Vello Ederma
Vello Ederma, born in 1934 in Rakvere, fled from Estonia in 1944. Fought for the freedom of Estonia in the US, now in retirement in Virginia.
Vello Ederma was born in 1934 in a family of teachers. He remembers the “big flight” of 1944 very well: “This was a moment in the life of a ten-year-old, which was heartbreaking and which was forever etched in my memory. Leaving one's home had been unthinkable. But the four years of constant fear had left me dumb. I thought my father had always made the right decisions and I was sure that he was right this time, too. A ten-year-old was well aware of what was happening. The dangers we faced and the war we witnessed made me much older than I actually was. Our ship departed from the harbour of Tallinn on 4 September in evening twilight. As the people were looking at the skyline of Tallinn slipping into distance, they spontaneously started singing the anthem of Estonia. Everyone was crying, I cried also. Before us was a future unknown, if we managed to survive!”
Through the “Czech hell” (Czech communists and the invading Soviet army robbed and killed refugees, but first of all those who had served in the German army) the family Ederma was able to reach the American zone of occupation in Germany. After years in a refugee camp they succeeded in emigrating to the United States. As a youngster Vello quickly adapted to life in America, he had mastered the language within a year. Already in school he regarded it as his mission to tell the Americans truth about Communism – in many ways this became his life work. Vello Ederma has noted: “I began to feel guilty for the fact that I was living in freedom at the time when they [Estonians] were groaning helplessly under the Communist fear and terror. Just as for many other Estonians in America, my future was clear. I had to help Estonia and the Estonian people.“
After graduating from the university and after completing the military service in Germany, Vello Ederma started to work in the Voice of America, where he worked for twenty three years. The last eleven years before retirement he acted the Baltic and Media specialist in the US Information Agency. In the Voice of America Vello Ederma worked in the Estonian section, in the central department as an editor of the European news and finally he became the deputy chief of the European section. In this capacity he supervised seventeen sections covering seventeen European languages, including the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian languages.
After retiring Vello Ederma was able to dedicate fully to the political work for Estonia. Elected three times as the chairman of the Joint Baltic American Commitee, he directed the lobby for the Baltic states' accession to NATO. In 2004 his work was crowned with success: „When I was witnessing in the White House the ceremony marking the accession of the Baltics and other states to NATO, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of satisfaction. I had completed a goal that I had set to myself. I had fulfilled the promises that I had given to my father whom I owed a lot. But besides all this one should remember that in one way or the other almost all American Estonians took part in this important work for Estonia and the Estonian people. No one of us gave up.”
- Estonian SSR
- Latvian SSR
- Lithuanian SSR
- Russian SSR
- Byelorussian SSR
- Ukrainian SSR
- People´s Republic of Poland
- German Democratic Republic
- Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
- People's Republic of Hungary
- Socialist Republic of Romania
- Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
- The Moldavian SSR
- The People´s Republic of Bulgaria