Festival Cinéma Nordique () is a documentary film about the
Forest brothers
The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic states, Baltic (Latvian partisans, Latvian, Lithuanian partisans, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans, Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Plot
During June 1941, Nazi forces occupied Estonia. By 1944, when the Soviet-Nazi frontline was drawing towards the Estonian border from the East,
Alfred Käärmann
Alfred Käärmann (September 14, 1922 in Hargla – February 4, 2010) was an Estonian resistance fighter, also known as a forest brother, as the Estonians call their guerrillas, and author. In 2007 he was decorated with a military honour in rec ...
was conscripted into the German military. By September 1944 the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
had again occupied Estonia. Alfred was forced to make a decision: whether to stay in Estonia or retreat with the Germans. He chose the former, However he risked arrest and deportation by the Soviets. In order to survive, he, like many other Estonian men, took refuge in the forests. They were known as the
Forest brothers
The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic states, Baltic (Latvian partisans, Latvian, Lithuanian partisans, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans, Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known ...
. Alfred Käärmann discusses his experience with the Forest brothers.