Walking Since Daybreak : A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century

by Modris Eksteins

Release Date: 31 May, 1999

Edition: Hardcover

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Herald of a New Branch of Historic Inquiry Into World War II

The greatest "unreported" story of World War II was the massive geographical dislocation of millions of Eastern Europeans in the wake of the Soviet-German conflict. There has been little historiography on the subject available to a general readership in English. Modris Eksteins' account of his family's flight from Latvia to uncertain sanctuary in Canada is a splendid, heart-rending sign that should encourage more popular history accounts of this terrible tragedy.

The destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in early 1943 and the subsequent loss of men and armor at Kursk later that summer paved the way for the Red Army to retake all of the territory lost to the Germans since June, 1941, and to storm its way through Eastern Europe to overwhelm the Nazi regime at its source in the Fuehrerbunker in Berlin. Millions of ethnic Germans, Balts, Poles and other civilian populations suffered terribly as the front lines drew back into their home territories. The Russians allowed their soldiers free reign to terrorize these civilians. Rape, theft and murder were inevitable companions that trailed in the wake of the Red Army's passage through Eastern Europe. Millions of civilians fled their homes in the dead of winter in 1944-45 to escape the dread Communist whirlwind.

Modris Eksteins wasn't old enough in 1945 to remember his family's flight from Latvia, but his talents as a historian and writer have reconstructed those terrible days intact. Eksteins uses the memories of his mother and older sister, as well as his father's diaries and official records in countries involved in the Soviet-German conflict, to piece together the history of one family's flight into diaspora. Even those lucky enough to find their way into Displaced Persons (DPs) camps in western Germany faced long waits for admission to countries that would take them. Eksteins vividly conveys the plight of DPs, an unwanted reminder to Germans of their own complicity in the worst crimes in human history and a barely-tolerated marginal presence in a postwar Canada still so Anglicized that foreigners were automatically scorned and suspect.

Gunther Grass has published a novel dealing with the East Prussian diaspora, a work that has opened up a tremendous flood of remembrance and pain in Germany. Until Grass's novel is translated and released in English, Modris Eksteins holds center court on the emotional tragedy that mass dislocation inflicted on its sufferers. It is time the voices of these people were heard.

A Beautiful Work

"The girl with the flaxen hair. Beautiful she was, everyone said. Temperamental and strong-willed, too. And in the next breath they mentioned her hair, long and blond. Everyone noticed her hair."
- Walking Since Daybreak

Perhaps one can imagine what life was like during World War II. Perhaps one can imagine the horrors faced by many people during this time. But is imagining really good enough? Can one really know what happened during these times? One of the better ways to do this is to read Walking Since Daybreak by Modris Eksteins.

Walking Since Daybreak gives the reader a clear, and accurate picture of the trials that men, women, and children that lived in the Baltic regions faced. It tells of Latvia's history, how Latvia came under Russian control, how it broke free from communism, how it became the country it is today. It also tells the story of one man, and the author of the book, Modris Eksteins, and his family. How his family escaped from Latvia, and how they managed to get to Canada is a very profound and deeply intriguing tale.

Perhaps the best example of the human's violent attitude toward other humans is World War II. Its immense cataclysm has no precedent in human history: 28 million Russians perished, 10 million Germans, six million Jews, and several hundred thousand English, French, Americans, and Canadians. During the war, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia - all Baltic republics - were devastated - however, many of those who braved the voyage across Europe were rewarded with entrance into Canada and the United States, where they still continue to live today.

"Buttons. A handful of them. The small suitcase, when it was returned in May 1941, contained his pullover, boots, and those buttons."
- Walking Since Daybreak

They are the buttons of Arturs Vajeiks, one of Eksteins' relatives. Before his family received the suitcase, they had hopes that he had been deported, to the Russian Tundra.

"The prison had been so warm, they [Arturs' family] told themselves, that he hadn't needed his pullover or boots. But the buttons betrayed the hope."
- Walking Since Daybreak

For a long time, Arturs Vajeiks wasn't even an official statistic. His family did not know where his body lay. When he was taken away on February 19, 1941, he didn't die - he disappeared. On that day, Arturs was planning to take a load of timber to the mill, for cutting. Members of the railroad police, an auxiliary force, came for him. The charges against him were that he had "belonged to a counterrevolutionary organization, and stashed weapons illegally." The weapons charge was the most serious.

"When Latvia regained its independence in 1991, a goddaughter of Arturs discovered some information: On February 11, 1942, almost a year after his arrest, he had been found guilty under the criminal statutes of the Soviet Union and sentenced to death."
- Walking Since Daybreak

Unfortunately, this happened often during the war, and after it. A family member would simply disappear without a trace. Then, after Latvia regained its independence, the family would receive information concerning their beloved family member.

"In August 1995, the Republic of Latvia 'rehabilitated' Arturs Vajeiks."
- Walking Since Daybreak

Walking Since Daybreak is made up of many stories of Eksteins' family members, such as the one above. It also includes information about significant battles that took place during World War II in the Baltic area, and it tells the tale of how Latvia regained its independence. Because it is not a work of fiction, there is no discernable plot, but rather a collection of real-life stories, collected by Modris Eksteins, and published in this book.

It is due to the fact that no book is complete without a beginning, middle, and end, that this book flows the way it does. Modris Eksteins has taken a collection of stories from World War II, and compiled them in such a way that they are extremely intriguing to anyone who may come across them. The stories fit together perfectly. Walking Since Daybreak holds the reader's attention just as well as any work of fiction.

Although the story of World War II is a sad one, one must remember that lives were changed, sometimes for the better, because of it. Many people living here now would not be alive if WWII had not occurred. Many people would not be living in the conditions they are now, if WWII had not occurred. However many somber stories there are, there are always some happy endings.

"For regret and tears there was no time, no point. Someone once said that war poetry was the love poetry of our age. The girl with the flaxen hair would surely agree."
- Walking Since Daybreak