Oma ja võõras toit: 1944. aasta pagulaste toidukogemused ERMi allikate põhjal

Abstract

Our Food and Theirs: The 1944 Émigrés’ Food Experience Based on Estonian National Museum Sources In the summer and autumn of 1944, as the Soviet front drew nearer, thousands of Estonians fled across the Baltic Sea to Finland, Sweden and Germany. The total number of those who fled has been estimated at 70,000–90,000 people. Of them, 50,000 Estonians made it to Germany and 28,000 Estonians to Sweden. Later a number of them emigrated further to the US, Canada, Australia and England. In their new adopted homes, the émigrés encountered unaccustomed food ingredients, dishes and food preparation methods. These items varied slightly in all countries, but a theme that was a constant for émigrés when they wrote or talked about their experiences with food was the lack of Estonian-type foods. In the context of people’s everyday expectations and practices, this meant a cultural clash between the habitual practices they carried with them when they became refugees and the experiences in their new homelands. The lack of Estonian food in the local food culture led to the need to prepare the dishes themselves – both everyday staples (such as bread and sauerkraut) and fare associated with special occasions and holidays (head cheese or sült, the beet and potato salad called rosolje and the sweet fruited bread kringel). The food preparers were mainly women, and women also typically also hold a regular job to earn a living for the family. The first generation of émigrés saw Estonian-style food as the food of their homeland, which fostered a direct link to the home they had left; attitudes toward it became increasingly nostalgic. For the first generation of descendants of the émigrés, the flavours and food experiences are a part of home, environment and childhood memories. On the basis of the interviews and answers on questionnaire forms in the museum archive as well as the experiences gained in field work, we can conclude that in everyday practice, Estonian-style food is one of the most vital anchors of identity for émigré Estonian communities. The preparation of Estonian foods, the seeking out of such food from stores and consumption of Estonian food remains for the Estonian diaspora a way to identify as Estonian and adapt into the community of Estonians in their country of location.